Posts by Waspy
60 posts • joined Friday 4th May 2012 13:00 GMT
Re: Zucky is pretty good at biz
Hilariously Eadon finds the Microsoft angle in yet another non-Microsoft story, I don't know whether to 'like' it or report it
8 out of 10 women agreed that this product is amazing
So this has only been tested it on one subject? For three months? Even Oil of Olay have a more scientifically credible approach to testing and peer review than this joker.
Re: so.what do we do....
Fair cop, for some reason I confused 20,000 for 12,000, mea culpa (in my defence I mention 12,000 above, a case of mathematical dyslexia I fear). But you've not really answered anything, the fact remains that of any papers that expressed an opinion on agw, 97% agree with a human cause. I'm simply trying to understand your position... I really cannot understand the opposition to the idea of man made climate change outside perhaps that of a politically motivated one.
We could argue forever about this but as concluded at the bottom of the article, it is generally accepted that most scientists agree with the whole idea of man made global warming. Do you know better? have you got access to information and data climatologists have not? Can you name someone credible (and qualified) opposed to agw? All I see are right- wing pundits and media outlets. Oh, and James Delingpole, a right wing pundit who has admitted that he hasn't got the time to read peer reviewed literature, despite having strong opinions on it.
Re: Anyone remember Kevin the Cyborg?
Don't see what's so veiled about it, I found the mockery quite funny, but 10 years on it seems writers at the Reg are coming to terms with the fact that someone like Kevin Warwick may not have been totally talking out of his backside after all.
I like the cynical nature of the Register, it's well informed but conservative (and has a funny tabloid-esque side to it too)...but this provides a grounded counterpoint to some of the more pie in the sky utopian articles and books on science and technology that I read. The point I am making that if something as practical and realistic as the Register is writing serious articles about this stuff then clearly we are moving increasingly towards a very science fiction kind of direction (or what would have been science fiction...it's science fact by the time you get there)
Re: so.what do we do....
ok, so you tell me why, in statistical and scientific terms why those 97% of the 20,000 papers are inaccurate? Yes, sometimes science can get things wrong and studies (and their results) can sometimes be politically, emotionally and personally be interpreted with bias. I will be honest with you; the idea that 19,400 independently conducted and peer reviewed studies over 20 years have ALL come to biased conclusions is frankly bollocks. You are honestly trying to say that 19,400 studies are, as you described it "junk science"? Let's be scientific about this, where, in each of these 19,400 studies have the authors gone wrong? Is it the data sets? Is it the interpretation? What would you have submitted for your peer review had you been asked to professionally look at each of these studies?
Re: so.what do we do....
Everyone's an expert here it seems. You seem to be saying a lot but nothing at all, clutching at straws to imagine a seret cabal of scientists in a web of conspiracy designed to convince us that carbon dioxide can cause a planet to warm up. Ever seen Venus?
Sure there is more data to gather, sure some companies and governments have sought to capitalise on the situation, but that does not mean the data is wrong or that 97% of peer reviewed journal submissions are incorrect. The only bias here is yours. You rather remind me of lunar landing or 911 conspiracy proponents, or even big tobacco executives up until recently, all invoking scientific terms and words such as Occam's Razor or 'undeniable evidence', without looking at themselves. Let's be specific here; what's more likely, there is some secret sect all scientists belong to making them lie in their papers, the measurements and weather stations are all wrong and governments are all peddling a sinister agenda...or that 20 years worth of unlinked scientific papers (and 12,000 of them) might be on to something? Hmm?
however, in the interests of balance, what kind of study would satisfy you?
Anyone remember Kevin the Cyborg?
Interesting how the usually utterly cynical el Reg seems to be taking a significantly less cynical look at true AI and all the Vinge/Kurzweil paraphernalia that goes with it. Seems a long time ago when they ran weekly piss-take articles on 'Kevin the Cyborg'. (not that I am totally defending Kevin Warwick, he's said some silly things but he used to raise some interesting issues...)
