* Posts by bob_bob

8 publicly visible posts • joined 27 Jan 2011

UK electric car funding - another subsidy for the rich say MPs

bob_bob
Childcatcher

£5k which manufacturers have priced into the OTR price

Most plug-in cars seem significantly overpriced so it needs a £5k subsidy before anyone would think of buying them and even then....

At some point this subsidy will end and a month after that the OTR price of all of the eligible cars will be £4k cheaper as otherwise no-one will buy them.

Brits upscaling their TV buys

bob_bob
Thumb Up

Re: no choice

I think that you are on to something. If you want to buy a "fully featured" new set, often 37 inches is the minimum screen size available.

Lapse It Pro

bob_bob

AKA Pro-lapse it??

AKA Pro-lapse it??

An entirely different sort of video application.

Asus revamp adds tablet-phone dock

bob_bob
Thumb Up

Padfone, sounds better that Atrix

I think that the Padfone concept (if correctly executed) should be a huge win. There is a much greater overlap in use between smartphones and tablets with a real blurring of the boundaries and this concept will give you the opportunity to simply choose the best form factor depending on where you are.

The Atrix seems to promise somehtig siilar but the second form fator there seems to just be a gimped netbook that offers little more than a Firefox browser. I can buy a smartphone and a netbook, (that runs more than just Firefox), for a lot less then the Atrix combo - so I don't see the point.

The Padfone seems to be a much more unified proposition.

I like the idea of effectively using one procesing engnie, one 3G connection, having one place to store key files. One ring to rule them all?

Samsung prices up Chrome OS netbook for Blighty

bob_bob
Thumb Down

Too expensive

I will be brief, this is too expensive for a device with no local memory and pretty much no stand-alone (non-networked) ability at all. Surely the oppotunity here was to launch cheap net access becasue the demands on the Hardware are light.

BBC engineers see PLT knocking out DAB

bob_bob

What frequency does WiFi equipment operate at?

What frequencies do home WiFi equipment operate at? I have never had any problem of DAB/FM knock-out and we are running PLN equipment (85Mbps) and WiFi (does not reach the whole house before you ask). Assuming that there are no issues with WiFi knocking out signal then is there a reason we couldn't use the mains wiring as a waveguide for the same frquencies that the WiFi uses and thus confine leakage to a "harmless" frequency range?

We do own our home (well the bit that the bank doesn't own anyway) but retrofitting CAT5/6 cable throughought the house to have outlets wherever there is currently a mains socket is more than a modest "get yout drill out" exercise so it is no surprise that PowerLine is a popular option. It has a big dollop of "it just works" going for it.

For me, PLN > DAB because I already own FM radios a plenty and I feel no need to part with my hard earned to replace them all with an "either it works or it doesn't" so called solution. I like the idea of internet radio -- for which I will need an internet connection at the point of use -- hello PLN again (if the WiFI won't reach).

(Paris doesn't understand electronic engineering either)

Icecrypt T2400 Freeview HD DVR

bob_bob

Take out the DVD recorder and add one BluRay player

I take the point about the Panasonic Jack of all Trades Freeview HD recorder, looks like a fine piece of kit.

That said, what about something with broadly similar features to this but including a BluRay Player only (ie no disk recording, only playback). I am not too bothered about archiving TV content off onto DVD (personally), I never sit down and fancy watching TV from 18 months ago. I would, however, like to cut down the number of boxes under my TV and the number of HMDI ports I need to fill and a PVR with a BluRay player inluded would be a big help (frankly a DVD player would be OK but would break the HD viewing experience). Would cutting out the recording functions drop the price and ease some of those compatability issues?

(A half decent display panel actually on the piece of kit wouldn't hurt. It is PITA when you need to turn on your TV just to select a music track from you "media centre").

Samsung N350 dual-core netbook

bob_bob
FAIL

Make 'em cheaper

The Netbook was meant to represent the gateway to sub £200 computing (or at least net access) so to my mind any offering which can't come close to that price point is not a netbook, just an underpowered Laptop.

Seconded on battery life, the biggest problem with my Acer Aspire A110 is that battery life is a poor.