Re: Size matters! @Alan

Quote: 'is too fine so you have to switch the resolution down to a degraded non native'.

Sorry but no such thing as too fine, how would you tell?

I suspect your issue is scaling with a poorly written OS and apps, that work at a fixed pitch.

Mobile apps expect different dpi on different devices, and so scale according to the physical size of the screen itself. i.e. an button, or text would be the same physical size (within margins) irrespective of the dpi or size of screen (phone/tablet). The app will scale to the screen, with more details being available, and in general being smoother on a better dpi.

The problem with desktop OS and apps, is they don't usually scale. For example a task bar, buttons, desktop icons etc. will all be a set size in pixels and for the most part ignore dpi, and so the higher dpi you have, the smaller everything gets on screen. When all that should be happening is that the details should show up better, with more flexibility for zooming in and out etc.

32bit

Re: Games are generally 32-Bit.

Old games yes, but not anything new other than budget or low spec games.

Most new games, especially the ones that actually need a decent PC to play them, tend to be 64bit now (or to be more precise, they have 32 and 64bit exe's that load the appropriate version automatically on launch depending on your OS).

For example the Source engine from Valve went 64bit back in 2005, most other major gaming engines, including for games like Crysis (original and new releases), Skyrim etc. are all 64bit.

Also bear in mind current consoles like the XBox 360 are also 64bit machines, and as most game engines are cross platform, it makes sense to have them 64bit across the board.

32bit other than for low power devices, low memory devices, is a dying platform.

We are now seeing games coming out that need DX11 as a minimum, so won't work in XP etc. I expect we'll probably start seeing games that need 64 bit as a min as well soon, due to their ever increasing memory requirements that a 32bit version just can't handle.

Well Mass Effect was basically just a re-skinned and updated Knights of the Old Republic.

i.e. The developers knew the game was good, but Lucas Arts are idiots and canned the KotOR series, so lets set it in a different universe and replace the force with, hmm, now what shall we call it....

Re: Confused.com

Don't forget about GPU and other capabilities.

Just because the CPU is faster in one device, doesn't mean it's faster overall. CPU probably only accounts for about a 3rd of the overall score in Antutu. (Obviously will differ from one device to the next).

If you assumed the CPUs were equal in every except the clock speed, 1.4 to 1.5GHz is barely noticeable statistically. A device usually has to be 30%+ faster to actually be noticeable to most peeps.

Re: Wall mount?

Reminds me of my first ever flat panel, a 32in plasma back when they cost £2,000 (can't remember the model/brand atm). That had all it's gubbins in a separate base unit. The display itself was essentially just a monitor, it had one custom cable for the image and sound (not that I ever used the sound) and then the mains lead (standard kettle lead).

The cable to connect to two together was about 2M long, so you could have the TV wall mounted, and only needed a couple of cables from it. Then all your stuff, Set top box, XBox etc. just plugged into the base unit. Was a lovely system.

"European Civil War"?

How can it have been a civil war? As far as I know, that requires two groups within the same nation to be at war.

European may now be a Union (of sorts), but it wasn't back then.

Re: Battery

For console gaming with a mobile device battery life is mostly irrelevant, it will be plugged into a doc with the HDMI output to the TV, a blue tooth controller and will charge while docked. The tech is already there and in use now.

Only real issue atm is the devices aren't quite up to the current gen console levels yet (but not far off, and for some games doesn't need to be anyway, gfx ability does not a good game make) and the fact that most mobile games current expect you to be using a touch screen, not a proper controller, but that will change as controllers become more popular.

Re: I had a marvellous on-line argument the other week

I had a Netbook for a few years (dual boot between Ubuntu and Win XP), got a Tablet last year (ASUS Transformer), Netbook hasn't been used since and gathers dust.

Re: Chrome users

Android browser is just Android, no connection to Chrome at all.

Chrome for Android is coming, and is available in beta, as long as your on Android 4.0+. Rumour is that Chrome will take over as the default Android browser once out of beta, but would guess that will be in Android 5.0+ late this year.

But for the moment, most Chrome user stats like these will be desktop users, not mobile.

Re: Because of the unique way the BBC is funded.....

From the horses mouth: http://iplayerhelp.external.bbc.co.uk/help/playing_tv_progs/tvlicence

Quote: 'Catch-up

You do not need a television licence to catch-up on television programmes in BBC iPlayer, only when you watch or record at the same time (or virtually the same time) as it is being broadcast or otherwise distributed to the public. In BBC iPlayer, this is through the Watch Live simulcast option.'

So, licence NOT NEEDED to watch iPlayer, unless you select the Live option.

Re: Speaking as an iOS user...

So install Avast, and tick the box in the settings to also auto update the program itself, (the definitions will already be set to auto update).

After that point, if a new version of the app comes out, it will download and update in the background, and pops a little window up to let you know the program has been updated and here are the new features (if any), and if it needs to re-boot to finish, it asks if you want to do it now or later (and doesn't keep bugging you if you decline).

The only extra user input required after installation and initial registration is to re-reqister each 12 months. A pop up asks if you want to switch to the pro (paid for version) or continue with the free version. Click the Free button and it re-registers for another 12 months.

Re: I have never, on any platform,

Indeed, I use Avast on both PC and my Desire S, and notice no loss of performance, or a slow down in boot up on my PC. In fact under Android, Avast has yet to ever even show up in the battery usage list, so is using less than 1%

Although to counter this, I have used both Nortons and McAfee on a desktop PC, and they both pretty much crippled the PC, increasing boot times by 2 or 3 times, and basically hogging all the resources. So much so that if you wanted to play any newer games, you had to disable the AV to get the games to run at a decent pace!

