Posts by squilookle 390 publicly visible posts • joined 15 Nov 2010
You're not wrong. I'm still less likely to feel ripped off walking out of Gamestation than I am game though. Maybe that's irrational, maybe they really are cheaper, or maybe I formed my opinions of the two before the buy out.
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/game-acquires-gamestation-in-74-million-deal
In the city I live in, they have 2 or 3 small stores quite close to each other in the city centre. I never understood why they didn't close them and just open a big one with a wider range, and possibly spending less on rent, admin, etc. (They may have a good reason that I haven't thought of though, but not many shops take the same approach, that I can think of).
I generally avoid Game anyway, and go there as a last resort, as they always seem to be expensive compared to Game Station and Grainger Games, and of course Tesco, Asda, Play and Amazon all tend to have the same or better choice, and better prices.
I'm aware that both devices are luxuries as very few people really *need* a tablet, but I suspect that those that stumped up the money for an iPad would be more likely to want an iPad, while those that got the Kindle Fire simply wanted a tablet.
I would argue further that those that went for their specific tablet are more likely to identify with it emotionally and therefore to tell a survey they are satisfied with it.
Or, maybe you just get what you pay for?*
*I'm not an Apple fan and think the iPad is over priced, but that's my opinion, not fact.
Virgin Media are the only option for fast broadband round here. BT, TalkTalk et al can't provide more than 2mb/s on a good day. I don't like Virgin Media, but I don't like the alternatives either, so I'm happy I have an option, atleast.
Rather than focusing on the average speed and cheering when it goes up, there should be a focus on bringing the lower speeds up to scratch. I don't believe anyone disagrees with that, yet it doesn't seem to be a priority either.
My energy company send me a bill every 6 months stating that my account is in credit but that they are, for some reason, putting my direct debit payment up. I call them and tell them I'm not paying the higher rate as I'm in credit, there is usually an argument when they say reducing the dd would mean I was paying below consumption, I end up speaking to a manager and get the dd taken back down, then the next bill, comes and I'm still in credit and it all starts again. This has been going on for the last 2 years.
Moving supplier this time, but my point is that I don't trust the energy companies, especially the one I'm with. I believe they're either trying to take more money so it's sitting in their bank rather than mine and earning them interest, or they're incompetent. Probably a mixture of the two...
It's really time the entertainment industry and the groups that represent them really need to stop telling other industries how to operate and sort their own industry out.
I know I and others repeat ourselves every time this kind of story comes up, but they need to stop criminalising people and asking ISPs and search engines to do their dirty work for them, and look at *why* people are choosing to pirate content instead of buy it. It's a mixture of factors including price, DRM that creates inconvenience for genuine customers but fails to prevent the content being copied, their insistence on milking the same content we bought over and over again - films and albums bought out again every time a new format emerges, albums with bonus tracks after we already bought the original, etc - and their insistence on not playing nicely with the likes of Spotify and Netflix who are trying to make the content available in a legal and convenient way.
Personally, I don't download much these days, only things that are hard to get/out of print. I'm signed up to Spotify and Netflix to get content legally and I buy CD's and DVD's if the album/film is something a consider worthwhile. I also spend quite a lot on games.
Back in the day where I did download things though, I genuinely did get led on to new bands by downloading their albums, and I did go on to buy a lot of albums that I would not have bothered with if I hadn't heard them. Spotify now provides that service for me.
Fair point. However, there are still issues with Superhubs running the latest firmware. I withdraw my claim that they have done nothing, and argue instead that they have not done enough.... The issues have been going on for some time, I see no end to the issues, and they are still providing new customers with the affected equipment.
It's wrong for them to put this forward as they have, as if they're doing something great just because they can, but at least they're doing something.
I just got a "Superhub" from Virgin Media, and I have had loads of problems wireless connections dropping randomly - all of the issues I had appear to be common, but VM seem to be doing nothing about it.
To be fair, though, after fighting with the thing and playing about with just about every setting I could find, I have had no problems for 2 days, so fingers crossed.
I think ISPs throwing in cheap and nasty hardware to keep their costs down is the current trend.
Good luck to them.
Personally, I've played Mario Kart, Smash Brothers Brawl, Tatsunoko Vs Capcom, Black Ops and a few others online on the Wii and, while there were limitations and the experience on XBox live was always going to be better, it always worked for me and was perfectly enjoyable.
