Posts by Fuzz
706 posts • joined Wednesday 25th July 2007 17:00 GMT
why?
Two questions.
1. Why would you want to sync your phone directly with outlook? Surely you sync your phone with whichever service provider outlook is getting your emails from.
2. Why would you use Outlook if you didn't have an exchange server?
Posted in Samsung Ultrabook specced up by retailer
1366x768 and a hybrid drive - yawn
not much else to say, dull dull dull. Nobody wants computers like this, they're too expensive for most people and not high enough spec for people prepared to pay that kind of money.
This kind of thing is easy for MS to solve
All Microsoft need to do is provide downloads of the correct DVD. You just go on the website, enter your product key from the sticker on your machine and download the ISO. Anyone who manages volume licensing will know that most of this is already in place for VLK customers.
If I need a copy of Windows or any other Microsoft product at work I just go to the website and download.
The thing is you can't win, I have a Toshiba laptop, it came with Vista preinstalled and recovery CDs to reinstall XP or Vista. Do I know where those CDs are? Hell no.
My Acer Revo had a recovery partition but I wanted the space back it was taking up and the Revo doesn't have a DVD burner to produce the discs so that recovery media is gone.
If both these copies of windows were available in the cloud we'd be fine. Microsoft could limit the number of downloads per key to stop abuse. If you need to download the CD more than 5 times you're probably doing something wrong.
If Microsoft don't want to do this themselves maybe they should provide it as a service to the OEMs. Then the OEM can advertise that as part of their product. I for one would make sure I only bought computers from an OEM that offered the service.
Posted in Samsung Series 9 900X3A laptop
another nearly
Looks nice, decent size, well made not too heavy.
Stupid screen resolution and really what use is a microSD port to anyone?
border
It looks impressive but I think I want to have some kind of frame around my TV. For the same reason that pictures are put in mounts inside frames it helps block out anything distracting immediately next to the screen.
Posted in Apple to appeal Italian warranty fine
Did you buy your netbook from Toshiba?
I think it is the company you purchased from who has to uphold the warranty rather than the manufacturer. In the Apple case Apple are both the manufacturer and the retailer.
wps button
I thought that wps required you to press a button on the router before a connection was initiated. I've never used it and it's disabled on my router.
Posted in China pumps CCTV into Freeview HD boxes
doesn't work on my TV
I have a fairly new Samsung set and the channels don't load, I just get a your equipment is not supported message. Also iplayer on freeview HD? I don't think this has anything to do with freeview HD really, just smart connected TVs.
If it's as tempremental as bluetooth then forget it
In my experience bluetooth mice and keyboards constant require reparing to make them work, they also suck batteries.
Wireless mice and keyboards can be bought now that operate on 2.4GHz so they work from a decent range
they require no setup you just plug in the dongle and you're off
One dongle supports a keyboard and mouse
the dongles are tiny, they can be left connected to a laptop full time without fear of damaging the USB port
most importantly batteries will last a couple of years in a keyboard and over a year in a mouse. Bluetooth is good for handsfree in the car, that's the market these people should be aiming for.
Do Hasbro think that:-
a) the kids will go out looking to buy a new transformer toy and come home with a tablet with detachable screen by mistake
OR
b) there's a chance that they can make some money on the side by forcing Asus to license the name from them.
BT catching up
The interesting thing about the report this quarter is how close BT are to that top crown for broadband complaints. It's a shame the report only has the providers listed, it would be good to know how some of the other major networks fair, O2, BE, plusnet etc.
And it will work in every device
What's that? Oh old devices aren't compatible, every new device then? Oh really, just the devices and software that have paid license fees to the consortium.
Guess we'll just stick to circumventing the bluray encryption then.
me too
I have a lot of pictures of the night sky that need printing out.
Posted in Ten... inkjet photo printers
Turned off printers
This is never discussed. I had several Epson printers because they could be bought for a decent price, you could get cheap 3rd party ink and the print quality was excellent. Every single one of those printers (about 5 over the years) had to be thrown out because the ink dried up in the heads, to begin with you can clean the heads which uses about 25% of your ink. After time this becomes less and less effective. Sometimes the printer can be revived with cartridge flush. Eventually though they all become irrevocably blocked and not worth fixing.
