Re: 'No plans' isn't much of a commitment

* that's 'Gigabeat', sorry for typo.

Re: 'No plans' isn't much of a commitment

And before the Zune, WinXP MCE and MS's attempt licence Media Centre to PMP hardware makers. Toshiba bit, and released the Gigbeat. What is it with Tosh and MS? They released a 7" WinCE tablet, too.

Re: Makes sense

>the Android route was a dead end in terms of sales and profits.

That isn't too important to the people making Android hardware.

Re: Nokia

> I do like the idea of a unified UI across all devices.

Whereas I like the idea of using a different UI depending upon whether I'm using a mouse and keyboard, my fingers, or a joypad.

Re: Problematic updates are normal?

>"... the relatively routine task of backing out of an upgrade to the CA-7 tool. It is normal to find that a software update has caused a problem; IT staff expect to back out in such cases."

Seems reasonable. To expect an upgrade to one system that is interlinked with other strange old systems to go absolutely perfectly every time is naive; to have a mechanism to undo it or cancel it safely seems sensible. However in this case it seems that this procedure was either not idiot proof enough or the operator was having a bad day or a bit of both,

Re: Lets not pull any punches

@ ukgnome Thank you for your considered contribution to the topic in hand, and your careful handling of the issues it raises.

Re: how is this under copyright?

Indeed. In the case of mobility aids such as electric wheelchairs, they work on the assumption that user can't fix it themselves using generic parts, or use the man down the road who used to fix televisions in his shed.

One would expect niche hardware to cost more per user than mass market stuff, but many times more?... The Prentke stuff looks like generic rugged touchscreen devices that have been used in industrial, automotive diagnostic and stock-control settings for years. The professional user doesn't mind the cost as much, because it helps them do their job quicker/better than the previous solution- an investment.

Re: how is this under copyright?

It begs the question - where the hell is the equivalent (competing?) product from the company that owns the patents? Oh, I see- they embed it in their own hardware and charge you between $3000 - $7000. Fairly generic, hardware too, though thought has been given to how different users might use it (carry it around or have it mounted in a wheelchair, for example).

In fairness, this cost isn't just for a competing App, but buys you a whole suite of accessibility software and various input methods, including external joysticks etc to cover a wide range and combination of disabilities. Maybe overkill for a mute child with a narrower range of requirements- they don't need the extra adaptability features that cost R&D dollars to create.

Hmm..

Re: Seems Apple have a hidden agenda.

Let us know how your experiment in Black and White Vs Reality goes.

>'such a large company'

And you see anything but perfect communication between departments as being conspiracy, not cock-up?

We all cock up. But the bigger mistake is to assume nobody cocks up.

Re: Ummmmm, yeahhhhh.......

>Poor people with no money are of little interest to the vendors that make half decent products.

Those people may one day be richer people, and by then be accustomed to your system and Apps in their language. Android is not going away in the tablet space, and can only mature and improve.

Apple have no great interest in these developing markets - even by the time they are rich enough for tablets - the competition will have improved, lessening the perception of iPads being seen as 'premium' products. Instead, Apple are looking around for the next new product category, with a view to getting in quick to establish a lead and then raking in high margins.

>banging on about Surface. This is a tablet.

Er, why the oh-so-definite product categories? The author was writing on the assumption that for tasks not tied to legacy software or big storage requirements, one screen + keyboard is as good as the next screen + keyboard - irrespective of CPU or OS origins, or teh mechanism by which the screen is attached to the keyboard.

MS think that people might want a device that is halfway between a tablet and a laptop... I'm sure that many people will, as it is an existing compromise (iPad with removable keyboard, Asus Transformer, Bluetooth keyboard for generic Android devices, the Lenevo Ultrabook where the keyboard rotates out of the way... etc. hardly new ground). The main criticism of Windows 8 is that it implies that MS thinks EVERYBODY will want a Tablet/PC transformer thing.

Re: PC

>A Mac can get Windows viruses if you use BootCamp. This is not some hacky "void your warranty" thing, BootCamp is mainstream software on the Mac.

