Posts by the-it-slayer
470 posts • joined Sunday 3rd July 2011 09:57 GMT
Posted in Review: BlackBerry Q10
Re: Type and Go = webOS Just Type
I was going to wait for one of these, but decided to go Z10 instead being used to a touch screen. I think BB have hit the sweet spot with their OS to cater for both (BB6/7 never worked properly on touchscreen devices). My brother has the Q10 and can see how much of a beast it is (very good quality materials) and works effortlessly.
BB just need to lure the big app makers to comes over (Spotify refusing to play ball at the moment especially) and they'll be having the last laugh over Microsoft big-time.
The battery pulls have gone, the OS is slick and it doesnt drop calls unlike the iPhone 4 did to me in iOS5/6. It'll take a lot from Apple to pull me back to an iPhone device. Especially if BB can keep pumping out updates regularly that add more useful features and mature the product further.
Re: My Z10
It's a shame because the Z10 is a great step-up from any other smartphone on the market. No front physical button, perfect size (unlike Samsung wanting to make their phones balloon size so it doesnt fit in one hand and be operational with one hand) and works very fast!
I loved the iPhone but the 5 looks awful design wise and iOS needs a reshape to incorporate a next step in touchscreen software. I've bagged the Z10 on a 12 month contract so I can ultimately decide next year if Apple have lost me as a phone customer.
Apps is the only thing lagging, but that'll come over time. This OS is only a few months old and is making great waves already. Only thing missing is Spotify. Running sideloaded android apps is a steal to be honest!
Re: Badly Designed Human = Eadon
There we go; I've just corrected your equation.
Re: I guess that it's back to using Google then.
Isohunt isn't the only public torrent site on the web as a matter of fact... just saying.
Posted in ITV catches up with TVCatchup
Re: I gave up on TVCatchup
Two 30 second ads are better than four 30 second ads that you get on ITVs live stream service. Unfortunately the big TV companies (especially ITV) want more and more control. Same with the music industry, they aren't investing in providing the best service with the best tech out there. BBC at least make an effort to provide most of their services in a variety of formats for several devices and online. Even HD content of their programming. ITV just put out the bare minimum.
Watching ITV online is like watching TV from the 80s is so garbled on full screen mode.
Re: Rubbish
Essentially all show and no go? If I could hackintosh it, I'd be all over it.
If Samsung did this...
...it would be seen as the holy-grail to all cabling problems. Because Apple have their gritty hands on the technology, they're seen as evil and this solution shouldn't exist. If one cable could have different personalities (like this one), bring it on. You could in theory add an extra port to an iDevice and have a backup if one port decides to die on you.
Just to round up, anything pro-Apple on the reg is an automatic down vote.
Re: I agree...
Who says they were inspired from Apple?
Look at the two icons. Both black. Both show tickets appearing out of a pocket (half shown). Both are similar in style. Please don't tell me you're that blind to notice that? At least Google's and Microsoft's logos follow their branding style and are uniquely different. Samsung have no style and again based their response on Apple's design. If you can find style techniques anywhere else that Apple play on (that are recent) which are almost the same, please let me know. Now go figure and have a beer on me.
Re: I agree...
But you can clearly see Samsung designers have less talent than their nearest toilet cleaner... At least make the logo radically different if you're going to be inspired from an existing idea. I'm all for companies taking direction from another and making it better (take Blackberry using WebOS' methods for multi-touch control).
I know Samsung don't care about if their products look like anyone else's, but I refuse to buy any of their stuff on the principal that everything they sell in the mobile/tablet market is a sham.
Re: This article is missing something...
Even the free apps try to encourage you to buy their PRO counter parts. Maybe I should of said a "reliance" on an app store to fulfil people's requirements (app stores cost money to run/promote). Again, iOS/Android are too app-centric. Any major development to the basic communication frameworks (messaging/e-mail/calls etc) have barely been touched.
