Re: @AM @Thomas4

Curiously, the image of online gamers is being brought up by the US Republican party:

"Maine Republicans have created a webpage revealing that Democrat candidate Colleen Lachowicz plays an orc rogue in World of Warcraft (WoW)."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19842704

Re: Shamsung got it right...

>Using a lot of plastic helps too, no need to worry about finishing and quality control!

um?

Re: detail work at sub-millimeter accuracy

And those machines that allow work at sub-millimetre accuracy are made here in the South West of England and exported globally, having grown out of the aerospace industry (Rolls Royce) near Bristol:

http://www.renishaw.com

Re: Can someone explain that 4Dice cube video to me

Its like the Simpson's Halloween Special episode, called 'Homer³' , in which Homer gets sucked into the 3rd dimension.

"Homer! Can you tell us what its like in there"

"Well, did anyone see that movie Tron?"

[Everybody in turn] "No!"

Professor Frink is called upon to explain to the rescue party what the 3rd dimension is: "Well, it should be obvious to even the most dim witted individual.. who holds a PhD in hyperbolic topology ahem ahem" and continues to give an explanation not unlikes Mr Hagood's above.

"There could be cubes in there the size of gorillas!"

Re: Not so silly on bigger tabs

>In fact, does any tablet or smartphone need eleven – or even five?

On something the size of an iPad, a virtual piano or mixing desk are examples of an applications which can benefit from detecting more than a couple of fingers simultaneously. On physical electronic musical keyboards, statements like '5 note polyphony' have adorned the packaging for decades, because a cheaper model might only allow two notes to be played at once.

So, to answer Mr Dabbs question: A tablet is a multifunctional tool, and whilst you don't need five points of contact to tap out an email, watch a Youtube video or check a railway timetable, other applications can benefit from it. The whole point of having a device that runs software is that its function is not defined before it leaves the factory, so I am surprised Mr Dabbs has taken a limited view. Must be a Friday.

Re: Left-Leaning types believe in truth?

>They [left-leaning types] believe they know better than me what to do with my money.

And that adventure in the Middle-East cost how much per year?

>True, but science can be used as an excuse to justify almost anything, such as increasing taxation to levels far beyond reason - case in point being the tax escalator on UK fuel prices

Used to justify anything, but not by scientists... the people doing the justifying are politicians and corporations, whose motives are usually pretty clear: Achieve/hold on to power, make money, respectively.

Like Disraeli's 'Lies, damned lies and statistics'. But the issue isn't science, but the understanding of science by politicians (mostly arts, humanities and classics educated) and the general population. Every day we have public bodies spouting statistics which might influence the general population but wouldn't fool trained statisticians.

Statistics and the image of science are abused everywhere... pet hate is advertisements for women's cosmetics, (with psuedo-scientists in white coats in "our Swiss laboratories", and pseudo-scientific animations of the product in action, and claims of "87% of women agree that it makes them visibly younger*...... *[small print] of a study of 28 women") which only devalues science, and also gives the impression that women are easily swayed, irrational and scientifically illiterate.

Disclaimer: Statistics was my least favourite subject in school. I'm sure many others felt the same!

Re: Climate change a ruse to introduce new taxes

>Climate change a ruse to introduce new taxes

Is a ruse by Governments to take what occurs naturally in nature and the way the earth evolves and changes to introduce new taxes.

So, the oil in the Earth is ours, not our governments, and their desire tax it is inherently unfair? Okay, how does that apply to the generations that come after ours? Won't they deserve a go with the petrochemical goodness to do with as they see fit? Or are you saying that it is our right to use these resources as we want, without thought for efficiency or for anyone else, on a first come first served basis?

How would you feel if you were born next century and didn't have the luxuries that abundant oil has afforded us? Would your argument remain the same?

Re: Video tear

What Dave 15 said:

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

Also, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image_sensor

Re: If it was cheap..

>north of 400 quid will pay for a lot of camera.

It will, even a low end DSLR. However, for about £400 and pocket sized, you'd be looking at something like a Lumix LX-7 or Canon S100... search internet for 'nokia 808 vs LX 5' for some surprising comparison shots. The 808 performs better than the LX 5, which has a faster lens and bigger sensor than most compacts.

