Posts by Anonymous Cowbard
54 posts • joined Tuesday 10th May 2011 15:11 GMT
Posted in Sony KD-84X9005 84in ultra-HD TV review
Re: Wrong...
No, you're wrong.
3840x2160 is exactly 4x HD.
Draw 4 1920x1080 boxes stacked 2x2 and you'll see.
Remember if you double something in x and y that's 4x more.
Re: Nest
Probably.
I have no real problem with a company not wanting or being able to support its products outside their home country, it's an expensive job, especially for a small organisation.
But when that product is hyped by all and sundry without mentioning the drawbacks that is a problem as people will buy it and end up with a door stop.
Nest
And yet it's horribly (un)supported in Europe...
http://www.bjornsblog.nl/post/20583667249/using-the-nest-smart-thermostat-in-europe-not
Re: Windows Tax
What, Microsoft want to be paid for their efforts in developing an OS and application software?!
The cheek of it.
Posted in UK government says no to turbo e-bike
those desperate to own a Turbo will have to travel to the continent to do so
Presumably once bought on the continent it would be tricky to enforce any kind of ban if imported into the UK?
Form an orderly queue in Calais bike shops please?
Re: Dear Author... make your mind up
Or maybe a more headline grabbing 7777.7778 m/s
Posted in Novatech pushes affordable Ultrabook
Will it hackintosh?
Intel HD Graphics and Hackintosh don't seem to play nicely, from what I've read but maybe it will work?
Under £700 for something that'd do a passable impression of a MacBook Pro would be nice.
Only 1 ethernet
With most living room kit needing it's own network connection it's surprising to see such a high end amp only sporting 1 RJ45 socket. How much would it add to build a wee switch into this (like similar Sony amps do) and reap the benefits?
Needs DVB-T2 lite
A good idea but it's a bit ahead of it's time.
If DVB-T2 lite services are ever launched then this sort of thing would be perfect.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/researchanddevelopment/2011/07/dvb-t2-lite-profile-tech-stand.shtml
Posted in Sony dusts off waterproof Handycam
IP rating
When manufacturers make claims about waterproof equipment I'd be much more impressed if they quoted the IP rating.
IP44 or IP55 for this kind of product would be great.
If it's only IP42 it's much less impressive.
<see ratings here if unfamiliar: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_Code#Code_breakdown>
Re: Security of information
Or, put another way, if a similar app asked you to give your online banking password so it could log you in, would you let it?
Fundamentally this is no different.
Personally I'd be OK with something like this as I'd never use it for something sensitive. For waiting on hold for Vodafone/Sky/British Gas and the like it seems a good solution.
Posted in Heatmiser PRT-TS Wi-Fi RF thermostat
Re: £200 ?
But with a Honeywell or similar you can control the heating from your couch too, with fewer holes made in the wall and for less money.
My mrs is also a techno-sceptic but loves our Honeywell so much that we had to fit a new one when we moved home.
Posted in Heatmiser PRT-TS Wi-Fi RF thermostat
Re: £200 ?
With the Honeywell CM927 available for between £90 and £130 (eBay to Amazon price range) you really have to want the iPhone integration for it to make any sense.
Anyone looking for a proper home automation job won't look at this anyway they'll buy something that integrates with existing HA protocols.
What's the obsession with 'thinnest'?
Surely 'thin enough' is sufficient?
Presumably the engineering effort to make it thinnest has a bearing on price and for what - nobody cares that it's 0.1mm thinner than something else.
Just make it powerful enough, reasonably priced and not too heavy and it'll be fine.
Posted in Heatmiser PRT-TS Wi-Fi RF thermostat
Considered this, bought a Honeywell instead
The thing I don't like about this system is that you have to mount two boxes to the wall.
I have a Honeywell CM927 which I prefer as I can move it around the house and the RF receiver fits on a standard backplate with no need to recess a box into the wall.
If you've an existing, surface mounted 'stat I can't imagine it's easy to cut a recess into the wall without risking cutting the cables. It's certainly going to be a harder job than replacing a standard room stat.
Being able to move the thermostat about means that I can put it in the kids room at night and be sure the temp won't drop below a minimum value.
Being non-movable, for my usage, is a massive downer on this unit.
Posted in Archos 35 Home Connect
Could be great for those who travel?
As a frequent traveller I reckon this could be ideal for those hotels that give you a wifi code that is only good for one device.
Presumably this could act as a wifi hotspot with the right app and let me connect my phone and laptop too?
Re: Can't tell if trolling...
Surely it's moronic in either case?
Interesting point of view
Funny, the way I see it you're less likely to get attacked as you won't be carrying any real money, only money loaded onto a phone that only you can use.
I can see it both ways but if muggers start to realise that nobody carries cash any more, then, eventually, opportunist theft should go down.
Does rely on the electronic wallet being secure though.
How hard to do ATSC and DVB?
Many companies pump out DVB, ATSC, CMMB, ISDB etc demodulators for the (very price concious) TV and STB market, it makes no sense for this kind of product to use anything else.
The few multi-standard demodulators that do exist are generally software defined receivers, these are very expensive in comparison and generally only go into expensive test and measurement equipment. Look up Rhode and Schwarz test equipment as an example.
So, it's not very hard to do but it is very expensive.
Then you have to think about why you'd want to make such a thing, the number of people who need multi-standard receivers is pretty low so you end up with an expensive thing that only is attractive to a handful of people, not a great business model (unless you're R&S).