BootCamp is included with the Mac but Windows is not. You won't get PC viruses just because you have BootCamp - you also have to go out and purchase a copy of Windows, agree to is EULA (something about Microsoft not being liable for damage to your computer?), install it it, and run it.

Re: iOS PCs?

Nothing wrong with considering an iOS device a Personal Computer (as long as it's remembered that general equates 'PC' with a Windows machine)... but it still isn't a Mac, which run OSX.

Confusion might have been understandable several years ago amongst people who are not technology journalists, because the iPhone was introduced as running OSX (presumably because Apple hadn't yet acquired the name they wanted to use). Unlike Microsoft, Apple appears to see virtue in distinguishing between a finger-driven user interface and a WIMP user-interface, and have thus shown no desire to mash the two together.

Re: A network router operating system.

A rose by any other name... the name iOS was of more value to a consumer electronics company, who paid accordingly to use it, than it was to company who make kit for network engineers- engineers who would, I would imagine, have more experience at determining which version of of whatever of OS is running on which box.

Re: As long as its connected to the same ancient speech synthesiser

The company who made them went out of business... I think they have one spare. Now people who have the prospect of losing their voice are offered the chance to record a large variety of words, so that a custom speech synthesiser can be built based on their voice.

I don't know whether they could use technique this for Stephen Hawking, or if they could reverse-engineer the existing unit directly. Anyone here care to hazard a guess at how tricky that might be?

Re: Sir

>It doesn't look like there's any way to hold that remote without pressing buttons.

Proximity sensor and, MEMs gyroscopes are not readily visible. Either that, or toggle switch.

>Stonehenge was built by the Lizard people

Bollocks, it was the Flying Spaghetti Monster that built Stonehenge, and He did it last Thursday. Because he felt like it. Any memory you have it being there before last Thursday was just the work of His noodley appendages on your brains.

Re: What a world we live in

There are plenty of films that don't feature explosions. However, a helluva lot do - from Lawrence of Arabia to Transformers. I would imagine that most war-films are aimed at people who have never been in a war, though- the same goes for crime thrillers and spy films.

An interesting thought: Home cinema kit is bought by older, more mature and richer viewers who have no interest in going to the cinema to see a Michael Bay film in an auditorium full of teenagers. Therefore, big cinema films are aimed at a younger age group than once they were.

I wish you well. Google 'PTSD ecstasy' for some interesting research.

Re: Isn't this just a spin on...

>the practicalities and adoption

Seems pretty simple to implement, just repeat the edge pixels. If ever widely adopted, you can imagine content-producers adding an extra low-res video stream for the deluxe version. A good use for old, low res projectors, too.

However, this system might require you to have fairly minimal room decoration- a few picture frames and a bookshelf would, I imagine, lessen the effect or make it irritating.

Re: Who needs it?

Watching video: 16:10 could be better than 16:9 because the player controls can sit underneath the video.

Browsing the web: Taller is usually better, so you can read more than on paragraph at a time. Many sites have big title bars at the top of their pages too, so you often have to scroll before reading a single word.

CAD: so many toolbars and customisation of their locations that Screen Ratio doesn't make much difference IMHO. Screen Resolution is far more important - from wireframe sketches to full photorealistic visualisation.

Office Documents: Yeah, two pages side by side is very useful, but doesn't work well at low resolutions. And if you have a flippin' Ribbon Interface eating into your vertical pixels, the situation doesn't improve (Why is it only specialist software like SolidWorks that lets you use a, normal menus, b, an optional Ribbon-Style context sensitive 'Command Manager' that can sit vertically or horizontally, c, lovely context-sensitive Pie Menus, d, customisable tool-bars?)

However, there are also the folk whose spreadsheets have a lot of columns, or edit music, where wider displays might be much better for them. The point is that we would like to have the choice without buying a Mac or an expensive mobile workstation. Nothing wrong with Macs, either, but again we like choice.

Re: Proprietary RAID

> USB3 will be more than fast enough.

For back-ups, it probably is. However, If you're going to have a bunch of SSDs in a RAID-like array, USB3 won't keep up. Look's like the Drobo Mini has answered the issues raised by the Macbook Pro Retina lack of onboard storage for raw video. Keeping a day's video footage on the Macbook's single internal drive is not good practice either, even if it were big enough. Back in the office you have a single cable to connect to yet more storage, ethernet and another monitor.