Re: boris
" 'cause he is that funny guy wot is off the telly" seems to be a worryingly real reason I've heard from others.
To be fair to him he has done more good for London than I thought he would and he does have a certain charm about him in an everyman Clinton/Kennedy/Blair teflon kind of way...but aside from the fact that he stands against everything I admire politically, I wouldn't trust him as far as I can throw him.
Posted in Review: BlackBerry Q10
Type and Go = webOS Just Type
"Type and Go is a great feature, a natural for a real-QWERTY device, and very accessible (one swipe up, and start typing). It's so obvious you wonder why nobody thought of putting it into a smartphone before."
Erm, this was seen before, although admitedly by almost no-one...Palm's webOS had this feature (called Just Type) and as you've found on the Q10, it's an incredible feature. On my Pre 3 I don't even bother organinsing apps or anything (no wobbly icons for me, thankyou very much!), just start typing and things happen.
I really, really like the look of BB10 and the Q10 in particular, it seems to take the essense of true multitasking systems like webOS and Meego and distill it into something really productive, adding in the famed BlackBerry mechanical keys (if you want) to the mix too. I already have a PlayBook, BlackBerry may well find me all in soon
Good luck...
Good luck to him, while Intel are hardly going to go bust tomorrow, they have a lot of work to do...they are near non-existent on smartphones/tablets, no one is buying into the Ultrabook brand and AMD seem to be doing lots of interesting things with powerful GPU/CPU combo chips.
Strangely though, although having not personally used one the Motorola Razr i is reported to be one of the best performing Android phones you can get batery life wise (and it's pretty snappy too as a single core...but then perhaps Intel realise the multi-core phone cpu sham better than most)...and whilst I've seen a few ads about town 've never actually seen one in the wild. Seems to be that they've solved their power consumption problems so why aren't they muscling into the phone/slab market? Seems to me they need to strike a deal with their old pals Microsoft to get included in the Windows Phone spec, cause Apple and Samsung sure as hell aren't going to start using them now.
I used to hear the "bong bing bong bong" jingle all the time years ago, I haven't heard it for ages now. Actually, maybe that's a good thing...
I went to on a visit to CERN last summer while in Geneva...
...And saw firstly the cinematic show introducing the work that goes on at CERN and then the museum across the road. Strangely the 'world's first web server' appeared to be in both buildings under exactly that label - they'd sneakily put the actual NeXt cube on display in the cinema building and the rest of it (monitor/keyboard/mouse) was in a glass case in the museum!
I'll let them off though, I wouldn't have found the place without the Web
Posted in Review: Nokia Lumia 720
Fortunes are changing?
Nokia aren't going anywhere; Elop has steadied the ship and they aren't bleeding cash anymore (see the latest quarterly results) so all they need now is to make a decent profit. Judging anecdotaley by what I am seeing and hearing around me, Windows Phone (and crucially mainly Nokia Windows Phone) seems to be gaining traction; in the past two weeks I have discovered that my 18yo cousin has a Lumia and her boyfriend has a HTC (although he is annoyed that he dropped his and it now needs repair, I laughed and said that the Nokia would not have done that). She said that they both love their Windows Phones, and can't understand why more people don't have them.
My partner has ordred a Lumia 920 as her main work phone (to replace her BlackBerry) and I have seen several Lumias out and about on public transport. Plus two colleagies of mine mentioned Lumias yesterday, one of them saw a mate use his at the weekend and now has his sights set firmly on upgrading to a new Nokia, and the other also saw a friend at the weekend who was waxing lyrical about how much he loved his WP Nokia and was pronouncing that the new range had turned Nokia's fortunes around. Perhaps slightly premature but there is definitely room for optimism.
I'm pleasd for Nokia - it's a real shame Symbian and Meego weren't taken on the path previosly set out (still love my N9 and N86, and Symbian Belle was very good), and many of the excellent hardware features are sadly missed in the current Lumias (Bluetooth file transfer/browsing, built in torch, USB OTG, sleeping screen OLED/AMOLED screen clock and message alert etc) but there is rumour that they will be bringing them to WP at some point so good luck to them. IN any case, as Andrew mentions in the article, these are far better value handsets than the shockingly awful cheapo HTC and Samsung Androids (there is an ongoing saga with the in-law's quite frankly shower-of-shit Galaxy Ace, still in contract).
