* Posts by JDX

6847 publicly visible posts • joined 28 May 2010

But it's only wafer thin: Skinniest keyboard EVER is designed by Camby biz

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If they make it cheap enough

Every iPad case could have one as standard (like the Surface but you don't have to pay silly money). Apple could invent the idea of a tablet with keyboard... or more seriously could be the first company to actually do it in a slick way people want to buy/use (actually I think MS did that with Surface but nobody noticed).

iPhone rises, Android slips in US, UK

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The biggest chunk of Android market share is surely the Samsung Galaxy series

Surely it's not. That would imply most people own premium top-end phones and that seems massively unlikely when you consider how many low/mid-range models are on offer. Most people don't want to pay £35+/month.

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It is a concern, but maybe they've worked out a deal on this to continue using the Nokia name. It's not like Nokia means much to the new generation of purchaser anyway, only their parents.

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What exactly is your point? It's not like MS are the only one selling entry-level low-price smart-phones. You do realise most of Android's success is fueled by cheaper phones, not top-end iPhone competitors?

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Re: I wonder if it's straightforward role reversal

Maybe it's simply normal market fluctuation.

Microsoft gives TechNet a one-off reprieve

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As the old saying goes...

... if it seems too good to be true, it probably is. Technet and MAPS both fall into that category for me. They're amazing resources for a tiny startup.

It's official: Apple sends out invitations for September 10 event

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Re: Think of the fanbois - El reg.

I bet you can use your iPhone to turn on a coffee maker.

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Re: Awaiting magic and revolution

I'm not sure I want revolution. I want a damn phone which is slick to use (fast, nice OS) and well designed aesthetically. I do not want lasers or scissors or a toaster built in. Battery life and super-tough glass you can use with gloves are my two requests compared to current iPhone and comparable handsets.

Intel readies server-grade Atom for microserver ARM wrestling

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Re: All Ram Aside...That looks like an ad for 2001 A Space Odessy

You win the "stating the obvious" prize...

Researcher bags $12,500 after showing how to hack Zuck's pics

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Re: DIY

Need and appreciate are two very different words. If I was fielding bug reports from users, screenshots and videos would be wonderful.

Except the video would be either full desktop resolution saved as AVI and attached to the email, or 320x240 pixelated rubbish, of course, based on most users!

Give us a break: Next Android version to be called 'KitKat'

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It would be a great homage to advertising history if they call the next version Android Lemon

Microsoft - do you really think you can take on Google with Nokia?

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Re: Will WindowsPhone become Nokia-only?

Yes but the UK is only one market. You want 10% of the US or Chinese market too :)

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Will WindowsPhone become Nokia-only?

I mean directly and deliberately, rather than just because nobody else wants it... with full control over the hardware like Apple do?

Despite the shoddy BBC news coverage which makes it sound like Nokia hasn't moved into smartphones yet, WP is slowly gaining ground and is at least credible. MS don't need to own the market, just hold a non-negligible share of it, 10-20% perhaps.

Microsoft's $7.1bn Nokia gobble: Why you should expect the unexpected

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Re: Predictable and predicted by many

What a load of rubbish. MS has always invested a lot in R&D and that's one of Nokia's strengths too.

Here's a really crap mockup from the BBC though:

img

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I think it could be quite interesting.

I do think it's a shame they won't be Nokia phones, since they are not buying Nokia as a whole, that's a big brand name to lose.

But Lumia is developing as quite a strong brand (whether you like it is a different story) and they could for instance integrate Skype into the phone even more tightly.

WP8 is arguably MS' best product right now, though unfortunately one of their worst sellers!

10,000 app devs SLEEP together in four-day code-chat-drink tech orgy camp

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Re: A working definition of hell?

If the showers failed nobody would notice.

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It's like a pod farm in the Matrix

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Re: Oh for a steam roller..

Got to hate those developers who are passionate about what they do, it'd be better if they were all old crusties like you. The kind of people who go to these events are people who love coding, and do it in their spare time.

Nokia drives cars into the clouds: Hear HERE, you're here, hear?

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Re: You should be so lucky

Well you already get an annual or bi-annual service anyway, whether you have GPS or not...

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So the days of SatNavs requiring an update by your garage are going to be over... it will be updatable with new data and new software automatically?

That would be nice. And given that Nokia Maps works great as a GPS even on my bottom-of-the-line Lumia 610, it sounds a good idea.

ICANN destroys Google's dotless domain dream

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Would make combined search/URL bars a bit tricky

Did you mean to search for sausages, or go to http://sausages?

Fukushima sends Japanese IT to the cloud

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Meltdown

Is what Lewis Page will have at any suggestion the nuclear power plant leaked anything other than fairy dust and happiness...

Microsoft buys Nokia's mobile business

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Re: Oh, great!

You do realise that claiming Elop deliberately damaged the company to make acquisition easier is to claim he did something utterly illegal, right? If Nokia even suspected it, they or their shareholders could launch a massive lawsuit.

Google chap reverse engineers Sinclair Scientific Calculator

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Re: long lost art of efficient programming

Clever efficient programmers are all over the place still. But clever, efficient programming is a tool to use when needed rather than all the time - if your input requirements mean a simple O(N^2) solution is perfectly fine then why spend an extra two days writing a convoluted O(NlogN) one. They didn't do this for fun back in the old days, but because it was essential - nowadays we still do it when it's essential.

You don't rebuild your Ford Focus engine and tune it because it doesn't actually make your commute to work any quicker. But you do your track car.

Foursquare gets pushy with fandroids, touchy Windows 8 bods

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Not if you can control which apps are allowed to do it. Can you?

Fandroids blow $200,000 on secret PANIC BUTTON for their smartmobes

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Android only?