Posted in New social network is for DEAD PEOPLE
Oh oh!
Looks like Charlie Brooker's black mirror vision of reviving the dead from social media has already started.
This article is missing something...
A slobbering of Eadon? Or the black badge man as I like to call him/her/thing.
Personally, more OSes that can enter the ring the better. Especially if Firefox OS is much more lightweight and communication-centric. Some people want smartphones, but don't need all the app-gumph that comes with it (and the requirement to spend, spend, spend on apps).
Simplicity is king. In terms of architecture, iOS/Android are far from that now.
Re: SysAdmins versus Ops versus Sec
You'd think that would be the case. But what's stopping the Sys Admin creating a certificate validation spreadsheet/database of all the cert's in production/test, location etc and then assigning calendar reminders of up to 4 weeks before the cert becomes invalid? Surely that should be setup on birth of a certificate? It's not exactly rocket science; it's common sense and effective administration.
Re: Oh FFS - It's like Google have chosen to forget the past.
Patented by the slayer, or I wish! Why not place small low-res OLED/eink keys (rather than making it totally flat) in the QWERTY format as a start? Again, would save experts in audio/video/gaming having to place stickers over the top of keyboard for shortcuts. That would make a start until you could create a screen that physically changes shape so you didn't have to type on a flat surface.
Come on Apple, make me one damn it! That's technology worth paying for.
Re: Obviouslky! _is_ Eadon. Discuss.
@toothpick - possible the same person with a personality disorder? or just teenagers with nothing else better to do. they only seem to run riot in the holidays/weekends.
Posted in Delving deep into Microsoft's 'Cloud OS'
Re: Windows can deliver clouds, but it takes a week to recover your data
Well, it had enough quality that they've had 80%+ market share (maybe more or less from guessimates and quick reading online) through-out the 90s and still up to now (Win XP / 7 combined take roughly 80%). MS Office, Windows and anything Microsoft may not be the rolls royce of computing, but they delivered what the customer wanted and people bought into the license which in effect made it the standard (same way people compare every phone now to the iPhone). It was consistent and integratable (from desktop to server). Anyway, I didn't even mention the word "high-quality" in my sentence, so how you can derive that from what I said; I really don't know. I'm personally neither a fan or against Microsoft software. I have no choice but to support it anywhere I go and whatever job I do.
What are we going to do with you? Any takers?
Re: Willy Gates Melinda
Eadon - No. Gates saw the opportunity to sell his version of DOS as the crème of the crop. Kickstarted the x86 revolution and got his software into millions of businesses, homes and wherever else in the world. If he wasn't visionary, then what was he? His clever licensing schemes were just as visionary (at the true consumer birth of computing where he needed customers to trust him) as Apple's leaps in mobile tech in the 21st century. Maybe Gates got lucky he had a very clever team programming what he needed to succeed. Obviously now the tables have turned for the better IMHO.
Gates and Balmer are friends. That's a different issue altogether. If Gates can't put business over his friendships at the top, that'll crush his precious company slowly.
Stop the anti-M$ and get back in your cot with dummy in your mouth. Or at least suck your own thumb for 5 minutes. It's getting boring.
Black badge please!
Re: Willy Gates Melinda
True my friend. It wasn't Microsoft was late to the party, it executed it's own party poorly and almost crushed the PDA/Early-smartphone market into submission because it was very terribly run. Sometimes someone else has to make a mistake first before another company can learn from those without any cost and then succeed (like Apple's case with the iPhone). Right time, right product, right opportunity.
Google just took the easy option and sold Android to the cheapest bidder (open-source parts of it). Anyone will be happy to take software for nothing.
Posted in Delving deep into Microsoft's 'Cloud OS'
Re: Windows can deliver clouds, but it takes a week to recover your data
Essentially MS make extremely shoddy software
MS don't make billions of dollars for nothing. Put that techie icon away; you've just abused it.
