Re: Back-of-napking calculations

>BTW: Can someone explain to me why the significance of the number changed?

Marketing. '4K' is snappier than 'really really high definition and we mean it this time', and it is around 4x the number of pixels that today's 'Full HD' boasts. Also, calling it '2K' sounds so turn-of-the-century.

Re: Clarify

It was released in 2011, but the user had to go seek it out themselves. The news today is that it has been added to the Windows automatic updates.

Re: Oh.. I see..

Sounds like a situation in which peer-to-peer distribution would make sense.

The source of those figures:

>I call balls

From the CodeEval website, re those figures:

"Statistics and Figures are based on a sample size of over 100,000+ challenges processed from Employers who have run challenges on CodeEval in 2012.

CodeEval is a community of developers interested in solving programming challenges. Community members can compete with each other, challenge their friends and build out their profiles to showcase to friends and employers too."

So it isn't necessarily the worlds most popular coding language, just the most popular amongst competitors on this website.

Re: Monitor?

Or three 23" monitors, depending upon the type of game. If you are going to buy one, with a view to adding to it later, consider the thickness of the bezel.

Re: Cores

Yeah, a certain component benchmarking and testing website suggests that beyond a certain point, many modern games just don't tax more powerful CPUs too much, and the money be better spent elsewhere.

Re: Re Pasties

Hmmm, okay, 'snack' wasn't the best choice of word- 'mobile meal' is more appropriate. At the risk of enraging some readers, I pick up about twenty pasties from Barnstaple every time I pass the town, for people in my local further North. As a bonus, it pisses off my Cornish mates. Though in Devon, this bakery in Barnstaple was voted as producing the best pasties in the South West.

I can't remember whether Bill Bryson was commenting on British place name pronunciations, or English pub names, but he did note "at the very least, it should confuse foreigners".

Re: Backwards Compatibility

>Maybe they will take a page out of the Android book in that if you want to upgrade you have to buy new.

That was more the case when Android hardware was advancing more each year, as was Android itself. Currently released hardware, even at the mid-range, is capable enough to hold its own for a few versions... and most manufacturers are getting better at releasing Android updates- perhaps because of the negative reaction they have received in the past for 'abandoning' models.

Similarly, MS might have noticed the negative reaction that they received for not making Win 8 Phone work on WinPho 7 handsets and may avoid making the same mistake. Also, Win 8 hardware can probably handle whatever 'Win Pho 9' might demand of it, at least for core functions.

My apologies, Mr Dabbs.... and I posted from a laptop so I can't blame my error on a touch-screen keyboard.

Re things like the Leap, I'm looking on with interest to see what sort of interfaces people devise. Merely transplanting a 'point and click' interface to it will probably be no more successful than using desktop GUI on a tablet, or using a mouse to control a flight simulator.

Re: Square Syndrome

I noted the film version was on iPlayer a couple of days ago... the only scene I remember from watching it years ago was the unexpected appearance of Chris Barrie ( 'Rimmer' from Red Dwarf ).

Re: fah

But playing with other people in a comfy lounge can make up for it.

Re: I'm so glad I didn't buy Colonial Marines.

>Probably best to avoid Vince Wards "Alien 3 : Wooden Monastery Spaceship" script thou.....

Personally, I'd say take a peek at the concept art...

http://www.thescifishow.com/2012/10/blog/the-wooden-wonder-of-alien-3s-lost-world/

Bonkers, but something about the concept art reminds me of Giger's paintings.

>Key Lime Pie

?

Enough of these desert-based names that Brits have never heard of... Let's have Android Gooseberry Fool, Android Spotted Dick, Android Deep Fried Mars Bar or Android Eton Mess.

Re: I'm so glad I didn't buy Colonial Marines.

If you want a good sequel to Aliens, then look online for the 'William Gibson Alien 3 script'. A few elements were plucked out and used in Alien 3 (barcode tattoos), Alien: Resurection (mercenaries/rebels) and Prometheus (the Alien 'DNA'), but really, its mainly Corporal Hicks kicking Alien arse in a massive populated science station. There's even a nod to Silent Running, when Hicks ramps a 4x4 through a biodome.

I do think that the Android licencees could have bashed their heads together ad come up with a decent docking solution, be it for for power, car kits and AV output. Google could have taken a lead- surely they can see that many people choose iDevices for the range of available accessories?

The very fact that different android manufacturers differ amongst themselves on their implementation of headset remote controls is irritating. Most quality makers of headphones offer iPhone compatible versions; the selection for Android phones is thinner on the ground.

Jelly Bean introduces to Android some more tricks for outputting audio through uUSB, but its not the best connector, and not suited for just dropping into a cradle like Nokias of old.

Re: It's just too damn big!