I think Elop will be judged far more kindly in the future he pulls this off - for the Symbian apologists, read the Reg article about the Symbian politburo that was gradually killing the company through infighting; the burning memo was perhaps in hindsight a silly move but Elop had to do something. I hope he suceeds.
No mention if 2-step verification?
This is a brilliant tool and one i use wherever it is available. I have a monster password for my Gmail but i don't worry about unauthorised access attempts anyway because i get a text message/email every time someone tries to login from an unknown source. If more people knew about this feature there would be a lot less email break-ins, but then as AC above noted, people generally can't be fucked spending an extra five minutes tightening up their security
+1 Like
Not really a lot you can criticise our wisecrack about here...so without getting to misty eyed, thus is what technology and science are for!
Re: So hard to change habits
I had a very similar experience recently - my girlfriend, a long time iPhone user asked me one day if I'd ever heard of Nokia Lumia. I laughed as i actually had a Lumia 710 for a while (really liked it but managed to snag an N9 so decided to sell it)...she had obviously not really taken any notice at the time. Anyway, she'd been demoed a Lumia 920 by a client and was really impressed and decided she wanted one...but when it came to the crunch , she just couldn't get away from the iPhone saying “well...i know it and it's just simple and easy”.
i completely agree that it is really hard for Nokia to get people to switch...but they have gained ground because more and more people seem aware of Nokia Lumias now - a year ago my girlfriend would not have known what Lumia was (and she works in tech marketing )...it's looking much better for Nokia now, they just need people to take that last step. I genuinely think WinPho Nokia are a much better fit for people shopping in the mid-low end of Android devices, so hopefully their new lower priced models will make a decent impact
Ever heard of Kinect?
The best mobile OS in my view...
RIP webOS, I will remember thee! Actually, I can't really forget you, I still use my Pre 3 every day. Despite some missing features I just much prefer it to any other mobile OS...there's something really satisfying about swiping between writing an email, reading a website and replying to a text message so fluidly. It's definitely a case of the public not knowing what they are missing...most of them don't really understand the concept of proper multi tasking as they've been spoonfed the idea of a crappy launcher screen and tombstoning (and in iOS' case, deleting endless wobbly icons from a tray every few hours to 'close' stuff - how is that intutive?). You actually really miss it when you are using a device without proper multitasking. And then there is Synergy (since seen in Windows Phone) - just type in your account details and it pulls in all of the relevant content for that account (whether it's Facebook, Gmail or Yahoo). It's genius, and I can't believe people are still importing contacts from their desktop on rival systems. Oh and then there is Just Type, where you simply type what you want and decide what to do with the text after (start writing and then tap the message or email button...or simply search with that string). No prodding at app icons with webOS, you just get on with it.
Reading between the tea leaves, perhaps LG will see fit to trying it out on a phone in the future...but probably not. webOS joins AmigaOS as a best-in-class OS that just didn't get sold properly. A real shame.
Posted in Apple files 'iWatch' patent application
Re: And is it waterproof?
Erm...I manage just fine with my 1971 Omega Seamaster, which ironically enough shouldn't be put anywhere near water.
I'm more worried about how much of a dick I'll look with a bendy iPod on my wrist
Nice to see some objectivity
...from Andrew as always...the usual suspects like Engadget can't see past their iPhones and Nexus 4s. To be fair they didn't totally slate BB10 but they made the classic populist mistake of simply measuring up against the competition / their favourite handsets when this system (as far as I can see) offers a much more powerful way of working (actual useful multi-tasking anyone, unified inboxes?)., with all these features completely brushed over by the other tech press, which completely missed the point.