Re: Oh FFS - It's like Google have chosen to forget the past.
...Oh to add, it's the one on the spindly frame that thinks it's a hybrid. More things to break and get conned on when outside warranty.
Re: Oh FFS - It's like Google have chosen to forget the past.
When it's their only high-spec laptop close to 13" available in the home section, people have no choice but to buy it? Doesn't mean people need/want the touch-screen. We all know it's a crap concept. I'd rather have the physical keyboard removed and have a touch-screen put in place that acts as a keyboard. Then at least you can alter the keys based on the program you're using.
Re: Oh FFS - It's like Google have chosen to forget the past.
Touch-screen laptops/desktops DO NOT WORK. People don't need touch-screen when it has a trackpad. I just don't get it. Okay, if the screen detached to make a independent tablet, that's okay (even though hybrids are just as pointless without a transformable OS - none exist yet). Everyone tried this and they never sold.
Rather spend £1000 on a MacBook Pro thanks very much.
Clicky, clicky!
The evidence is all tied up in your post history. Just need to clicky, clicky your name. We all know your name being added to the list of black badge nominees along with Eadon. Just keep going as we all love your words of bias as entertainment. Nothing else.
Re: Thanks!
Ditto! I hope the guys and girls rigging and derigging all this stuff get plenty of Friday beers.
Is Microsoft at the point where they regret not splitting the company up based on Euro pushers?
Microsoft is too big for itself to cope with currently. Strategy is all over the place and nothing across the whole product range seems to integrate well enough with each other. Splitting Microsoft into several independent co's surely would of been more effective? Please tell me if I'm wrong, but I'm sure the Euro buffs at the top wanted Microsoft to be split up due to their huge dominance in the late 90s and early 00s? Maybe this suggestion is going to haunt them in years to come unless they can get someone tough enough at the top of the helm.
Balmer keeps chucking money in the air for any project that deems to grab it within the corporation and it's seen within the lack of consistency with each of their products. No WP7 to WP8 migration. Windows 8 trying fashionablise itself under mobile, laptop, desktop and tablet in a messy integrated campaign. If Windows 8 is cool, then so must Windows 8 mobile.
For what I thought was a good recovery from Vista (piss-up) to Windows 7, that momentum has been totally lost. I'm very against buying anything Microsoft at the moment. I have no idea what they're about any more. That makes me sad!
@csumpi - just NO
Seriously... so you'd have a crappy piece of Dell/HP plastic holding your kit together? I owned a Dell XPS 13" laptop. Pretty high spec, looked great but the plastic/design was awful the further you looked inside. Aluminium provides the perfect platform to hold all your internals in. Rigid screw holes, more accurate mouldings etc.
My 13" Macbook Pro. Almost 3 years old and still going with OS X Lion. Just upgraded the RAM and will be installing an SSD next month to get the most out of it. You drop aluminium from a small height closed... most damage is a small dent/scratch. With a plastic Dell/HP... it shatters the corner where the screen hinge is (the weight is with the screen/hinge) and makes it look very tacky. Seen it with plenty of laptops in my desktop support days.
Re: If you appreciate text/ASCII like the above, check this telnet session out...
@Professor Falken - sorry, didn't see your post above. deserves more mentions.
If you appreciate text/ASCII like the above, check this telnet session out...
telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl
This is what you call magical and a friday pint worth of effort to whoever made it.
Re: Wigner effect
The mentioning of the word "wigner" deservers an early Friday pint. Hope they have a quick way of replacing them or they'll have to be a lot of pints consumed. The clever buggers.
Re: Android Honeymoon Over
Fall into bed with Blackberry! I think anyone who moves over to BB10 will have the last laugh in 1 - 2 years. The Z10 I played with is fast, communication centric and doesn't mess about like iOS6 does on my iPhone 4. iOS and Android have become too content centric and development OS usability as you notice has suffered as a result.