Then buy an iPhone. Or an Xperia P, or Galaxy S III Mini, or something else.

Re: I would like

Have you tried machining polycarbonate? Try it on an old CD. It's better moulded, or pressed (which can be done at room temperature for some forms).

Multicore chips are an effort to save battery power - the idea is that fewer / efficient cores are used for keeping the phone ticking over, and the other cores are only called into action when required.

If you want a solid aluminium, dual core phone with a 4" display, you might consider a Sony Xperia P- and it's not too pricey. Okay, it doesn't have a removeable battery, but i get on quite well with with a little Li-ion USB battery pack I bought from Lidl. It doesn't have a uSD card slot, but it does support USB OTG, so a card reader can be connected (note: the Nexus 4 doesn't offer this facility). The Xperia P doesn't have stock Android, but the Sony customisation isn't too offensive.

Its camera is alright, but nothing special in low light. There isn't really any substitute for size when it comes to low light pictures (bigger sensor, brighter lens), so maybe you want a Nokia Pureview or a dedicated compact camera.

Re: What I'd like to see...

I think Moto do a phone with an extra big battery option, and the Sony TX has a swappable battery.

"and the flagship DROID RAZR MAXX HD has the same 3,300mAh battery that was first introduced in the DROID RAZR MAXX" - http://www.phonedog.com/2012/09/10/motorola-s-big-gambit-is-extra-large-batteries-and-it-might-just-work/ September 2012

Re: Cupertino, start your photocopiers

I've had an NFC phone for some time now, and have no use for the feature. That said, I was recently doing some work on a house, and thought that being able to embed passive FC tags in the walls, for future identification of water pipes etc would be handy, if the tags were cheap enough.

Now, that IR transmitter on this SG S 4 does seem useful. Strange that it hasn't been featured on more smartphones in recent years, given it was a coveted feature on Casio wristwatches amongst schoolkids in the nineties.

Re: whopper

>My rather basic concern is, can this thing actually fit in your trouser pocket ?

What Grant said. Your Pockets May Vary.

Re: Mouse-over..

Manual scrolling with eyeball-triggered screen brightness seems a more subtle and useful way of using the tech... as long as it results in a net battery saving.

Re: Where is the innovation?

>My phone still can neither make me a cup of tea, nor a bacon sandwich!

Depends if you have a model with an overheating (or self-combustible) battery!

>So would this leave me unable to watch video, and with the screen auto-scrolling around like a flea on speed?

No, it wouldn't. Turn off the 'feature' in settings, or install a 3rd party media app which doesn't use it. Otherwsie just stick some tape over the sensor.

You'll probably want to install a 3rd party media app anyway, just to extend the codec support.

Re: 8 processor core? 8?

8 cores are to save power, since they can be individually turned on only when required. Not all of the cores are the same, some will be optimised for keeping the phone ticking over on standby, some will be for specialist tasks such as decoding video. Anyway, the sooner the phone accomplishes a task, the sooner the user can pop it back into standby and turn off that thirsty screen.

That's the concept. Since many phones today have at least two cores, and the manufacturers are competing on battery life, one assumes there is some truth in it.

Re: More adverts, everywhere.

>The funny thing is I had to turn Wifi off otherwise the crap Android phone's battery wouldn't even last the day.

Upgrade to ICS if you can, and you will find 'battery saver mode' that turns off Wifi and background data when the phone is in standby. It certainly solved the major gripe RegHardware had with the Sony Xperia P when they reviewed it with its original Android version.

Re: the red-headed stepchild of desktop operating systems

The image your metaphor bought to mind was of a red headed boy driving a fancy car - the car being a Chromebook Pixel- i.e Ron Howard accosting Homer Simpson on the street.

Anyway:

'Prejudice' (AKA 'Only a ginger can call another ginger ginger') by Tim Minchin:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7UGjNKKXH8

Re: Trying to catch up with the Leap

Most views from people who have used the Leap I've read are amazed by the accuracy of the technology, but question whether they could use it for long periods of time. I look forward appropriate software and plugins being developed for it.

Anyway, it is a very different beast to the Kinnect- the Kinnect can make real-time scans of rooms, for example, the Leap is better for finger-scale input.

I think it depends upon the version - there is an XBOX version, and a PC version. There isn't much difference in hardware, but I believe the PC version is more accurate at nearer distances. The PC version is also more expensive but works with the official SDK (there is a 3rd party open source alternative) whereas last I looked the XBOX version didn't. I don't know if this announcement changes that.

Re: Great article

My old man has never got on with his iPod- gets confused by connecting it to a PC- but he loves his Brennan JB7. He puts in a CD (of which he has hundreds) and three minutes later it spits it out, having ripped it to its internal HDD and compared it to its internal database for track titles. It's probably not of interest to Reg readers (some of you would use a RasPi and networked storage, I'm sure) but it really is a well thought out device for its intended market.