Remains to new seen if the public think these features are worth having, but in my view they don't know what they are missing...I use webOS and Meego and really like actual multi tasking instead of psuedo multitasking tombstoning which feels a bit crap once you know what true MT feels like. Plus webOS and Windows Phone offer excellent integration with services, pulling in everything for you straight from the OS instead of half-baked apps. You just don't get this on Android or iOS (unless you purely use Google services on your Android...).
BB10 seems to offer both these features so I wish them well, looks like a really nice system.
Re: Android didn't get to number one by people not standing it
That's baloney...Android is flexible and powerful but as pointed out by Andrew, it needs quality hardware to run well. Ever used a HTC Wildfire or a Samsung Galaxy Ace? I have, and they are frankly shit. The people who buy these handsets buy them because, as Andrew again pointed out in his article, Android is a known, safe choice. They have heard friends/relatives/coworkers mention Android, the salesperson in the shop bleats on about Android so they buy the crappy Ace/Wildfire/etc because as far as they know it's the best thing they can get for £15 - £20 a month. If they had the money/wanted to spend the money they would buy an iPhone because that is the aspirational handset to have.
The people buying these handsets are not "very attached to Android indeed" either...anyone who actually knows much about Android and has a keen interest in tech is going to be in the more expensive end of the shop and wouldn't touch the low-end models with a barge pole.
Unfortunately people like you assume that because something is common and sells a lot then it must therefore be the item that the customer most wanted out of all the items available - don't let ownership figures confuse you. Look at all the shit underpowered laptops/netbooks that were sold a few years ago to families that picked them up with their weekly shop from Tescos...does that mean that they all very attached to Windows indeed? How about Ford Focuses (or is that Foci?)...do you think Focus drivers are very attached to Ford indeed?
The crying shame for Nokia is that their low-end WP devices run extremely well - little to no lag, reasonable screen res (well, better than the aforementioned Android handsets anyway) and would probably be a much better fit for these £15-£20/month consumers, who just want a reliable, smooth experience with a few games to play and a browser. However the sales people don't want to push WP and people aren't talking about WP so it will never reach middle mass at this rate.
Re: Wrong tense.
Everything Andrew has said is completely right...WP8 has the potential to be a really great platform. But I am seeing the same half-hearted and uncordinated marketing approach we saw 1-2 years ago. Who are the big names in the UK that MS have signed up? Holly willoughby and James fucking Corden. I don't hate James Corden as much as many people seem to (although he is quite annoying) but this is the point - who at MS decided that James Corden was popular enough to sell their snazzy new OS? Holly Willoughby is a smart-ish enough choice, but as Andrew mentioned, with their social networking strength these phones will appeal more to the kind of young mums, young females etc and the kind of audience who watches Willoughby...but the phones are priced far too highly to appeal to this segment. It's a complete disconnect; spending £35-40 on a phone they may as well get a known quantity, one that all their mates have and get an iPhone. And that...is about the only two celebrities I know that they've signed up. All those billions and they sign up a morning television presenter and a supposed comedian that everyone hates and who hasn't done much for about 3 years.
And then there is visibility; I have seen about 4 television spots and one billboard for WP8. Microsoft should be using their mountain of cash to put pictures, videos and posters of these things everywhere but underneath the toilet seat, especially as two of their most significant partners aren't exactly flush at the moment. If MS don't pull their fingers out and properly advertise then come next year HTC and Nokia may well not be here anymore...and MS will be left all alone with Samsung (who probably couldn't care less about WP8) and themselves (if they do another 'Surface', which will surely only end one way). The whole thing is a joke.
It's a real shame but I think we're getting to the point where the band is playing...but the Titanic sinking...and HTC and Nokia were first class ticket holders
Hmm...I enjoyed S1m0ne for what it was (and it was an interesting premise) but like all Andrew Niccol films since Gattaca and The Truman Show, it looked lovely but really failed in execution...his films always seem to paint broad strokes with no detail, making them unbelievable -they always remind me of half-baked ITV dramas. Witness, for example, the fact that a man with no prior computer programming knowledge managed to get S1m0ne working in the first place...and that ridiculous scene where he organises and pulls off an entire Wembley-sized concert on his own...without anyone finding out his secret. I think S1m0ne's IMDB rating of 6.0 is entirely deserved!