You were in the SAS? What's that, Saturdays and Sundays?!

Re: Bondnote 3

The Walther also features in The Wire as Brother Mouzone's preffered gun, though Omar is a tad dismissive of it. Spoiler: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20G17K_0ghU

I had a carpenter friend work a high end cabinet makers, and one Kuwaiti client wanted a desk with a secret, sprung loaded drawer, perfectly tuned to the weight of a Waltham PPK. The company had to arrange for a PPK to be bought to their premises for this fine adjustment. I guess the client was a very rich James Bond fan!

>the next generation of laptops will probably be touch screen anyway.

Yeah, they are capacitive multi-touch screens for using with your fingers, this Modbook is an accurate digitiser system. They are different things.

>But why... you may as well just have an 'Air' or an 'iPad'

You can't get full-blown Photoshop on an iPad.

Link please?

Re: Mega-forcings of a few cooking fires.

>You greenies just hate the idea that it ISN'T our fault, don't you?

Scientific findings, and the political ramifications of said findings, are separate issues. Views like yours are expressed in a journal called The Spectator (a vehicle for advertising £20,000 wristwatches and art auctions) by a man called James Delingpole.

This is him being gently interviewed by the current president of the Royal Society, Sr Paul Nurse PhD:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36Xu3SQcIE0

Delingpole: "I haven't the time to read peer-reviewed papers", "I haven't the scientific expertise", "I am an interpreter of interpretations"... and afterwards, he said the interview amounted to 'intellectual rape'.

It wasn't poisons added by nefarious enemy agents, but by products of dodgy Soviet distillation. The episode suggests Bond has had experience in that part of the world.

Re: bond bike

the above Bond Bike film is reminiscent of those BMW adverts, each about ten minutes long and directed by the likes of Ang Lee, Guy Ritchie and Tony Scott, presented as a short story. The Tony Scott one with Gary Oldman and James Brown is a cracker.

The Guy Ritchie one features Clive Owen in a very Bond-like role, humiliating a version of Mr Ritchie's ex wife, played by herself.

Re: Of course my favourite one has to be the 1967 version of Casino Royale

"My doctor says I can't have bullets enter my body at any time"

"Hello Sailor!"

"Don't worry about that chair with a hole in the middle. It's merely waiting to be reupholstered."

Close, but no cigar

... the Modbook Pro can run Windows, too (like any Intel Mac, and Modbook will pre-install it for you as an option). Your bundle solution is certainly one to consider, but isn't a 'use it anywhere' package. Your suggestion is a viable alternative, and possibly better solution, for many situations, but not all. Its not only accountants who want to spend their time on trains productively.

The software you mention, 3D Studio and AutoCAD, as well as much of the rest of the AutoDesk stable, are available in OSX-native versions. Your point does stand, though: most mechanical CAD software isn't available for OSX, and even in Windows via Bootcamp certain other packages might not like the graphics hardware (Intel HD 4000).

http://usa.autodesk.com/products/mac-compatible-products

Before AutoDesk bought Alias, their Wavefront Studio software had a digitiser-based component, the idea being that the designer would start with freehand sketches before further defining the design through curves and into 3D. Presumably, this feature still forms a part of the package.

>Dumb, dumber and Apple buyers I guess?

Flippin' hilarious! The real ToddRundgren, guitarist and producer, is an Apple user, and even created his own Apple-based digital painting system:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2004/mar/18/onlinesupplement/print

Re: If you have the money, why not?

Jobs was talking about a UI for a general mass market consumer device... selecting telephone contacts, tapping out a an email etc. This is a tool for digital artists.

Various trades have their own input devices, from CAD jockeys' SpaceNavigators, to musicians and MIDI keyboards, video editors with their shuttle wheels, to those guys in Nevada who use a XBOX controller to pilot drones. Digital artists might use a pen digitiser. Anyone who has been to the cinema in the last decade might note that the sector has a bob or two.

>Dumb, dumber and Apple buyers I guess?