The challenge of Nintendo, because it's something I think they have a pretty bad track record with, is going to be keeping the content up to date over the life of the console.
I love the idea if these and now have a broadband connection fast enough, but they each seem to have very big flaws in them that could be resolved if you could get the best of both worlds by merging them...
Netflix - it would be nice if the Browse Selection section of the website actually let you do that, rather than just showing a few things from each category, lack of new films
Lovefilm - I'm dubious about this whole "introductory" price thing, and charges for newer films, I keep reading that the quality is inferior and some films are absent from some devices but not others
I'm tempted to give the trials a go on both of them and see how I get on, but I just like the idea. I don't actually *need* such a service - I don't watch all that much television anyway.
To be fair to them, the Wii has done well and is nearing the end of it's life. The 3DS looks like a minor "upgrade" to the DS, focusing on a gimmick (a gimmick which doesn't seem to have taken off in other places i.e. televisions either) and actually making things like battery life worse, so none of this should really be a surprise.
On a personal note, I think this might not be such a bad thing for them. I have a minor disability which is going to prevent me playing the new Zelda, and when I contacted customer services for clarification on how the control scheme worked and if there were alternatives, I waited 3 weeks for a response and then got some canned stuff about how Wii Motion Plus is more accurate than the Wii remote on it's own. I complained about that and another 3 weeks later got a response confirming I would not be able to play.
Ten years ago, I contacted them with a similar query regarding the GameCube controller and the response I got then was excellent. Helpful, and answered my questions. The only difference I can see is that they have been riding high with the success of the Wii and the DS over the last few years, but 10 years ago the GameCube was being outdone by the PS2 and they needed their customers.
In short, the ideal situation here would be that the losses push them into improving customer service and their products, and they survive as a better Nintendo than they are now.
mmhmm. the typical "What about email/what about telephone" responses.
Picking up the telephone and speaking to everyone might be fine for some people, but for others, Facebook currently offers a convenient, hassle free way of keeping in touch with folk that does not involve too much time and effort. It has not replaced the telephone as a way of keeping in touch with people: it helps me stay in touch with a larger number of people who I would probably have otherwise lost regular contact with.
In case I didn't make it clear, we are not talking about immediate family here: I speak to them on the telephone or via Skype. But for some distant relatives and old friends who I left behind when I moved halfway across the country, who I get on with but don't have the time or the energy to call (and/or the other way round) Facebook is a great, convenient tool.
It is more convenient than email as you have an address book already compiled for you, and it offers specific tools such as real time chat, the ability to share photos with groups of people easily, and to organise and tag photos in a useful way that, IFAIK, no email software can.
I wonder where this snobbery over choice of communication tool comes from, and if it existed when telephones first became widespread ("You *telephone* them? Don't they have a letter box?"... Like the telephone, Facebook is a tool. A telephone can betray your privacy easily if someone overhears you saying the wrong thing, a letter can betray your privacy if someone else opens it and Facebook can do the same if you post the wrong thing to the wrong audience.
I've seen a few profiles with this and it reminded me of MySpace... I'll see what it looks like and what information it tries to put forward and go from there then, but I'm not keen on the change...
I probably won't leave Facebook as the family and friends I want to stay in touch with on there are all on there. At the end of the day, that is and always has been the draw to Facebook. It's not necessarily that it is the best social network out there (although the vast majority are worse) it's that a social network that doesn't have all your friends on it is pretty pointless.
Actually, I'm sure they could get more for it as it is. There is bound to be someone somewhere that would pay a fortune for it. If they restore the flat to some kind of conventional decor, then it'a just going to be a flat for sale...
The difficulty would be finding the buyer, but that is what the internet is for...
I'm not going out of my way to buy a smart tv - I can't get excited about a TV in the same way I can about a games console or PC... the TV gets taken for granted as long as it works and displays a good picture.
I have been considering joining either Lovefilm or Netflix since the apps for both appeared for the XBox. I might try the trials for both, though I think I'm edging toward Lovefilm at the moment as I'm more interested in films than TV. iPlayer and 4 on demand get used occasionally, but I tend to record what I want to watch and play it back when I'm ready.
I like the look of WP7, I believe it's market share will expand and I hope it does (no plans to jump ship from Android but the more options there are, the better) but these numbers do just seem made up.