Posted in Ten weird Chinese mobile phones
So this is where HP get their inspiration...
When HP revealed the near bizarre postage-stamp sized Veer last year, contrary to all signs that the market wanted giant screened slab-phones, they seemed convinced that they had conducted lots and lots of consumer research into it and argued that a phone you could lose down the plug hole was what everyone wanted. Now it seems clear that all the respondents were sWaP Nova Phone owners!
I'm sorry, but people are often just plain tight...they'll happily fork out the Apple-tax for a Jesus Phone but then claim poverty when it comes to paying for quality software. I've seen people balk at paying 69p for an application - that's cheaper than a Mars Bar and 4-5 times cheaper than a pint (depending on where you go). Unless it's 69p for an iPint, that's just 69p too much
Nokia maps are incredible...
And I can't help feeling that they've just given away the trump card. (Disclosure: I like Nokias): on my N8 and N9, the offline maps and navigation are great, so, so much better than Gmaps on my old Android...yes I know Gmaps now does offline caching but it's really rather poorly implemented: select the square of the area you want, hope you don't go outside that square while out and about and do it without voice. Whilst on my Nokias, I just select the country I am going to, download and away I go, and I have full spoken navigation with road names to boot.
Still, it's not like many people were buying Nokias anyway, still less were buying them specifically for the maps (although I think they should)
Hmm...an incredible hardware manufacturer (witness Jony Ives' admiration with a mock mock-up of an imagined Sony phone during the creation process for the iPhone) let down by a) crap software and poor implementation (my X1060 Walkman had incredible, beautiful hardware but the software, while serviceable was just weird in places...having to type http:// at the start of every address in the browser...eh?) and b) the ever litigating media arm of Sony/Columbia whatever it's called. They are the main reason Sony never competed properly with the iPod and went from dominating personal music players and home media to being a fringe alternative, all driven by their stupid DRM and the fear of users copying their music. (thankfully the aforementioned X1060 was drag and drop, but by then it was too late).
And now they are flogging their TV arm. At least the company is getting smaller, being massive with more bureaucracy than Whitehall is probably one of the reasons they are fucked.
Re: Oh and what's this?
They're a laugh over there, is that where you got your amazing sense of humour from?
Oh and what's this?
A load of predictable opportunists selling Nexus 4s on eBay from this morning.
I'm all for capitalism and that, but I witnessed the same thing when I was trying to get a firesale TouchPad last year - after a whole night of trying and failing to buy even one TP online, I went into my local PC World and was flanked by two others, a lady who didn't even know what the fuck a TouchPad was (her mate had told her 'it's a bit like an iPad but really cheap') and some other bonehead and his mate who was trying to explain to the lady 'yeah, it's like an iPad innit but not as good. But it's cheap!'. Meanwhile there was me, Palm Pre owner since launch merely seeing the opportunity to own a tablet that I'd wanted (but couldn't afford) since its release. Never got one in the end.
The point of my rambling is that it must be quite annoying for people who genuinely want a Nexus 4 for their own personal use versus people trying to make a quick buck, who in my eye are no better than ticket touts.
Replace 'home micros' with 'smartphones and tablets' in the following sentence...
...incompatible home micros successfully co-existed, each with its own ecosystem of software and add-ons. They believed business buyers would be happy with this world too.
Sound familiar?
Posted in Apple to ditch Intel – report
Count me out...