Re: Yeah, but....

The system is primarily aimed at downloading, not streaming. It uses a common file format (based on ISO standards), so should be able to be played by any UltraViolet compatible device, be that a PC app, Tablet app, DVD/BlueRay player etc. media streamer etc. etc. If your connection isn't fast enough, then just queue it up, download, and watch later (basically just like Sky's Anytime+, except you can transfer the files to any UltraViolet device).

i.e. You could download on your PC, stick in on a pen drive, plug the pen drive into your UltraViolet compatible TV, Tablet, another PC etc. and watch there.

Indeed, not ship to ship, but ship to ground.

As mentioned, it's a replacement/alternative to using cruise missiles, so will most likely be being fired against things like anti-air and radar emplacements, hardened structures, airfields, army bases, comms towers etc.

In essence, neuter your enemy from 50 to 200 miles away, before they can hit back, and before sending the rest of your forces in to mop up.

Avast --> Settings --> Show notification icon -- untick

I'm from 'oop north' too, and also never heard the term 'Scads' before!

Guess you probably further North than I am (West Yorkshire).

The Android market place already has movies, I see no reason why this couldn't be expanded quite easily to things like TV series and documentaries etc.

And also then opened up to direct submissions from creators themselves.

The rumour is that the updated versions of Google TV, will essentially be an optimised version of Android for media playback, and will include full access to the market place, so Android apps, games, Movies and Music all direct to your TV.

If they added TV series, then no more need for Sky TV etc.

Some already do, at least for the cheaper devices where cost is more noticeable.

I've bought two devices recently, both rechargeable, both via USB, and both only came with a USB lead, no adaptor. Thus requiring a PC to plug into, or an existing USB adaptor, of which I have a few now.

Shame they didn't do like the Lord of the Rings game, free to download and play, with a few restrictions.

You can still subscribe. which lifts all the restrictions, or instead buy small items to remove specific restrictions, without the need to subscribe (such as increase your inventory size). Apparently their revenue increased massively after switching to this optional subscription model.

£45 is way too much for something I might get bored of after a month.

If it was the normal PC game price, say £25-30 which inc 1 month subscription, then I might have tried it.

Separate boxes for connectivity have already been done.

My first flat panel TV, bought about 8-9 years ago, back when they were £2-3k each, had a separate tuner/connection box.

The display panel itself just had two cables, one mains and one custom connectivity cable that linked to the connection box.

The idea was that it saved on having lots of cables visible, as your DVD, Sat box cables etc just stayed next to your other devices. Made for a very neat and tidy wall mount, which once put up, never needed to be touched again.

I can only assume the return must be higher.

These texts are a fishing exercise, to see if there is anyone really gullible out there. If someone responds (looking at the 12 mentioned in the article), then they know they've got a potential target.

At that point, I assume they set the big guns on them, someone good at hard sales over the phone, who will then call them and attempt to get bank details/extort money from them etc. etc.

As someone who's had a few of these 'Injury claim' messages, despite not having any injuries to speak of for a few years, I hope they fine them the max possible, throw all involved in to prison for a while, and then ban all of them from ever owning a mobile phone, business or anything else.

And best of luck catching the rest of them.

Capacitive not resitive.

Assuming this is the NOVO7, which it does look like it is, then it's a capacitive screen.

Although as a single core CPU, it's not going to be very powerful. This is going to be a light use device, not in the same league as the Tegra 2, 3 etc devices.

But for the cost, it's what I'd expect.

With cameras (multiple wave lengths), and ultra sonic scanning, it would probably notice a trip wire a lot easier that a human would.

I can see these being used as the new 'Point-man', with the squad watching via a tablet or head up display some ways off, and a mic/speaker in case they bump into a local.

Level is set as you enter a location. If they turn out to be too hard, just leave and come back later after you've levelled up.

They will still be at the level you left them, but you'd have increased by then.

I had a LaCie NAS drive.

It had various software issues, including a really poorly implemented UPnP media streamer. It was so under powered that you often had to re-encode media to play back without skipping.

I needed to be rebooted regularly, and worse of all, required an active internet connection to be able to get to the web based GUI, as authentication was done through their site, not locally on the NAS drive!

LaCie released one software update in the drives life, and that didn't fix most of the issues, then about 1.5 years after getting the drive, them dumped the entire range and said they were no longer going to provide any updates or support.

Eventually the drive died, with guess what, a PSU issue. I inspected the drive, and as per your experience, very poor design and build quality.

I decided not to repair, and instead removed the 1TB drive that still worked fine, grabbed all the data from the Linux partitions via some utils, and installed the drive in a dedicated server instead.

Never ever buy LaCie.

Logitech on the other hand, they are stars.

Electric cars have limiters fitted, as the bottle neck is usually how much juice you can get out of the batteries without damaging them.

So top speed is based on the Max Power output of the battery pack, rather than what the motor could actually achieve.

Already works on mobile devices

at least on some.

Currently accessing my Hotmail via default email clients on both a Tablet and Mobile phone. Both are Android and all I had to do was select to add a new MS Exchange account from the Android Settings/Accounts page, tap my details in, and it set everything up fine.

Around already, but not common (yet!)

Secure tabs are already available on mobile devices, at least the default browser on my Android 3.2 tablet has this feature. Just select an new secure tab, rather than a normal tab.

@Adam Nealis

Quote "You may be right. But then someone will come up with an adblocker that sits on the HTTP stream before it gets to the browser."

That method has exited for years, including block list managers that automate the process.

Just check out www.bluetack.co.uk