Also, any number of things could change between now and then that completely change things, even if the basis of the figures were sound... someone could pick up webOS and run with it from nowhere, MS could pull out of the smartphone race, Canonical might get their act together and get Ubuntu onto smartphones, and it might take off.
I'm not saying these things are likely, but even less likely things have happened in the past, and will happen again.
This is getting ridiculous. Yes, everyone working on the films deserves to be paid, but the ISPs do not have a role in ensuring that. The only two roles they should have at the moment is building a decent infrastructure (because a lot of what we have at the moment is crap) and providing improved customer service (because what we have at the moment is crap).
Further, I do not believe piracy is the cause of their falling profits, as I don't believe that one pirated copy = 1 lost sale. Also, piracy is nothing new. I believe the main causes of falling profits would more likely be the increased choice offered by the availability of other forms of entertainment (games, more television chanels, etc) and the industries own greed (the cost of getting the films, the cost of going to the cinema, annoying adverts about piracy at the start of DVDs and their lack of willingness to play nicely with the likes of Netflix and let them stream new films).
I believe the solution for them is to play nicely with the steaming services and make it easier to get the films at a fair price than it is to pirate. I feel that Spotify does this for music and I believe there is room for a similar service for films that has still not been filled.
I assume it would work in a similar way to how Windows Media Centre works with Freeview, which is actually very well. .
In fact, I already have this functionality through my XBox (in a round about way) as the XBox functions as an extender for Media Centre, although I rarely use it as I have a Freeview+ box which takes less faffing about.
I agree. My experiences with Virgin Media were a nightmare, starting with them cutting my telephone off by accident, then having to speak to a manager to get it sorted because everyone else I spoke to was incapable of doing so, then finding that their customer care centre (apparently) do not have internal phone numbers, meaning they cannot transfer your call to the person you have been dealing with, and who you are calling because they have not called you back when they said they would.
I also found out two years after moving out of a house that they were sending mail there, despite the fact I took my account with me to the new place and they were writing to me at the new house too...
I left Virgin after that and went to TalkTalk. I have had more problems with TalkTalk, but none of them anywhere near as serious. My contract with TalkTalk ends in four days and I will be leaving them. I have not decided where I am going to go next, but I don't hold out much hope that any other ISP will be any better, unfortunately.
If we could just get an ISP that delivers a decent phone line and broadband connection at a reasonable (doesn't have to be the cheapest, somewhere between TalkTalk and Virgin Media would be fine) price, that doesn't tie you in to a contract but instead pledges to keep your custom/loyalty with a decent service and good customer service, I do believe they would clean up
I tend to only go to HMV if I need something urgently and can't wait for it to be delivered (or can't risk not having it not turn up on time), and happen to be going into town.
For everything else, both the technology they are starting to sell and the music, games and DVD's they have traditionally sold, there are other places, both online and brick and mortar, that I would go to first.
I tend to find that the choice of things in there is not as good as other places and is getting worse, and the prices are relatively expensive. I understand that there are reasons for this that HMV can't control.
I hope they survive as I believe there is a place for them on the high street, but it is as an emergency shop for things I haven't thought out properly (The same role played by PC World and Curry's, etc), not as the go-to place.
but out of principle, I would still choose one of the more open ones, IF there was not too much difference in the price/build quality, etc.
If the software is easy enough to use and buying one of the other devices would be a case of cutting my nose of to spite my face, then I probably would give in a buy the Kindle.
Everyone I know who has a Kindle speaks very highly of them, never heard anyone say a bad word about them.
Personally, I like the idea of being able to carry all those books with you in one device, but I'm not keen on the idea of being tied to one store,or the vendor having the ability to take books that I have purchased back.. whether I get refunded or not. If I ever get one (and they're way down on the list for me, after new computer, etc) then I would choose it carefully.
I use Chrome for my day to day browsing, Firefox and IE8 (at work) and IE9 (at home) for testing.
I think to an extent, whatever Microsoft do with IE, the name is tainted and is going to conjure up negative images for a while. They might be able to fix this by releasing a few really good versions that get positive press and reviews and make us forget about IE 6 - 7, but it is not going to happen overnight.
In the mean time, I actually think smart phones and tablets will hurt IE, simply by making some users realise that the blue E and Internet Explorer != the internet. If they can get on the Internet in different ways on those devices, then why not on the desktops as well...
Personally, if they can release a few really good versions of IE, I will consider moving to it. I'm not loyal to any one browser and have used IE, Firefox, Chrome, Opera and Konqueror as my main browser at various times in my life - whichever suits my needs best at the time.