My first computer that I bought was a Macintosh, it was an iMac G4 and I loved it. I've stuck with Apple since because a) I like the hardware b) I generally like the software, although I'm holding out with Snow Leopard for as long as I can because anything Lion onwards seems to increasigly act like a giant iPad (stupid scrolling, full screen rows of icons for no real reason, locked down default behavior for external apps, no real save as, removal of hard drive icon on desktop to 'stop people getting confused' etc etc c) I'm kind of locked in to some of their profesional applications
Now the situation is so much different, and other manufacturers can tick most of the boxes: a) hardware from other companies can be just as good as Apple these days, and in some ways better (my girlfriend's Lenovo, for instance, has more than a hair-tearingly frustrating 2 fucking USB ports) b) Software can be just as useful, pretty and productive ad OS X - I've long thought Windows' Taskbar was far more useful than the crappy tiny arrows on Apple's pretty-but-a-bit-shitty Dock, and Finder compared to Explorer is something that I just cannot talk about. Then of course there is the vast array of mature and stable Linux distributions out today, all of them excellent OS's c) Like Os's, there are a number of alternatives to the pro apps I need and everything else has become over the last 10 or so years much more platform agnostic or cloud based, so the OS is even less of a defining factor these days
I'm afraid, Apple, that if you continue to turn your machines into oversized, locked down toys for clueless execs and middle-class, facebook browsing and Angry Birds playing families then I will shift quicker than you can say "Windows fucking 8"
Re: Contempt yet?
Steve made the company in his own image......wasn't there that story about how Steve Jobs sneered about Bill Gates when asked why he doen't do more for charity? I think the quote was something like "Bill is basically unimaginative and has never invented anything, which is why I think he’s more comfortable now in philanthropy than technology". And didn't Saint Steve cancel all of Apple's charitable programs upon his return in '96?
Despite what Steven Fry might try and tell people, Apple are a nasty and manipulative company created in the same vein as their nasty and manipulative founder. To be honest, Jobs seems like he was borderline psychopathic: Apple thinks it is always right because it is psychopathic!
The Nexus 4 is sold at cost or at a slight loss by Google so it's understandable that O2 want to make a bit of a profit...but this is pretty much daylight robbery. When will telcos realise that no one cares about them? - they are now simply just handset leasing and data pipe utility companies. O2 are amongst the worst offenders...O2 Priority? What? Get the network working properly, offer more than a measly 1Gb data per month, stop ripping people off with handsets they can get much, much cheaper elsewhere and then maybe we can talk about shopping vouchers.
Unlike many people I think Steven Elop had some tough decisions to make in his new appointment (see the Reg's article on the Meego/Symbian debacle). And unlike many people, I happen to think that Nokia Windows Phones are very good - nice, easy to use software (although a bit restricted for me) and rock-solid hardware. This latest crop of WP8 handsets look even better, and they seem to have generated a bit of consumer and media interest for the first time in ages (although WP8 wasn't quite the great leap forward I thought it would be, but I digress).
Why the hell then have Nokia restricted themselves to just EE and one shop? I've no idea what kind of market data Nokia have access to but I am pretty sure most people upgrade through their carriers; anecdotally, almost everyone I know has done this. The next place people may go is Carphone Warehouse. I have never heard of anyone actually putting up with the garish decor and clueless staff to buy a high end handset in P4U.
I find the whole thing amazing, Nokia even have a great price point (£20 3G is an incredible price). NO ONE IS GOING TO SEE IT BECAUSE NO ONE GOES IN PHONES4SHITTYU
I fear Nokia are finished. Or they won't be finnish for much longer, ha ha. A real, real shame.
"...a magnetometer which is aware of the direction the slab is being pointed but not it's location..."
That would be "...its location..." then
That is all
Posted in Everything Everywhere prices up UK 4G
And to think I was waiting to see what they would offer...
My contract ended last month so I was waiting around for three companies to pull their fingers out: Nokia, to reveal pricing and release dates of their new fancy Lumia 920, Microsoft to reveal the release date of their new fancy Windows Phone 8 and to allow Nokia to reveal the pricing and release dates of their new fancy Lumia and EE to reveal the release date and pricing of their new fancy 4G service...to allow Nokia's new fancy Lumia running Microsoft's new fancy Windows Phone 8 to run on the new fancy 4G network.
