Posts by JB

Tablet reading apps

I have a Kindle 3 and a nexus 10. i tend to use the Kindle for general reading, and any reading on the Nexus is textbooks or illustrated books. A genuine question, though: which apps do you used in android to read ebooks, especially ePubs? the ones I've looked at are pretty ropey, or are linked to online booksellers.

Incidentally, will El Reg be publishing a review of the Nexus 10? I'd be interested in their take on it.

Just share the version saved to your photo gallery, then. Simples!

Used to like instagram for the first 5 minutes before you had to trawl through thousands of 'selfies' and advertising pics to see any genuinely creative or thought-provoking pics. The last straw was when i recently posted a pic and instantly got 6 likes, all from 'users' with stuff to sell or promote.

Facebook and instagram - great ideas, but now teetering giants.

Very interesting article, even if i struggled to understand most of it.

I love my Pi and have been enjoying learning new stuff like using ssh, and reacquainting myself with the command line and programming, but get very frustrated at my lack of ability in learning Python. I was a keen hobbyist programmer back in the 80s and 90s, using BASIC, Pascal and some C++, and looking back at some of the surviving scripts I'm amazed at some of the stuff I did. I'm finding that python tutorials are either "print "Hello World!" at the interpreter prompt", or a full-blown in-depth essay where it's assumed you know what stuff like libraries and classes are. I wish there was something for us ex-hobbyist programmers to get us up to date...or they put GOTO into Python! :)

Please keep the articles coming...immersion is one way to learn!

I'm sure you meant gigahertz...at 5Mhz the radio hams would start moaning!

If someone starts following me, and they either have no pics or dodgy profile text, I'll block them and report as spam immediately. Why would anyone in their right mind want to follow someone on a picture-sharing social network who has no pictures to share??

People have been talking about 'peak Apple' lately, I think it's also time for 'peak Instagram'!

YOLO

I'm currently in Yolo County, California - gives the name a whole new meaning!

Awful!

Used ExpatShield for about 5 minutes before having to restore Windows to a previous restore point - the software just took over my machine. Went with a paid-for VPN and have had absolutely no problems watching iPlayer and ITV player here in the US. You really do get what you pay for!

4G Data caps

I'm on AT&T 4G LTE in the States and the data cap is a paltry 300Mb a month, and that's up from 200Mb on 3G! And that comes with all of 200 texts and 450 voice minutes, all for the equivalent of about 55 quid a month! I really think you have a better deal in the UK, but not much better!

Missed it!

Here in downtown Sacramento, it was supposed to fly over at about 9.30am. We all stood outside waiting, heard a rumble, didn't see anything. Someone got on their phone and told us we'd missed it, so we all trooped back into the office, only to catch a glimpse of the shuttle when we went to close the blinds! damn! Then all the smug bastards at the top of the tall buildings started sending their mobile phone pics to us!

Tried it...

Did not like it. I'm using it right now, and it really disappoints me. Even the desktop mode is big and finger-friendly, just right for using a mouse and keyboard! Sorry, Microsoft, this is too revolutionary, Apple have the right idea, OS X for the desktop and IOS for the phone and tablets, though I hear that even they are thinking of amalgamating the two.

RealNetworks???

I always used Real Alternative.

LED TVs

Not necessarily a criticism of the review, but I'm fed up with LED edge-lit LCD displays being called "LED TVs". I was in the market for a new TV recently, and all the TVs in the local big box store were lablelled LED when they were clearly LCD panels.

"Porn parody"

Never!!!

Well remember uing CB a great deal in the late 80s. Met a good many friends on it, and got me into radio, building aerials, constructing microphones, etc. Bought a cheap CB out of the paper in about 2001 and had another go, waste of time: just foul-mouthed kids swamping the channels, chatting on channel 19, etc. A real shame, it was nice to have an alternative means of communication.

There should be a nostalgia icon!

The question is....

...will your kite still get caught up in the wires with this design?

"...their counts only measure computers that are connected to the internet."