Broken device?
C'mon Doug, be reasonable.
If a device goes back under warranty it could well be because it's _broken_ in which case the previous owner couldn't erase his/her data.
At this point you would like to think that the people responsible for repair and refurb care just a little bit about doing the right thing.
where will you put the dish?
USB DVB-S/S2 tuners already exist for home use.
If you're out and about how are you planning on mounting and aligning your satellite dish?
You've not really thought this one through, have you? :)
Eye tracking
I've seen a superb demo of similar technology, it tracks your eyes to see where you're looking on the screen.
Web pages scroll as your eyes move, icons can be selected by sight and the advertising possibilities are endless (sadly).
This was with low resolution cameras too. I'd imagine kinect style technology would have no problem with it.
The days of the scrollwheel could be nearly over.
Posted in FetchTV owner looks for buyer
Perhaps this is the reality of IPTV Week?
Small companies trying, but struggling, to make IPTV profitable.
I guess it's OK if you're Samsung/Sony/LG but for the rest of the world IPTV needs to make a profit.
IPTV angle?
I guess any OLED TV will probably have IPTV but it's a tenuous link :)
JUROR JAILED FOR...
...TELLING FELLOW JURORS THAT SHE'D LOOKED UP RAPE DEFENDANT ON GOOGLE.
There fixed the headline for you.
I'd imagine that many jurors do their own research, despite being told not to. Most aren't so stupid as to tell anybody.
only 75%
It does everything that you could expect, perhaps bar Bluetooth, and it only gets 75%?Missing the point?
Perhaps the point is, variously:
People see a £250 tech solution as better than a £10 physical solution
Some people genuinely don't know how to drill a hole in/thru a wall
Wives abhor wires
Landlords abhor drilling holes in walls
In Soviet Russia
Mars probes you
Why paint?
One of the biggest problems for space kit is dissipating heat. In a vacuum you have to work hard to get rid of heat.
By painting kit white you can reflect some heat (from the sun) away, making the task less hard.
That's why most things in space are painted white.
Other fitness equipment exists
If El-Reg is going to republish Moto press releases, what about the same from Garmin, Polar, Suunto etc?
Maybe even some reviews - it'd be interesting to see if El-Reg reporters are not lardy larger couch surfers :)
It's a ratio...
..so it's dimensionless.
I thought I'd repeat it too, seems everyone else has.
Street light?
Nah, just give each driver a wind up torch. Shine it at the panels whilst driving to create perpetual motion, surely?
1/3rd the price of an iPhone
Get the Arc S on a 12m contract for under £250 all in.
See http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/free-sony-ericsson-xperia-arc-s-white-12-month-vodafone-contract-300-minutes-unlimited-1037755
Posted in ITU heralds ultra-high def TV progress
8kx4k cameras
As things stand there are a handful of 8k4k cameras and even fewer end-to-end mixing, encoding and distribution systems.
I would expect that one, or maybe 2, rigs would be used for the Olympics.
Posted in iPhone 4S pay-monthly tariffs compared
Tesco are the cheapest
See MSE iPhone cheap-o-meter for proof
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/deals/cheap-iphone
Posted in Ten... Freeview HD recorders
No Sony HDT500
Omitting the Sony Freeview HD also seems like a mistake.
5 mega pixel!?!?
Cos everyone knows it's all about the megapixels, doesn't matter about how the sensor is made or the quality of the glass at all. Oh no.
Fail for you, sir.
Posted in LG BD670 3D Blu-ray Disc player
Surviving Electrocution
Someone needs to have a look in the dictionary.
By definition it's not possible to survive electrocution.
Posted in iPhone 5 to support 21Mb/s HSPA+ not LTE
Of course it'll be LTE, but only in LTE markets
There'll most likely be a handful of variants, LTE, CDMA, etc. There's already a CDMA iPhone for Verizon so the precedent is set.
There's no point fitting expensive LTE chipset for phones destined for non-LTE markets.
For the relatively few people who'll be using it to roam it'll be mildly annoying but what other phone maker sells LTE phones in non-LTE markets?
Posted in WTF is... HbbTV?
31st February?
No wonder YouView is struggling with delays.
From the UI screenshot they're planning on February 31st - it could be a while before that date comes around :)
Try as we might, The Register could find no Microsoft staffer...
...who was willing to lose his/her job for no good reason,
No LTE
LTE won't launch here for several years so I'd bet we won't see this exact model in the UK.
I would expect a similar specced, but non-LTE, version for UK use.
LTE chipsets are expensive, by not fitting it Samsung would sell the same phone for more margin.
Posted in Sony Vaio SB 13.3in notebook
There’s no mic jack, so you can only connect a pair of headphones.
Or any of around 1000 USB mic/headsets?
Posted in Lingo iMini DAB/FM iOS pocket tuner
@ RichyS
3G is all well and good but if you want to listen to digital radio in a non-3G area this is a good alternative.
My commute home takes me out of 3G coverage and I'd rather stick pins in my eyes than listen to TMS on medium wave.
£100...
...for a thing to stop you forgetting your phone?
I like gadgets as much as the next man, but this just takes the piss. Sometimes technology isn't the answer and we have to use the grey matter between our ears.
Before you leave, make sure your phone is in your pocket!
The LTE connectivity will be good for downloads of up to 100Mb/s, T-Mobile lied.
Edited for accuracy.
Boag's St. George
Would be appropriate beer.
It's bloody good stuff too.