I'm glad I didn't bother in the end, I got a £13/month SIM only plan. Here's a note to telco, mobile and software companies the world over: when you announce something, don't wait too long to sell it and when you do, DON'T CHARGE TOO MUCH MORE THAN IT'S WORTH BECAUSE PEOPLE AREN'T FUCKING STUPID
Yawn...another ill-fated attempt by a telco to be anything to consumers but a data pipe and a phone leasing solution. Honestly, there are three things that punters care about, 1) having a decent signal and data connection on the network they choose 2) being able to get an expensive phone on loan with a 'reasonable' cost and suitable airtime/data (although getting a phone this way is marginally more expensive and locks you in for ages but people seem happy enought to sign away) 3) good customer service when things go tits up. That's it.
Consumers couldn't give a shit about anything else the telcos do, they are simply another utility, and the quicker these companies realise that this is heir fate since they bottled it and screwed up the first time round, with high data rates and near useless services (remember the awful walled gardens with shit news, crappy java games and ringtones, after the promise of 'full internet access'?), the quicker they can stop spending money on this crap. Then we might see some quality investments in the networks and cheaper contracts.
Re: How does $1.2m between 500m people
Yep, I'll get me coat...
Even HTC produce better hardware than Sammy...
I've said this before in another El Reg forum, people just buy what they know/see/what their mates have. People like to be reassured by a name they at least know if not trust and in the US, Nokia is not exactly a household name. I wonder what the response would be like in Europe? Maybe similar, but probably more for the fact Nokia has simply had it's brand tarnished for too long and everyone just thinks of them as the reliable dumb phone maker now. Which is all a real shame as what I also said in another El Reg forum were words to the effect of "Samsung punters will be disappointed with ultimately pretty crappy hardware, aside from the admitedly excellent screen". If Nokia can't pull thruogh this one it will be a major shame, not least because they are some of the best hardware makers in the business.
How does $1.2m between 500m people
...equal £0.15?
Such a shame - Meego/Harmattan/Swipe joins webOS as a beautiful, functionally brilliant and very promising platform. I have an N9 and the OS is really nice looking, with great (true) multitasking and all the email/messaging/social networking functionality built right in (so you don't need hundreds of apps). The hardware too is really good...I can't believe how oleo-phobic the glass is, it hardly ever picks up any grease or dirt. It also always amazes me how iPhone and Android users just cannot understand the need for real multi tasking in a phone (and don't really understand what true multi-tasking is)...once you have it, you tend to miss it on other handsets. Android also has a disappointingly crap approach to multi-tasking, closing things when you least expect it.
I fear Nokia had it all and threw it away...I can see why Elop took the route he did, and the brand new yet-to-be-released handsets look really nice, but they aren't traditional Nokias and I really hope it isn't too late. For me the N9 is the last true Nokia - a minimalist but powerful OS, great hardware and a great phone
Re: Iran - FFS
I don't think he is a Daily Mail reader, he has heard of Iran. The Mail rarely has time for anything else other than running articles on spurious cancer causes/cancer cures, the Royal Family, property prices and thieving rotten immigrants. Maybe Kate Middleton had some Iranian food once and there was an article on it
Whilst Sense annoys the hell out of me (although the last time I had a HTC phone I simply rooted it and put CM9 on it), it's far more usable and nicer looking than Samsung's awful Touchwiz monstrosity, not to mention the incredibly plastic-y and questionable build quality of Samsung's rather uninsiring chassis compared to HTC's solid and rather nice anodised metal bodies. I'll admit that HTC's battery life is almost universally poor when compared with all other brands, but that's never stopped people before (iPhone 3G anyone?). This is before we even get to the utterly piss-poor slabs of plastic that supposedly pass for a smartphone in Samsung's low-end range, like the Samsung Galaxy Ace that my girlfriend's mother was sold by a Three rep ("it's really good", she apparently said). Fact was that my girlfriend's mother's 2-year old HTC Desire was higher spec'd and smoother in operation (the CPU is a 1/5 faster for a start, and the screen doesn't make everything look like it was produced on a Spectrum). Mind you, to be fair, the HTC Wildfire isn't up to much either.