Video editing is not my thing, and yes, it's pricey... but it will drop in price like everything else.

Re: Personally i'm happy

Re JetSetJIm

I don't know why he has been downvoted, what he says is correct. It is deliberately hard to get confirmation of this, but it was given following a request under the FOI legislation. It might take a bit of Googling to find...

For pre-recorded media and use as a computer monitor, no TV license is required.

Re: Hmm...

>Lidl car stereo? Man, that has to be the best anti theft device ever!

Hehe, it probably is; however Lidl electronics like stereos and computer mice ( branded 'Silvercrest') usually carry a three year guarantee. No complaints. Before I bought one, I had considered just leaving the hole in my dashboard, in which would live a 3.5 mm jack leading to a hidden amplifier- to deter thieves!

Anyway, I think thieves these days are more interested Sat-Nav units - easier to swipe, easier to pocket, easier to move on because not everybody has one yet.

For similar reasons, its probably not a good idea to have an iPod dock cable snaking out of your dashboard - someone might take a punt on you having an iPod in your glovebox!

I don't know, except to think chemistry might offer more theatrical props and outfits for this video than, say some flavour of engineering.

Anecdotally, I know quite a few women in science, but they tend to be towards the medical research / doctor / brain surgeon / veterinary side of the spectrum, ie not always in the high paid private sector engineering roles. It is as if their motivation has more to do with helping people than wearing high heels (though they might choose to dress as glamorously or wittily at the weekend -or odd week night- as the next person does or doesn't.)

Re: Not quite

Having a DAC everywhere does seem wasteful, I agree. However, it is convenient if you also have music on SD cards and USB thumbsticks. And DACs are already becoming ubiquitous; the car stereo obviously already has one, and so does anything that plays spinning discs or internet / DAB radio, not to mention your TV and wireless systems for transmitting audio to speakers.

I feel there might be room for a standard 'do everything digital+analogue super dock connector', certainly in the Android world. Samsung could donate its dock connector, or Google could take the lead, to give its licencees some of the easy docking convenience already available to Apple users.

Apple did develop and release FireWire, but it was mainly Intel who developed ThunderBolt- Apple did contribute the name, though!

Re: MagSafe patent

@dx Hiya. I think tfewster felt it was a fail on the part of the US patent office is because it didn't seem sufficiently 'non-obvious' to him. Like being given a patent for 'zips in jackets' because the previous use of zips was in jeans.

> If it was so obvious and easy why didn't the other PC manufacturers do it before?

I agree. Other PC makers were competing on price, focusing on getting an Intel XYZ and umpteen million giga whatsits into a box for a better price than their competitors. Raising the cost of the product by engineering and incorporating features that many buyers won't consider when comparing two lists of numerical specifications didn't seem a good idea to many manufacturers.

Re: Still don't see the point of MicroUSB...

> e.g. selecting playlists or seeing cover art, that's possible via the car iPod interface.

It's also possible and common over the MicroUSB Mass Storage Class with many devices, but this approach uses the car stereo DAC to decode the audio.

Re: Still don't see the point of MicroUSB...

Yep, the last cable I bought was from a petrol station for £4. It was USB A to 3-way mini, micro USB and iPod dock connector (I use microUSB for charging my phone from my car stereo). I don't own an iDevice, but didn't begrudge its dock connector being there; I just felt that Nokia users had been left out.

Re: Not the first time

You're right, we forget how slow USB 1.1 was, but at the time we didn't mind because it was still new and cool to plug in a peripheral and use it without first restarting the PC! My digital camera at the time used standard floppy disks. Optical mice were still new. Getting a 3 MB Word file from a home computer to the Reprographics department could still be headache. CAD software had only been aimed at Windows machines for a few years, and often still looked like a UNIX port. Halo was going to be a game for Macs. Everyone had a Nokia; the battery lasted for weeks but your call-time top up lasted minutes. VHS ruled.

FireWire was already in Macs, because Apple only seemed to have survived the nineties by being used in specific sectors, those that used high resolution scanners, digital camcorders and audio interfaces. It gave them a bit of a head start when they wanted to introduce a device measured in GBs not MBs.