I'll always keep an iPad by my side, but phones are phones. Phones are not fully fledged computers and the application generation is spoiling the stable mobile phone experience we once had.
Re: Black berry has allready lost
Your spelling has lost me already.
Re: Doing the same!
@Ledswinger - At the moment, I think the "innovative & disruptive" crown belongs to Google, who launch loads of ideas, some great, some rubbish, and drop the ones that don't catch on. History shows that no company holds the crown on an eduring basis, and that very few companies consistently regain that title once they lose it, and that has implications for many of the companies in this space - Blackberry, Apple, Google. Interestingly it probably doesn't much apply to Samsung (HTC, LG or other OEMs) because they don't have much distinctive retail-valuable IP. I love my SGS2, but I don't think there's much that is innovative or disruptive that Samsung added. Whilst that means Samsung will never be as valuable as Apple, it also probably means that their share price can't fall as much as Apple's eventually will.
Woah there! Google's Android hasn't been innovative and disruptive since the first release. It played catchup until there was enough polish on the turd (the first official release of Android was a big fat turd) to pull in customers. Innovative and disruptive goes to the OEMs who took it, and added a layer of wax with their own skin and made the hardware look more attractive in terms of size.
I do see Blackberry being the next disruptive and innovative company if they can pull off the BB10 release with some impressive sales/handsets. They've taken some huge influences from WebOS (which should of been second to iOS) and made it even better.
Keeping my eye on the Q10 release date!
Re: This is a standard tactic... - Black badger strikes!
(...cont) Yes, my post was directed at Eadon-the-feed'um. Smile Eadon! Life does get better.
Re: This is a standard tactic... - Black badger strikes!
Christ, even if I had to agree with your points... they're so incoherent, biased and just a pile of rubbish. The reality is that M$ will shoot themselves in the foot if they don't sell hard, make more 128GB devices available and can't get stock readily available when business want them. No-one in business will want to wait. With Apple having set the bar high in promote and sell almost straight away; making customers wait for your device is travesty in this age.
Surface Pro does have a "proper" OS. It's just not that great IMHO. And don't bring bloated dogs into this. They're harmless things unlike yourself who bombs out words like North Koreans are trying to do with their winky missiles and splattering with no direction.
Black badge please mods!
Doing the same!
The iPhone magic for me is starting to lose it's appeal as updates from the fruity based company are becoming smelly and dirty. Nothing fresh, nothing that engages the user and is simply ignoring what customers want (or aren't coming up with new ways that customers thought they'd never need).
I love the Z10 by playing with it, but the next Blackberry 10 software update (which I assume will appear at the time of Q10 release) might be mature enough for me to engage and drop iOS as a mobile platform. Apple's problem is keeping iPad/iPhone/iPod all together and the introduction of the iPad has taken an impact on the iPhone's presence. I still love the iPad and my MacBook as productive devices, but reliability and something that's communication centric has become more important. I think the iPhone and any Android device had lost that by putting application first (taking the ball off kernel/radio firmware development).
I think Google will get a nasty surprise with BB10 gets it's next software update out and the possibility of licensing BBM to co's as a communication tool (with MSN going, Skype becoming a fat video-calling tool and not many other secure options). The money could soon be rolling in and Blackberry back in business.
Nice to see a balanced article on BB10 and fandroids staying away.
Re: Not just for loyalists
@TheVogon - Blackberry are in a death spiral. No Eco-System, only one manufacturer of the technology, and becoming increasingly irrelevant in the enterprise.
I can't see them being attractive to enough consumers at ~ £500 a handset to survive. This handset isnt even available until April btw!
Such a biased and pessimistic view on things here. Take a hard look at WP8. It's hardly made a dent in it's first 6 months (regardless of Nokia making a lucky break in profits this quarter that still shocks me). There are hundreds millions of Blackberries still being used out there who are potential buyers of the new BB10 series. Quite nicely, we now have some clear intentions for each device.
Z10 being the glossy flagship device.