Anyway, I digress, the reason HTC are going down the shitter is because the average punter just buys what they are told to/what everyone else has. You can argue all you want about specs and comparable merits of this handset over that handset, and maybe 5% of buyers look at this stuff, but in reality everyone just buys what they see.
Just compare advertising campaigns of Samsung and HTC: anecdotally, I was driving into London the other day along the Westway and almost every other billboard was a SGS3/Note 10.1 ad. Whenever I go to an airport or train stations they are plastered in Samsung colours and almost every magazine I open has a full page ad in them, not to mention the constant TV spots.
HTC had an obtuse TV advert where an unknown fashion designer jumps out of a plane and one front cover of the Metro for a day. It's all a bit of a viscous circle really, as HTC never really had the marketing clout to begin with, and they certainly haven't now. It's a shame because as you may have guessed, I really don't like Samsung mobes.
Bit of a shame Mark Hurd had a wondering eye...
He seems to have had some vision...people balked at the $1.2bn he spent on Palm and webOS but if Leo Apotheker hadn't tried to 'do an IBM' and dumped Palm like a hot potato we might not have Meg Whitman trotting out the "we need tablets and smartphones to compete" line now. HP had all that 18 months ago, it's bit late for that now Meg...
Re: This brings a new meaning to...
Anyone with have a critically-thinking brain can see the safety inherent in driverless cars...but it just takes one robot car while the technology is in its infancy to set the unsure middle mass against it. I'm sure it will be fine up until people accept these things and everyone buys them in droves (they will be super safe after all), but a fatal crash will occur at some point and the question comes over culpability; who is responsible, the vehicle occupant? The manufacturer? The software designer? The chip makers? I for one welcome our new driverless overlords, but these are serious questions that will need to be considered sooner rather than later.
Also, don't expect an easy ride (he he) from taxi drivers either.
Re: This brings a new meaning to...
Typical human exaggeration of skill, chance and certainties. Statistically, you and every other meatbag on the planet are terrible drivers.
And it's not exactly going to be a Windows box running in the backseat, it will be a solid, road-tested-to-fuck embedded system with chips that are at least 3 generations behind and selected for proven reliability. Look at the aviation industry...they are still using old Pentiums because they have been used day, day out for years in other applications, the software will have been tested and logged for years with the hardware and then finally approved - the systems are known inside out. Plane crashes are rare. Systems and autopilot malfunctions are even rarer. Almost all crashes are down to human error. And so it goes with the upcoming road going 'autopilots'.
Re: Scary
Yep - whilst one may argue that some health & safety laws are there in order to counteract the threat of lawsuits should anything go wrong (and one may also argue that this culture is more attributable to the rise of blood-sucking ambulance chasers than eager bureaucrats, despite popular opinion), excavation support and temporary retaining walls in deep holes are definitely not used for arse-covering legal reasons!
Meanwhile, later on today:
"OMFG, LIKE APPLE TOTALLY INVENTED THE 4" SCREEN AND THIS REALLY COOL TRANSFER THING CALLED NFC"
Sorry, couldn't resist.
Re: Panic at El REg offices
It's a good call but they keep talking about 'lies' and 'faking', which seems a bit strong. The Verge is hardly an unbiased website...I'm surprised they have time for articles about anything other than Apple in between creaming themselves prior to Wednesday's announcement
Ah, fake shmake...
...it's just a marketing blunder is all. As the article says, the simultaion is pretty similar to the actual product (hence the word 'simulation'), but there's nothing like Twitter to see self-satisfied cries of 'foul' whenever something like this happens. Mind you, I don't recall Apple having this amount of soap-boxery when they got told to make the faster-than-light-speed downloads for the iPhone adverts look something slightly more realistic. Speaking of soap-boxes, go and check out The Verge, having discovered the camera van reflection in the video they're now going on as if they've broken Watergate to the world.
Nope, it won't stop me thinking about getting a new Lumia (especially in the light of EverythingEverywhere's potential Nokia 920/820 4G tie-up announcement tomorrow), but I wish that the 920 had the microSD slot...or the 820 had the fancy camera. Either or would do really.
