Re: "Microsoft honcho pleads with media: 'Stop picking on us!'"

>"Just try something like OS X or Linux Mint and you will find out that others are lightyears ahead."

I have, and I look at each one as a tool. I use Linux on a lot of my systems at my office, especially for CPU-intensive tasks. I don't use Mint much - I've been using SUSE and openSUSE for many years. And I don't currently use OSX, although some people in the office bring their Macbooks and we have to support them. But really, Win 8 is a very fast and robust system - I've installed it on a couple of workstations and I'm quite pleased with it. I use Classic Shell and hide all the Metro stuff - don't really see the need for Metro stuff when you are using multiple monitors on a desktop.

Re: "Microsoft honcho pleads with media: 'Stop picking on us!'"

>"And my start menu back - can't use classic shell forever!"

Why not? Works for me. In fact, Win 8 with Classic Shell is by far the best Windows experience I've ever seen.

Re: Irony alert

Seems that this couldn't happen to a more deserving bunch of folks.

Wait till they get sued for their ugly fake stitched leather effect - I'm sure someone in Taiwan already has a patent on that one.

Re: Oh, dear...

>"It could be the best OS ever - but 'Wheezy'? Whoever thought that one up should be shot. Tragic."

Google searches prior to posting can help keep you from looking supremely stupid. You should try it sometime.

Re: On the other hand.

Or - it could mean that the market is now saturated with a wide variety of products that equal or exceed anything coming out of Cupertino, and at a lower price.

Re: Let's see....

@Re: "Let's see.... Chrome book? Try it without network availability. May as well crash."

You are so right - if you are still living in 2011.

Chromebook has over 600 available off-line apps and counting: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/category/collection/offline_enabled?utm_source=chrome-ntp-icon

Re: The difference...

@Neil - but don't you think that ten thousand security flaws are going to show up and (hopefully) be squashed between now and launch - just like other computing devices?

And post-launch - don't you think Google and others will be looking for bugs and potential hacks and trying to fix them? Just like other computing devices?

I'm quite certain that these eyeglasses will eventually be hacked to death, and people's entire lives will be stolen out from under them - just like with Android phones and iPhones and every credit card on earth. But I highly doubt that this one hack survives without being addressed all the way up to the date of the consumer Glass launch.

Re: Like antone cares

But he's right. It should be bigger.

And why Apple can only make one phone at a time is beyond me. If they would make one with a keyboard, I might actually look at it.

>I'm guessing watermarking will become much more common."

...and watermark removal software will become extraordinarily popular...

Re: Useless for business, OK as a toy.

7" is OK for watching a video or as an e-reader, or for playing Angry Birds or Fruit Ninja. It's total crap for editing a long Word document, reviewing a spreadsheet, or editing Powerpoint slides.

Re: not sure but

Bodies on land are 60% consumed by maggots within 7 days (http://science.howstuffworks.com/body-farm1.htm).

Bodies in water only take half the time to decompose.

So - within 3 1/2 days the body would have been unidentifiable without dental records or some other form of ID.

Clearly, the death could have happened after the bombing.

Re: 'helluva' lotta rubbish!

>"About 10% of family and friends I know have a legacy scanner that won't work on Win 7. Around another 10% have a legacy camera or webcam that also won't work."

WTF does that have to do with all the "advanced engineering and medical device" hardware/software incompatibility problems you laid out earlier?

Idiot. And more than half of that shit works on Linux by now anyway.

Complete Fail.

Re: Surging iPad sales?

@Si 1 - "iPad sales are up 27%, sounds like a surge to me."

Not when the entire tablet market is up 117% - http://desktops.cbronline.com/news/tablet-shipments-increase-117-in-q1-report-240413

iPad is down to 48% of the market from an earlier 63%. When whitebox tablets are included, Android is at 52%, iPad is at 41%. While the iPad sales increased 27%, Android tablet sales increased 177%.

Re: @Tom

>"No it is not, it won't get back game saves, text messages, list goes one. If you use multiple app stores, I use Amazon as well as Play (they banned me from paying for apps, long story, http://furbian.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/my-google-walletplaycheckoutwhatever.html ), then you can spend a good amount of time working out which apps that you had purchased (even if free) were installed and which ones weren't."

So -- basically, for those of us who have NOT been banned from Google's Play Store, syncing across devices is a one step process. For Furbian, not so simple.

Got it. So your message is - don't get banned like Furbian?

Re: @Tom

>"Music, no (but by god that would take years on 3G for my 40Gb of music on my S3) but everything else, yes. I've done it several times. All my music is stored on SD card anyway."

You might want to check out Google Play Music. Its a fantastic way to get a couple GB of music files off your phone.

Re: @Tom

>"Are you sure? Do your texts and pictures migrate back to the phone. Does it restore and re-install all the apps, their settings and info? Does it also restore saved music and accounts for non-Google stuff (like Exchange / Dropbox)?"

So -- you gave Apple your passwords to DropBox and Exchange? Does your corporate IT dept know about this?

Re: Nothing puts me off a film more

>"The Anons here have NOTHINGTODOWITHANONYMOUSWHATSOEVER!"