It might be nice to have these things built into the television, if the UI is nice and it works well (I've never used a Smart TV, but my experience with TVs in general is that the UIs are not as pleasant as I would get on a games console, etc), but I already have a computer and a games console connected to the TV that access these services and others, so it's not essential.
If I buy a new TV, I'll be looking for something with a good screen on the front and plenty of ports on the back at the best price. If it happens to come with other features and they don't bump the price up too much, then great. Otherwise I'll live without.
Also, the TV I have has a good screen on the front and plenty of ports on the back, so I won't be in the market for a new one until it breaks.
I like the look of the OS, but I have been an Android user since the G1, it does everything I need it to and I'm happy with it.
Stunts like this won't make me move from Android to WP7. If they want to make me move, then they need to emphasize why I should do so by highlighting how WP7 will meet my needs better than Android.
I'm no fan of the iPhone, but I think the Original iPhone adverts were the best example. They showed the phone bring used to do certain things, like finding the nearest cinema using maps, checking what films were on using the browser, and the calling to book the tickets using the phone. If MS want to get anywhere with this, then this is the kind of advertising they need. Show us what it is, what it does well, and so on.
"Are we talking about the same TouchPad?
I am an avid Android user but I never bought an Android tablet (sans my Kindle Fire which is nothing but a media-consuming/shopping etc device for my wife and daughter) but I did pick up few TouchPads during the fire sale and hell, yes, it's a LOT nicer than Android, browsing is smoother and overall the UI mops the floor with Android."
In your opinion. You provide no evidence in your rant. I took exception to the way it handled elements fixed positions. In my experience/opinion, the Android browser is far superior. But that's my opinion.
Also, my Andriod phone (underpowered compared to the touchpad) launches apps much quicker and is generally as smooth/smoother. I prefer the Android UI.
"Complaining about lack of apps clearly shows you don't have a clue about tablets,"
How?
"let alone that this iPad-induced idiocy of paying for apps, only to use the same resources you can use for FREE on the internet in any other OS, should die quickly."
I could have been clearer here, some apps that I use on a regular basis did not have equivalents when I looked. I have never paid for an app, and my post does not imply that I have.
"Lack of options? You mean like by default, out of the box you can enter a public code and voila', you are root?"
You've named one option... that most people probably don't care about, and that I certainly don't care about. Most of the options pages for the apps that shipped with the device were pretty light. I wanted to turn the ripple effect off when you tap it, but couldn't. I saw no widgets to add to the home screen. I wanted to turn the elastic effect of the browser off but did not see a way of doing that.
"Man, you don't have the slightest farting clue what you are talking about,"
I'm talking about my own experiences with the TouchPad, and disagree with you on this one.
" I have to tell you..."
Why?
Used webOS on the TouchPad and was fairly disappointed with it. Didn't like the browser at all, found the range of apps to be disappointing, and found all the options screens seem to be very light of options...
I did like the cards system but can quite happily live without it., and the keyboard is good, but so is the keyboard on my HTC.
I hope someone OSS developers can get the chance to do some great things with it, but I won't be rushing to get any other devices that run it, from HP or otherwise.
I'm not sure why, (it makes as little sense to me as anyone) but for some reason, even though I have moved over to cloudy services for most of my music and video and am happy with that, I really don't like the idea of doing away with the full fat console under the television and the games on the shelf... maybe it will change when the technology matures and the broadband connections improve, but I don't know.
I'm not a Netflix customer or in America... but why do Netflix, Spotify and others think anyone gives a crap about what you are watching/listening to, and that posting this stuff to Facebook is a good idea?
Worst case scenario, from what I can see, you might have something dodgy in their that you don't want your work colleagues or your mother to see, but you should have to not watch/listen to something to avoid that.
Best case scenario, you just look like a prat to every one of your friends for sharing stuff that they don't care about.
If I want to post something to Facebook, I'll add it to my profile or update my status. If i want to watch a film, or listen to an album, dodgy or otherwise, then I'll do it without broadcasting it. And if I want to recommend it, then I'll update my status or profile.
Right... so... how likely is it that some of the customers that were once legally streaming the films legally are now going to go and get them by other means then?
Seems like a rather stupid idea on the part of the studios to me. Especially when they allow the DVD's to be shipped and they're higher quality and easier to copy...