Its a niche product for people doing a specific job. It is basically an excellent portable Photoshop device. People (or more likely, their company) wouldn't buy it if it didn't save them time and money, and it will anyway be deducted from their tax bill. If you can point us towards an alternative device that does the same for cheaper, please do let us know.

- Etched surface for paper-like feel

- Low-sparkle, non-glare glass

-Wacom® pen tablet digitizer

- Pen pressure: 512 levels

- Recognition rate: 133 points/second

- Recognition resolution: 0.01mm

Re: Hello!? Standards!?

You could, but not all devices stream the original MP3 (or AAC, ATRAC or Mpeg x whatever), but rather subject it to another compress-decompress cycle with the SBC codec.

Re: Live music

Trouble is, often a talented and hard-working musician goes the effort composing and arranging tracks, recruiting a band, bullying them into rehearsals, driving them to gigs... eventually getting some favourable reviews in the national music press. At which point some established producer comes along and steals their lead singer...

One can start to understand why then some musicians have started to use things like the Boss Loop-station - effectively laying down their own backing track in real time (nothing is pre-recorded), or otherwise seek a way to provide a good live show without reliance on other individuals.

I guess when booking, you can ask the person you are interested in if there is a Youtube video that is representative of their live act?

I was also impressed by a pub in Penzance that had a collection of guitars on a wall otherwise covered in gig posters... along with a notice: "These instruments are provided for you to pick up and play. Please do. Please ask behind the bar and we will turn off the CD player"... hopefully sowing the seeds of future live acts.

Re: ::sighs::

I think when the OP said "this kind of trash", he was referring to kind of cheap device featured in the article, not high-end digital studio equipment.

High quality audio tracks within the reach of most listeners if they want it, and because in this age of downloads record companies don't need to press umpteen thousand physical copies to make a return, 192Khz/24bit recordings are made available to those who want them.

I would imagine that for most people, 24bit high sample rate music on a portable device is a waste of time, what with ambient noise etc, but there options: specialist players, including the Colorfly C4 (reviewed by Reg Hardware), iBasso DX100 and HiFiMan. Less elegant solutions include a custom ROM on a Samsung Galaxy player (Wolfson DAC, Android gets in the way), using an iPad with an external DAC through the Camera Connection Kit, or using a portable digital recorder such as a Sony D50.

Re: ::sighs::

There seems to be a resurgence of folk in the last couple of years, and before that young women singing in the style of 60s pop divas... with an interest in the sound and production. Look beyond the charts for 12 year olds, and you might see that your pessimism in not entirely warranted.

This doesn't look like a good product though. Looking forward to more audio kit for Android devices, now that Jelly Bean has addressed the latency issues.

Re: All of your posts are pointless!

>The arms of the man in the video are massively hairy and his hands AREN'T!

Hey kids! Don't test your cigarette lighter for at least 30 seconds after refilling it!

Re: "With a 1.6GHz...quad-core processor...the Note 2 has a superbly sweet and fluid UI".

I still have no idea what " retrogrouch baby jesus" means. For the benefit of late comers, J Latham's post was previously at +2-1... now he's on minus... so obviously someone has the drift of what he's saying.

Re: Slow SunSpider Performance

From Anandtech http://www.anandtech.com/show/6324/the-iphone-5-performance-preview:

"As we mentioned in our earlier post, SunSpider is a small enough benchmark that it really acts as a cache test. The memory interface on the A6 seems tangibly better than any previous ARM based design, and the advantage here even outpaces Intel's own Medfield SoC."

Re: Spamming Vodafone

> I can only guess you're the clueless fool who works on the other end of Vodafones customer service desk.

Is a strong possibility. Call centre staff tend to amuse themselves by looking at the internet in-between calls. A good number of websites are blocked, but the Reg is usually allowed.

Re: 4G/LTE is missing

>Only 32GB

It has USB OTG... with microSD cards (and the tiny little adaptors that make them USB thumbsticks) being about £0.50p per GB at the moment, I personally am not too fussed about the internal memory. You then have the advantage of being able to drag and drop your files from any machine (WinXP/OSX/Linux)* without installing any software.