Read what I said. I was referring to Anonymous -- the guys who are wearing orange jumpsuits because of their DDoS attacks with the Ion Cannons -- not AC posters on El Reg.

Re: Nothing puts me off a film more

>"I can't believe anyone would ever say 'Shit we SO need to get Tom Cruise for this role."

Yeah - why would any Hollywood studio execs want the star of the $2-billion-plus mega-series Mission Impossible in their film? Plus other massive money makers like Top Gun, Rain Man, Last Samurai, Jerry Maguire, A Few Good Men, etc etc etc. Love him or hate him, Cruise has been a top money maker for the big studios for 3 decades now.

Besides, you are way behind the times with this line of attack. Your other Anon buddies are all busy ineffectively DDoS'ing Israeli websites, when they aren't ratting each other out to prosecutors and headed off to prison. Didn't you get the memo?

Re: Hey MSFT, we don't care!!!

>"Windows 8 is what is lining the waste treatment plant near the M40 in Slough. It is brown, yucky, smells/looks bad and is devoid of use."

Clearly, you have no clue how to properly set up and administer a computer system. If you MUST use Windows, Win8 runs circles around older versions. Unless you dislike speed and stability.

Re: MS still chases Apple's tail lights - IN VAIN

Wait - people still use iPods?

Crazy!

Re: Dear Microsoft

@Eadon >"@JDX - MS hired developers and they made Windows 8. Be careful what you wish for..."

And Ivo Beltchev and friends created the open source project Classic Shell, and gave you back your beloved Windows 7 start button and themes.

Happy now? Why anyone would forego Win8 and its fantastic system speed and stability on a Windows machine is beyond me. Unless you don't need Windows - in which case you would have to be even stupider not to put Linux on the system.

Re: PLAGUE OF AC's

Agreed Eadon - I'm tired of all the AC's spouting factually incorrect garbage. About 40-50% of the posts are garbage these days, because AC's don't have to back up their arguments. Really don't see a reason not to at least register - takes half a second and they could pick any random name. In fact, there are some registered users with the word "Anonymous" as part of their name - what's so hard about that?

Re: Kobo has already been where the smart shoppers have ended up.

>"Why would anyone need a PC or Calibre? Only pirates of course. So what you are saying is: "I appreciate that Kobo let me import my pirated EPUBS, but I wish they made it even easier".....

Obviously you have never been a NOOK owner. You should think before you speak.

Re: uhuh

>"between 5 & 100? No minimum speed? I also note the poster DIDN'T say "stop on a 12 lane highway".

You obviously haven't spent much time on California's interesting road system.

Oh - and, pull over to the side? What side? You mean the 6 inches between your car and the construction zone (that has been under construction for the past 20 years)? Yeah, that's going to work out real well.

Re: I always use my phone for Google's GPS when I'm in California

>"Not to make it sound black and white, but you are the one in control of the x tonne vehicle capable of doing serious amounts of damage, it is your job to stay in control of it."

Never had an accident in 30+ years of driving, so your implication that I can't control a vehicle is a bit absurd by the simple evidence. Save that talk for your 16 year-old child.

My point is that there is a sane way to design highway systems, and then there is the California way of designing highway systems. At some point, nearly all drivers on those freeways are going to have to check a phone or a GPS or a map or a printed set of directions, and even then you are likely to miss an exit or misunderstand a highway intersection. I think one poster got it right - this is not about highway safety, this is about cops trying to raise a few extra bucks for their debt-burdened municipalities.

Re: I always use my phone for Google's GPS when I'm in California

>"In the UK it's called filtering and it is perfectly legal. When you say it "distracts" you, do you really mean it pisses you off because the biker isn't stuck in the traffic jam with you?"

No, I don't mind. Anyone that can get through the parking lot that is LA rush hour traffic, more power to them!

>"Make sure you signal and check your mirrors and blind spots before changing lanes and at least you can be more certain you won't be the one doing the killing."

I DO check - worries me a lot, the way they suddenly pop up on you. No - I'm worried I'll see one get killed right in front of me by someone who doesn't check their mirrors. Some of the bikers move at a reasonable pace between cars, but some are flying right along and would end up eating a lot of concrete if someone suddenly turned their car a few inches.

Re: I always use my phone for Google's GPS when I'm in California

>"In this case, the driver was specifically holding the phone in his hand."

But that's the problem - when I go to California, I'm in a rental car - I don't have a GPS holder on the dash. If I need to look at the GPS on the phone, I've got to pick it up in my hand, or find some spot by the cupholder where it will sit with a good viewing angle.

But if the California cops are so ticket-happy that they are pulling over people simply for having a phone in their hand, they should also go ahead and pull over all the people driving to work eating donuts and drinking coffee and putting on their lipstick (male or female), and smoking pot for that matter - plenty of that happening on the California freeways.

What really distracts me is all the motorcycle drivers who are allowed - by California law - to drive on the lane stripes in between cars. I'm always certain I'm going to end up seeing one of these guys getting killed someday.

Re: It's because Americans pay the same on a long-term contract no matter the phone we buy

>"Where can I get this VAXFONE?"

EXACTLY what I was thinking!

I want a phone that runs its OS on magnetic tape.