Have you tried using a computer that isn't connected to the internet lately? I recently moved house and had no broadband for a week. I thought I could use the computer to play games or do some word processing for work, but all I got were dialog boxes complaining about needing an internet connection.

Yawn, yawn! Another Opera browser, who cares.....actually, it looks pretty god! Hmm, ight have to give this a go! That's always been my experience with people and opera. I love it, but thenI have all the major browsers installed.

Wouldn't last five minutes in the UK

Nuff said.

Local commercial radio??

When was the last time you heard an actual local commercial radio station, broadcast from your own town by local people? The consolidation that's happened in the last 20 years has just created another national broadcaster with a different name in each market.

Oh, and DAB is poor, I agree. Before I moved out to California, I ad a DAB radio, reception was pretty good but the way the bit rates were being squeezed made it horrible to listen to. Perhaps a system similar to HD Radio in the States, they even have digital radio on medium wave here!

Awful

Just bought a three year old Saturn with OnStar built in. I always thought it was a gimmick to keep you paying a monthly subscription for something you woud hope never to use, but this puts the last piece of the puzzle in place. You'll be telling me XM satelite radios are tracking my music choices next!

Here we go...

'hooves'!

Great review, though. I have the first version of Elixir, very useful indeed!

That's all we need...

...school kids on the bus to work with one of these!

Wow

How times ave changed! I like to think I'm up with the latest technology (especially reading the Register!) but voice recorders had somehow passed me by. I remember buying a little Sony microcassette dictaphone in about 1993, paid about £70 for it, and thought it was the bollocks at the time. But seeing these little devices makes it look like a wind-up gramophone! Very interesting round-up, shame I dont' really have a use for a voice recorder, really.

Who remembers....

....going into a shop called a travel agent's and asking the chap in the blazer behind the counter to look up flights for you while you browsed the brochures? (un)happy days!

Ipad

I own an Ipad and an Android smartphone. Ipad is great for some things, smart phone for others. It's Amiga/ST all over again!

1985 called...

...they want their stereo back. But hang on, what's all this 'streaming' wee-fee, stuff. :)

You choose

I have an ipad and a kindle, and apart from one app on the iPad that cost me 99c, everything on both devices cost me nothing. I like to read on the kindle and browse the web (and draw!) on the iPad. If I decide I want to throw a few quid/bucks apple's or Amazon's way, that's fine, but I do get to choose,a nd both deices are very usable without having to constantly visit the stores.

Canon

Would love to see Canon make their G series into EVIL cameras. Would bridge the gap nicely. I would like to trade in my bulky but excellent Nikon D80 and 18-200 lens for something like this (but on Samsung), as I don't shoot enough to justify the DSLR bulk. Let's hope this sector does grow.

E-ink

For me the biggest selling-point for the Kindle is the e-ink screen. I know the technology isn't quite there yet, but if they could come up with a tablet with e-ink, that would be awesome.

Look...

...we invented the ribbon, and we're damn well going to implement it, OK!

My eyes!

Damn the Replace Color function in Photoshop!

Ah memories

I remember one round the corner from us in the 70s, I would go round with my older brother and he'd let me put the 2p coins in so he could phone his girlfriend...had to get out of the box when the chat started, though! :)

Many years later, in 1989, I remember walking along the same street and, to my horror, saw a crane lorry parked by the old red phone box, with one of those horrible open silver ones on the bed all wrapped in plastic. I've since moved to the States, and went back to visit recently...there isn't even a phone box there now.

And that smell...yes! There's an 'English' pub here in Sacramento, California with one, and it has that signature smell inside!

Oh noes...

I hope they don't put more programmes in to interrupt the adverts! UK TV has been on the slide since about2001 when they dropped all the slightly obscure, but entertaining stuff for looped repeats of Only Fools and Horses and what was on BBC 1 five minutes ago. They totally lost me when the ad breaks seemed to last longer than the programmes - I just gave up and switched. Somehow this announcement doesn't seem like it will improve the channels, just an excuse to run all the crap from Food Network - I'm sure the UK is totally ready for a Chopped marathon!

Paste this into your status message:

"I'll fall for anything!"