Q10 being the fan's choice or an upgrade from an older BB10 who want a more powerful model
I guess 1 or 2 others are on the way after the Q10 release that will cater for the developing countries who don't want to jump to a higher quality BB.
There is an eco-system that's growing at a faster rate. Who cares if it's a one manufactuer tech; Apple have survived with an integrated system. BB still have that luxury unlike Android vendors who get screwed over on every update release. And who says that this phone will be £500? It'll probably fit the £300 - £450 category (hopefully lower end) so we'll see contracts with no upfront fee (including the fact the necessary £5 BB add-on for their BIS servers is now gone). BB will get competitive and the odds of them taking a healthy 3rd place behind Apple and Google is strong.
After seeing the pictures in this post, I may wait after my contract in March comes for renewal. By then, I'm hoping the new iPhone rumours will kick in and that the disappointment of another mediocre iPhone release will steer me away from iPhone's.
Re: I'm worried...
Stuff the fact they'll be 30 minute episodes. Look at what they did to Postman Pat. CGIed it, PCfied it and all the magic around the original was gone.
Re: Destined for failure
I actually had a play in one of the EE shops in London. The OS is superfast! Much quicker going between apps than iOS on my iPhone 4 (admittedly running iOS6 that is two generations newer). Especially flicking up from the bottom which will throw you back onto the multi-task menu. The virtual keyboard text predicter that you can flick your thumb towards suggest words is superb.
Hardware is solid and not overly too big. I even compared it to the Lumia 820 and god that is huge! As much as I had reservations about anything larger than 3.5" or the equivalent across, the Z10s size is spot on.
My worry is applications, but the big players in the mob app business will want their app spot on rather than half-baked. I don't get the negativity/reservations here. This is a tech site and we should be support newer devices that at least try to break the boundaries of the norm. The Z10 definitely does that!
...and Samsung have lost all the cash already in that 5% stake when they only sell less than 10,000 of things and Wacom crash.
Re: Destined for failure
You've answered your own question. Software and features.
Re: Destined for failure
Typical fandroidism right here. And this is not even an Apple product! 70,000+ apps (easy to convert and manipulate Android apps to the new QNX platform, mid-range means nothing if the software is easy on the CPU/memory and pisses all over most of the Android competition. No theme bollocks and straight to the point OS.
I admit that the omitted features will disappoint hardcore blackberry users, but is the article justifying people are too stupid to navigate a few easy swipes to get to content in order to give it a negative point? Beats pressing a home button and swiping a pointless notification menu sitting at the top of the screen.
Personally can't wait to have a go at one of these. As much as I love iOS, it's a pain in the rear for calls. Too many dropped calls even in well served places.
Re: Nice to see some objectivity
As regards "strong carrier support for BlackBerry", I don't know if I'm looking at a different set of carriers, but I still see the Blackberry Curves etc being pushed on web sites. Considering it's allegedly launched today in the UK I'd say someone's missing a trick here..
I think you're right Flywheel. UK carriers are very slowly pushing the phone:
- Vodafone has it on their frontpage to order
- EE is still not showing it anywhere on the frontpage but are now selling it (weirdly, T-Mobile and Orange who aren't the 4G brand under the same umbrella are pushing it more)
- Three are showing nothing
- O2 are battling for business by plastering it on their front page
Maybe Blackberry haven't been strict enough from removing their old stock and carriers still wish to sell them until all gone. As you say, that could be a big mistake.
Re: Nice to see some objectivity
The fact is, the media coverage will be like this:
Tech Media: Bum iOS/Android until the cows come home and always compare negatively.
General Press/TV: Give it a slight positive slant and compare the new platform to how it's previous handsets did.
Joe Public: Word of mouth will be more important in encouraging more people to buy into Blackberry products.