Re: So... hang on... Backups.

1. Replacement of physically damaged media. Record / Film / XBOX companies should replace physically damaged media for a nominal fee before they even think about crying foul over piracy. After all, they claim you've paid for the license, not the shiny disc. Microsoft want £10 to replace discs their own console has damaged, due to the omission of a rubber grommit, yet claim there is no possible legal justification for circumventing their copy-protection to make back up game discs.

2. The Blu-ray standards makes an anti-scratch coating to the disc mandatory. Material science has advanced since the first CDs, and I'm glad Sony included it in the standards. (HD DVD merely made this coating optional).

3. I'm not sure that streaming GBs of data for a HD movie you already have on disc in your home is the best use of bandwidth. (One mate of mine rips his Blurays to his server, which is then happy to transcode and stream the movie over the internet to any device he is near If he is out and about, he can choose to watch said movie in HD or SD depending upon the internet connection- effectively doing what this UV hopes to achieve. ) Presumably, you'd only be wanting the streamed SD version for devices that can't play the disc, such as tablets, that wouldn't make the most of HD content.

Re: DRM free movies.

In a way, what you have outlined is what happened to music bought online. Apple's iTunes originally had DRM to get the record companies on board, then later dropped it.

Often, though, a physical CD would cost less than an iTunes album, not be compressed, and would come with a pretty booklet and a horrendously brittle jewel case- whilst serving as a backup to the NAS.

[anecdotal point: My friends who do the most illegal torrenting are also those with the biggest collection of shop-bought DVDs, Blu-rays, CDs, video games and vinyl records. I don't know if they are typical]

Re: Huh

>What about battery life?

Genuine question - to what extent can HDDs be configured on the fly for power saving Vs speed?

I remember having a noisy-as-sin desktop HDD (can't remember the make) causing me to look into the issue. Apparently its hardware supported a feature to make it quieter at the expense of speed, but it had disabled because the drive maker had infringed a competitors IP, or somesuch.

Re: Pre-emptive strike

The announcement might have been this week because many people's take on Win8 preview was "On what hardware does this touch-happy Metro + Classic desktop mash up make any sense?" and MS felt they had to try and answer the question.

Is my theory.

Re: err

IIRC, the use of an adaptor satisfies the EU. Apple will charge you 8 quid for such a thing.

Re: No matter

Magsafe connectors are secure until a threshold level of force is applied- in an automotive situation, this would mean that the phone would't 'creep' off its mount due to vibration.

Somehow, I can't see Apple 'doing a Nokia'* without good reason- the abundance of kit for iDevices gives them the edge in convenience compared to other PMPs and phones. I guess it would have been too sensible for makers of rival devices to knock their heads together and come up with a rival dock-connector standard- Google could have taken a lead here, as Android leader. AFAIK only Sony have tried; bless em.

*go from having two compatible chargers in every home, to 'WTF is this skinny thing?' to 'its got a f^%^ing mini / micro USB socket, why isn't the wretched thing charging off it? FFS!'

Re: What about...

... known in the US as 'The Pope Must Diet'

Seriously.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102691/releaseinfo#akas

Re: Moving in the right direction

>should be as idiot proof... ... as a toaster.

I absolutely get your point, but I do question your choice of simile. : D

Common last words are "Pass me a fork, dear, the toaster's broken again".

It works both ways... US citizens who want to smoke a Cuban cigar, for example. Of no strategic importance, it just needles people.

Re: Bigger picture

The PS3's Cell chip was always designed to be clustered, and the console originally allowed Linux to be run on it. Trouble is, the US DOD was buying the hardware, but not the money-making games. As if to rub it in Sony's face, you occasionally see DOD staff with an XBOX 360 controller in their hands...

Re: Racial profiling now is it.

only in 20-somethings?

Really? By making tech products that are perceived as being simple to use, and charging a fair bit for them, it would seem that they are aiming just as much at the middle-aged baby boomer generation - they tend to have more money.

> Those example pics are not very impressive at all.