Okay, it might fiddly, but you only have to do it after watching all the movies you have on your internal 32GB...

*Android devices show as as being MTP, not Mass Storage Class devices, so XP and Mac can be tricky. Presumably Linux too. Using Sony Bridge on MacOSX to transfer files to the internal memory of my ICS phone is very slow.

Re: but don't want the phone part of it.

Any tablet with 3G radio and SIM is likely to have loudspeakers and a microphone, even if the microphone is primarily intended for VOIP or voice search functions. Therefore, it has all the necessary ingredients to be phone. Providing all this but then not allowing it to act like a phone would at best look like stinginess and 'hardware hobbling' on the part of the manufactuer, and at worst might open them to lawsuits should someone require it to make an emergency call (which all phones can do without a SIM- its part of the GSM standard).

I really don't get your question, so I feel I must have misunderstood you. Can you clarify?

I thought you were going to go with the Jurassic Park quote:

"Is it heavy?" [Yes]

"Then its expensive. Put it down!"

Re: Stylus = fail

>Looks like an Obviously! post posted as an AC

Possibly, but then it didn't have Obviously!'s trademark habit of telling people to calm down before flying off the handle.

Re: Not one for the ladies?

>It's a rare beast to find a woman genuinely lusting over technology.

Gross over-generalisation that might contain a grain of truth:

Man "Wow! What does it do?"

Woman "Meh. What does it do for me"?

Though purely anecdotal, one piece of tech that I saw more women use than men is the Kindle e-reader. Professional ladies who work hard, then want nothing more than to sit on hot beach for a fortnight reading books. At home, libraries and charity shops can cater to their reading needs, but come holiday time two dozen paperbacks takes up a fair chunk of suitcase.

Re: It's MOAR! The shamsung school of design

@GJC

The Samsung Tab 2 10.1 3G will work as a phone. It's bigger than this Note2.

It depends upon an individual's definition of 'phone' and 'tablet', so who's to say your statement is right or wrong.

Re: Voice and Handwriting - again

Hiya, AC 101,

Just to clarify, you're talking about JB's built-in voice recognition that doesn't require a data connection, I take it?

The ICS voice recognition (done on Google's severs) works for me about 75% of the time, but that might be because my voice approaches 'received pronunciation' or because I only use voice search for phrases I suspect it will guess correctly (eg, 'Rail timetable Paddington' not 'coque au vin recipe')

Re: Got mine

The USAF might be interested... can it still run Linux? : D

> if we all had AC and DC supplies in the house.

I've often had similar thoughts, but trouble is you get a drop in potential difference ('voltage') over distance. You could put out, say, 24 v, in a ring around your house and then regulate it down to 19v,12v or 5v where required, but I don't know enough to know if this would be any more efficient than the current situation.

Re: Keyboard

A Reg review round up of the top ten Bluetooth keyboards is overdue, nudge nudge.

A quick look at the internet suggests BT keyboards made for iDevices works fine with Android, if you're okay with the the usual Apple @ " swap.

Re: To wit

If you did devise a way to contain a sustainable fusion reaction in a mobile device, I believe you should be able to patent it.

You would have also have solved the issue of smart phones running out of power, as long as you have an fizzy drink can and a banana skin to hand (if Back to the Future has taught me anything)

Re: "I will dignify it only with a downvote."

He has a point? Strange way to express it, on a thread full of devotees of the genre. It ain't my sort of game, but if he proposed what he would like to see in a modern 3D video game, his post might have been interesting. Instead he leaves it for us to infer what he is after... maybe he's a PacMan Space Invaders kind a guy, maybe he likes 3D games but feels that there isn't enough innovation- but we don't know cos he merely expressed negativity.

"Grand Theft Auto meets WipEout and PlanetSide" would be my pitch... hoping this is what Bungie is currently working in.

Re: Track information

There was a Sharp mini hifi system that supported CD-TEXT, but then very few CDs did. It was one of the first bits of kit I saw that was festooned in hideous blue LEDs, when they were still novel.