Is there a technical reason WP/iOS can't support this too? I don't know how the 3.5mm jack specification works, does Anroid support things others do not, or only support them differently?

Technical answer rather than slagging off iOS requested :)

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Re: It must be crap

Yep. The same way Ferrari and Porsche and Lamborghini are niche.

Making the argument that having the majority of market share implies quality is pretty imbecilic coming from any kind of linux supporter, given that you spend most of your free time slagging off Windows.

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Re: Not the right design

Presumably it can/will be disabled when the phone is locked.

Vulture 2 spaceplane rises from the powdered nylon

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Re: I dun geddit

The opposite of regular 3D printing then, subtractive rather than additive? Like how Apple make their unibody cases?

Facebook strips away a bit more of your privacy – but won't say why

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Not bothered but...

I actually don't object to being given a free service in return for using my information, as long as you tell me how it will be used and let me quit if I disagree. Someone has to pay for it...

However, I would be interested in FB offering a paid membership to opt out of all that crud - give people who object a way to keep using your product and paying the revenue you would have got through ads.

For now, if I just don't 'like' products and brands the problem seems to go away. The only time I would 'like' is to support a local business or enroll in a contest which I'll then 'unlike' later.

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Re: Evil

No, not even slightly. Perhaps use a dictionary... evil doesn't mean running questionable practices, just as a moron is not someone who is technically incompetent.

Dubious, questionable, controversial, worrying, unethical are all terms you could use quite legitimately. Evil is several orders of magnitude above any of those, unless you view that taking liberties with digital privacy is on a par with throwing Jews into gas chambers. If you do, then I'll make an exception against using the term moron.

Google goes back to the future with SQL F1 database

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Time to update the CV...

... with 5 years Google F1 experience

Selfie twerks its way into the dictionary

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Re: Words like this will get forgotten

or 'tosser' and 'lodger' for someone who plays loud music and leaves muddy shoes in the hallway

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And each generation ends up sounding like sad old crusties when they come out with stuff like:

" I'd suggest that the disease of social networking is to blame for the rapid rise in the nonsense language as kids try to be individual and identify themselves."

(not picking on you just making a point)

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Re: Literal (n): metaphorical

If there is less redundancy doesn't that mean less ways to say the same thing which implies the language is easier to learn?

Dopey dope-growing dope smoked out by own dope dope-growing vid

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Please stop with the "Growing plants" thing

Opium is a plant. Any number of incredibly toxic poisons are plants.

Saying "it's just a plant" is as empty of fact as "it's just a natural chemical". It's as bad as people claiming pornography and pedophilia are the same.

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Re: My inner libertarian says

Shush, druggies aren't great at logical arguments.

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Smoking a joint != growing your own plants.

Tor usage up by more than 100% in August

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Re: @Anon 07:00 GMT probably the NSA turned on the switch

>>Do you really think they don't look at what El Reg commentards are speculating on?

Yes.

Skype: 3D video calling is the FUTURE

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Yeah, it's cool to do even if there's no immediate use. Remember, video conferencing used to be something people willingly paid big bucks for, before the tech (mainly infrastructure) became ubiquitous.

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Re: Whoopee

R&D for its own sake isn't pointless.

Google's Project Glass headman answers most pressing question: 'Why?'

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An interesting view on this from Sci-Fi

The Light of Other Days by Arthur C. Clarke (sort of) covers the idea of ubiquitous, total communication in a fairly plausible way. One direction such things could take - which would appear utopian to some here and unacceptable to others.

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Re: email – essentialy a private, mobile telegraph

Thanks for pointing it out - all this toss about privacy being eroded is daft. In the past, every telegram you wrote HAD to read by someone else. Every phone call you made was listened in on.

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Re: Honey someone's calling you

How short sighted (ha!) to assign today's limitations as fundamental road-blocks. You'd hope people on a tech forum would be a little more open-minded.

Pessimism generally is a self fulfilling prophecy, people need to be excited about new tech. If it doesn't work, move on, but don't be apathetic and kill it before it can have a chance.

"Yeah, but why would you WANT to fly to America in 3 hours?"

"You want to send someone to the moon just so they can come back?"

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Re: The computer that 'lives on your head' will change mankind

Yeah, because one thing failed all things will fail. It may be a pivotal moment, it may be nothing much - these things are only easy to see in retrospect. Similar with self-driving cars.

Glass 1.0 isn't such a big deal, but the concept has maybe a 50:50 chance to truly change the world IMO.

Silicon daddy: Moore's Law about to be repealed, but don't blame physics

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Re: Been hearing this...

>>Been hearing this...... for almost 15 years. Wake me when it really happens.

True, but "it hasn't happened yet" is not a good argument for "it will never happen". The boy who cried wolf did get eaten by a wolf.

Boffins force Skype to look you in the eye

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Re: Eye contact

Maybe you smart guys, who have never seen this running, should write to the inventors and explain to them why the thing they already developed and used won't work.

Failing that, read the linked article which talks about robustness.

Thought the PC market couldn't get any worse? HAH! Think again

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Re: Surely it's becoming apparent

Most homes still need the ability to write and print a letter, print a coupon out, etc. Now, sure, you can print from your phone or tablet but getting your home network up and running without a PC is a faff.

Web showered in golden iPhone 5S vid glory - but is it all a DISTRACTION?

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Re: but Apple will probably wait ..

Touch-screen smartphones and proper tablets (not just a computer stuck in a touchscreen unit)? Siri? iTunes?

First to mainstream market on those, no? Someone selling a few mp3s online doesn't really count, and I think modern tablets are different enough from their predecessors to count. And a fully touch-screen phone is /was a pretty bold move.

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Re: What's interesting

The cheaper iPhone is an older model, like Sony releasing the PS2 slimline.