No, neither were early digital photographs compared to film. However, even in the infancy of digital photography, (thousands of pixels, hundreds of thousands of dollars) there were scenarios in which it was used - such as astronomy.

This is a prototype. Click through their links to 'Evolution of Image Quality' to see how far they have come and how they consider this a work in progress.

It seems that many of us here have been spoilt by those photo-stitched giga-pixel images of London and the like.

Re: Am I right in thinking...

What you are talking about is software cleverness. Whilst useful, it has been done before by others. What these guys are doing is researching a hardware system- obscuring their work with software tricks is not the point of this exercise.

Using bracketed images would produce artefacts caused by movement in the subject between frames. If they wanted that, they would just take a thousand pictures with a standard DSLR and stitch them together with a commercial piece of software - but that would not be new.

If you click on the link in the article, and go to 'Evolution of Image Quality', you will see them explain what has caused the aberrations in their images, and what steps they have taken to minimise them. They would rather eliminate the aberrations at source, rather say 'It's close enough now, we'll fudge it software', though obviously any eventual product that comes from this would incorporate post-processing- like a compact zoom camera corrects barrel distortion in software.

>Those example pics are not very impressive at all.

No, but then this is a prototype. It is true that montages made by using software to stitch multiple DSLR photographs together look better, but that is not the point of this exercise.

Re: "owners of high-end digital SLRs yelling “I want it!” "

>absurdities like that new Nokia abomination.

Actually, it's a reasonable engineering solution to putting a camera on a device that is too small and too roughly handled for a mechanical optical zoom and aperture assembly. It is based on what users might actually use it for, being based on the observation that, generally, close up shots are often indoors (low light, so interpolate pixels to reduce noise) and that distance shots are usually outside (more light so no interpolation required, so you can crop to zoom). It is not trying to be a fancy fancy camera, just a device to allow people to snap pictures of their mates at parties, and pictures of landmarks when they are sightseeing.

Re: You need more "everything"

> they still fall for the "moxe pixels is better" BS.

I'm not sure 'they' do... the pixel count of cameras released as successors in a range seems to have plateaued; many manufacturers aren't trying to use pixel count as the selling point.

Anyway, if you can have more pixels without compromising quality (ie a bigger sensor and correspondingly bigger optics) it is better - pixels can be interpolated to reduce noise, or you can crop down to what is required for your A3 print. That is 'technically' better, not necessarily 'creatively' better, mind.

Consider that new Nokia camera with a daft high pixel count - in low light close up situations (social gatherings etc), pixels are interpolated to reduce noise. When outside in good light, the extra pixels can emulate a zoom, by cropping. Seems a reasonable solution to getting a camera on a small device where mechanical optical zooms are too bulky and fragile.

Anyway, I don't think the Original Poster is a domestic user... I would guess that he something to do with surveying or the like. Cameras with huge pixel counts are used for aerial / satellite photography, or he may have made 4Gpixel images from a montage.

Re: "Phone 7 users won't be able to upgrade to Windows 8"

>"Phone 7 users won't be able to upgrade to Windows 8" If that is true, then this is an epic fail.

Ho hum... the biggest upgrades, besides this Win8RT kernal morph, seemed to be applicable only to new hardware anyway- i.e SD card support and screen res options.

Re: "the insufferable atmosphere in any Apple shop"

Yeah I think Apple credit the general population with not confusing Apple staff for Einsteins or Feynmans. The term 'computer guru' and similar are often used by 'blokes in the pub'* to describe anyone who has enough PC skills to get the things to do what is expected of them. By designating their sales staff 'geniuses', Apple are differentiating them from the sort of staff found in Dixons or Currys- a necessary step, even if the method is cringe inducing.

Oh, I note that Apple Stores and John Lewis have been jpoint awarded the Best Electronics Retailer 2012 in this months Which? magazine. Apparently respondents were impressed by the amount of working products on display that they could try out. Contrast this with a 'sales assistant' in Curry's recently, who was incessantly quoting Ghz and GB all over the place... ["I know that. It is written on the sticker. Please Shh so I can compare and contrast."]

This is a moot point anyway- most people receive their iPhone through a courier or mobile network operator's store.

*older self-employed or small business-owning types