Why is this guy stating the obvious? I thought it was well accepted, even by the people behind distrowatch, that the page rankings should be taken with a pinch of salt. It shouldn't even need stating that the rankings on DW don't reflect the install base.
I would argue that the page renkins reflect interest in a distro, and that, rather than suggesting Mint has gained more users than Ubuntu, the rise of Mint shows that people are dissatisfied with Ubuntu and the route it is taking, but are looking for something similar to what Ubuntu was at it's peak.
Rather than ignoring this and dismissing the figures as irrelevant, they should be taking a look into that.
Yes, I would like a Netbook, but I don't NEED one.
So, if I can have one cheap (the price range suggested by Martin would be fine), and easily install my Linux distro of choice (I get on fine with Win7 Home Premium on my desktop but have no interest in Starter Edition) and have everything, including wireless and webcam work with no fuss, I'll buy one and be happy with it.
Hope Samsung et al are listening, but I'm not holding my breath.
Virgin Media and TalkTalk are rubbish. I'm currently trying to leave talk talk. I called them and was told I need to give 5 days notice, but that seemed unlikely, so I emailed and got a reply saying 30 days. Fine.
So I emailed and asked if I could give the 30 days by email and was told
"Please note we require 30 days notice".
... well I clearly know that already and it's not what I asked, so I sent an email stating that that email WAS my 30 days notice and I wanted the account closed 30 days from that date, and asking for confirmation the notice had been received. The response I got said:
"Kindly note you need to provide us with 30 days notice"
....okay.... so I sent another one, but more harshly worded, saying that I wanted the account closing in 30 days, and that they had now received notice. Could they please acknowledge it. I received response, which is where are are at the minute. Guess what the response said... no clues.... I guess I'll have to write to them next or something, though it would be helpful if they would tell me I have to do that and give an address, if that's what I have to do.
And just to rub it in, the end of each email tells you to visit help.talktalk.co.uk if you require any more information. All the entries on there regarding the closing of accounts tell you to call or email them. D'oh!
Believe it or not, I went to TalkTalk in the first place because I had an even worse experience with Virgin Media... but that was a while ago and would keep me typing this message all day...
It boils down to the fact that there isn't a single phone on the market that doesn't have at least one flaw. Those flaws range from high price and walled gardens, over to poor battery life and poor spec... each phone has some varying combination of these issues and whatever falls in between.
The moral is to research your phone carefully, and choose the one that best suits you/that has the flaw you can live with.
I have been a fan of the Zelda games for a long time, but I have no fingers on my right hand and, from what I have seen, I don't think I'm going to be able to play this comfortably, if at all. The ability to fall back to a Gamecube controller would have been appreciated. I got through Twilight Princess by tying the nun chuck and the Wii remote together, just shaking the whole thing was enough to trigger the sword on screen, but it was not ideal or particularly comfortable. (I know there was a Gamecube version available, but it would have been nice to have the option to use the Gamecube controller in the Wii version too).
I was annoyed even further by the fact that I emailed Nintendo to ask if there were any other control schemes that would better suit me (I stated clearly my issue was that I cannot hold the nun chuck and the Wii remote at the same time) and I (eventually) got a copied and pasted response about how Wii Motion Plus was more accurate than the Wii Controller alone, and suggesting I try Wii Sports Resort to get a feel for how it works...
I'm disappointed and I won't be buying it.
I want to try Gnome 3, but it keeps going into fallback mode. My computer isn't cutting edge, but its only 1 and a half years old and I wouldn't expect to have any issues. If they want to crack the desktop, they need to get something that works and then polish it, not make disruptive changes just at the point where the experience was becoming slick.
Don't get my wrong, I'm all for progress and happy to see new things appear, but I find the way the user base have been dragged along, like it or not, and the issues with my own computer, after happily using Gnome 2 for years, very off putting.
Folk have phones that can play these games, because they buy the phones anyway. Then the games are one or two taps away in the respective App store/Market.
I don't believe this market will die off any time soon, but I believe the novelty will wear off and the numbers being sold will decline.
As for any declines in Nintendo/PSP game sales, I doubt mobile games are the main cause. I haven't bought a 3DS because there aren't really any games for it that appeal to me, I'm blind in one eye (making the key feature worthless to me), and the battery life isn't good enough. I'm sure two of those three things have prevented a lot of people buying 3ds games, as well as general hard times.
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