I personally think Blackberry have readjusted themselves well and actually now have a clear target audience to sell to. Managed to pull all the major app developers and beyond onboard. It's not going to be slow to take off and taking a brave step to invest in a rock solid architechure shows entrepreneurial skills required to fight in this business. Apple did the same when reviving the smartphone. I'm hoping Blackberry can continue WebOS' good work and have spun their development around that influence of fluid multitasking. It's certainly making me think about coming away from my beloved iPhone 4 (not because I dislike iOS - just need something to make my work/personal life management easier). iPhone 5 has a crappy cheap design, Android phones I'll never touch again after my horrid experiences and Windows can keep shooting themselves in the foot by not convincing me their phones are for my target group.
Just as buzzed about this announcement as I was with iPhone 4
I really hope RIM have hit the nail on the head (rather than the coffin!) for this announcement. There's obviously a market out there still buying and abusing the core RIM services (especially BB Messenger). Some of the business-based ties need to be loosened for consumers but the same integrity has got to be kept if they have a chance of keeping and expanding business customers.
I'm praying BB10 will be my next upgrade rather than having to stick with a 2nd best iPhone 5 (or 5S/6 whenever it's released).
Fandroids are off again...
If you don't want it, don't worry about it. For some of the media abusers out there in tablet land, this is a dream product. My 16GB iPad mini does me for reading and generic use (with a tiny bit of video use). For me and many others, it's too much money for what I use it for. To store iTunes, iPlayer, Sky Go stuff, it's the best thing out there for now.
If this was a £700 Samsung/Nexus tablet with 128GB of storage (without SD cards), it would be marked up as the holy grail. Sheeeeesh. The Apple abuse needs to stop and some common sense restored (and black badges dished out to timewasters here).
Posted in Reg Readers love their gadgets
Re: Zzzzzzzzzz.....
A lot of people care. I certainly do! Tech is changing at a blistering rate and I think 2013 is a good time to get a consensus to what people care about. Obviously it matters to El Reg as it'll shape their news content for the future.
Re: Cross Platform ftw - normally = crappy apps
Why would you come up with this crap? Makes no difference whether they restrict app installation or not. Developers can start to use these tool to their advantage. Nothing stopping people converting their apps and reselling on the iOS platform. You just seem to forget iOS users (I think - correct me if I'm wrong anyone) are the most app savvy users and has a huge potential revenue stream for devs.
Anyway, most converted games, applications and such like are scrap. Still these compilers aren't 100% and the app converted needs tweaking to take advantage of other features not available of other OS/language.
Not difficult to understand.
Black badge?
Can we not give 'Obviously!' a black badge just to remind us he must have the most negative comments on the El Reg-tard planet? At least we can intentionally ignore black badgers until they clean up and normal service resumes (aka a little bit of common sense).
Re: Market manipulation..
Yet Apple are vastly cutting the forecasts for components.. Seems they know that demand for iPhone is dwindling, as users are finding better quality (or better value) phones in Android.
That's an opinion, not fact. Obviously Apple have reached a saturation point where new sign-ups (first time iPhone users) are reducing and replacements are on a slow uptake because people don't want to replace (4 / 4S users) or the few that go off to another manufacturer. Stop fandroiding and get real here.
Re: UX - nothing very new here
Such bull here. Get online and read past your bloody nose. There are plenty of things this OS does that others don't. Anyway, QNX has no mobile interface until RIM picked it up in 2010, so no idea what you're going on about.
Anyway, even it contains elements of other OSes, you've listed the best parts (slidey buttons - why click an ugly tickbox when it's difficult to target on touchscreen when it's generally too small like on Android?). The important thing is that this is damn reliable. If the battery pull for RIM devices is a thing of the past and holds its own to act as an effective "communication" device, then it'll sell. Stuff the Android gimmicks. Open-source is it's only selling point and makes it dirty cheap. More importantly, makes the operation of it cheap.
I'm praying the launch is successful and they can show off that starting from scratch will give them back 3rd place in the market and wipe WP8 off the map.