He has recently discovered Spotify, but stupidly it only works in 'portrait mode' on his tablet.

Re: OK, I want to add

>Arrggh no .. not A.I. I think a kubrick solo project would have been much better, the heavy hand of Spielberg saccharine schmaltz ruined it for me.

That was Aldiss's view of the final result, but Kubrick, who was in awe of the success of E.T, wanted to 'do a Spielberg'.

Re: A whopping 85 per cent of smartphone users reckon local apps are better than websites

"They're all twats"

You might very well say that. I couldn't possibly comment.

Re: Just say no.

>I fail to see how, after you explicitly remove locally saved data, that it is a failure of the websites that their locally saved data has been removed.

I didn't say it was the fault of the website, just of the website model. If you are to infer anything further, it should be that an option to 'delete all cookies and cache except from websites x, y and z' would be quite nice to have in a browser, but that it would be still be effort to administrate.

Re: Type A and B ports

A good number of, but not all, tablets and phones can act as host- 'USB OTG'. You notice that micro USB has 5 pins yet USB A has 4? Shorting two of them together will instruct a compatible device to act as host and read memory cards, USB HDDs and keyboards etc.

Check online for '[your device] USB OTG' before buying a cable. Making one yourself is a good test of your soldering skill and patience, though.

http://usbtips.com/usb-otg-adapter-connects-usb-accessories-to-your-android-device/

Less of a holiday and more doing some work on a house. Still, the food was good, simple and plentiful... have been on a mostly soup diet since returning to Blighty!

Re: Are you serious?

m.theverge.com does a mobile-optimised site quite well. The rotation of Top Stories at the header can be swiped through, and stories are loaded in a list form, with the option to 'load more' rather than move to an 'older stories' page.

The Reg is okay to browse on a 4" screen, but depends on the browser re-flowing text. Comments are tricky, though.

Re: Just say no.

I'm getting bored of websites that throw up a "Would you like to download our app?!!". For looking up a film, for example, I might want to look at its IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes, Wiki or Showcase entry. If anyone knows of a way of setting "No, %&^ off, just show me the &%$ing website like I asked you" to be the default response, please do let us know.

That said, and at the risk of stating the bleeding obvious, specialist apps will require less data to be transferred and are often better formatted for my device. The app will continue to remember my preferences (my local station, to use the Rail Enquiries as an example), if I decide to purge my browser's cache and cookies.

Re: expandable memory

If its important to you, then you should research it more. XDA Developer forums are usually a good place to start. People used to use an app called 'App2SD' to move apps onto removable storage, but it appears that it doesn't work with all versions of Android or every device. However, it might be that you don't require so many apps that it becomes an issue.

Personally, I have a fair few apps on my ICS phone, only some of which are really useful ('Gstrings' guitar tuner is great, unit converters, calculators), many I never use, and I haven't loaded too many games on it- so I have never run into any app storage limit.

Re: OK, I want to add

Read the book; In the forward to a collection of related short stories (collectively 'A.I' but the short story the film was based on is 'Super Toys Play All Summer Long") Brian Aldiss was concerned that Kubrick doubted his own ability, and was overly in awe of the Spielberg's commercial success- which is why Kubrick wanted Spielberg's input on the A.I project. Aldiss was pretty dark, but had the ring of truth... if man succeeded in making truly realistic androids, then the sex industry would be at the front of the waiting list.

Re: Any love...

>is based on the Athur C Clarke book of the same name and so like everything else he wrote is crap.

So geostationary satellites are of no use to you, then, Irongut?

Re: More films...

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0267287/

Avalon - a live action Polish Japanese production from the director of Ghost in the Shell...

Re: Also missing

Just for the bit where the hero remarks on the sexiness of the installation's recorded voice, and his host responds:

"Oh, you want to meet her? The lady we got to do the voice lives about five miles away, but she's sixty-five"

Re: Harrison Bergeron

There is a more recent 20 minute version that is rather good:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2081_(film)

Re: No love for Dune?

And based upon a book written as an ecological parable- the same criticism levelled at Silent Running.

Re: Primer

Damned right - more serious than half the films in the article, fully realises its premise (and then some) and delivered in a realist style that reminds me of the real-life young scientists and engineers I've seen in their places of work. Confusing as hell though, but by necessity.

A scandalous omission for the Reg, especially as the first act resembles a documentary about a silicon valley start-up.

The creators of Primer have a new film out this year- 'Upstream Color"... IMDB can help you out.

"Primer"

I time travel movie that I can't get my head around, even with the help of a flow chart. The depiction of working scientists and garage start-ups has the ring of truth about it, though.