About 3 years ago I bought an HP photosmart C5800. I use it infrequently, have never cleaned the heads other than when the printer decides to do this itself, and it prints as perfectly as the day I bought it. It's also extremely frugal on ink. My understanding is that the ink used in cleaning is recycled back into the cartridges. I've also only ever used official HP cartridges which are expensive but offer a consistent quality.
When printers are tested in reviews the cost per page is calculated by printing a page continuously until the ink runs out. Nobody prints like this, a better test should be created.
pinning to taskbar is slightly different
In Windows 7 the buttons on the taskbar act as shortcuts to the programs and also the way of selecting open programs. If you pin a site to the taskbar then this indicator is moved to the location of your pin. It's quite useful if you use several web based applications, by default they are all grouped under the IE button on the taskbar together with any other website you have open. Selecting one with the mouse involves hovering over the button and choosing the correct tab from the ones that pop up. If you have aero glass you do this using thumbnails (peak) if you have no aero glass you are stuck with the page titles.
Posted in Asus Zenbook UX31E
I passed
I went to see one of these in the shop when they came out and passed it up. For me a £999 laptop has to be near enough perfect. A quick play in the shop told me the screen lacks contrast coupled with the poor viewing angle. The touchpad on the model I tried was poor, it seemed very unresponsive and a pain to use. I've also read reviews claiming that typing is uncomfortable due to the sharp edge at the front of the machine, I wasn't able to get a feel for this in the shop.
It's a very nice first attempt, I think I'll wait for the version 2 with ivy bridge. This is the machine that came closest to meeting my spec for a new laptop.
"They won't because they can't break the legacy link, unless they are going to give us all a free XP VM to run legacy programmes."
Like the free XP VM you get in Windows 7?
Posted in 2011's Best... Smartphones
Re: Does this even make sense
Makes perfect sense, the Lumia can't do flash because it's a windows phone not because it isn't quick. The monte carlo has flash because it's on Android but the 800MHz CPU makes flash video sluggish.
Posted in Dell XPS 14z 14in Core i5 notebook
Expensive laptop, crappy screen
One of the good things about Dell was that you could spec your laptop with a high resolution screen. I went to the Dell site to check and this machine has one crappy shiny 1366x768 panel.
I don't get it, I've never heard anybody say, "the thing I really like about my laptop is the way I can use the screen as a mirror"
Posted in 2011's Best... Cars
it is?
"...petrol and diesel are dangerous..."
Petrol definitely, but diesel is anything but dangerous. Unless you choose to drink it, rub it on your body or inhale it, it's only as dangerous as vegetable oil.
Posted in Early 2012 date for UK Kindle Fire debut
price
Check out the price of the 3G kindle keyboard in the US. $189, over here it's £152. By that logic the fire should be around £160
$12 per IP address
It's accepted that the reason you don't give back your /16 is because the cost of renumbering 65000 computers to local addresses would be huge. However, is the cost more than $12 per address because if not, that sounds like a nice money spinner for any companies given these ranges.
Posted in Turn your WinPhone into an Xbox remote
Make this work with Windows Media Centre too
I don't have an Xbox but I'd like this functionality for Media Centre, especially if there was the ability to remotely schedule recordings.
How did Google find the page?
Google follows links so is there a link somewhere to the success page?
Posted in Apple Thunderbolt Display 27in monitor
Vesa mount?
No Vesa mount, and a crappy non height adjustable stand.
Also why are all the ports on the back, surely it would be useful to have at least some on the edge to make plugging and unplugging easier.
£250 more than the equivalent Dell or HP with the same panel and a 3 year onsite warranty. It's a lot of money to pay for something that looks nice.
Posted in Java tops for hackers, warns Microsoft
updater
Updating java has loads of problems, applications that don't fully support new versions are common in the enterprise environment. Older versions of java were installed side by side I've seen computers where the update program has installed several versions of 5 and 6. The new 6 installer will uninstall older versions of 6 but not anything prior to that.
The updater is also very poor, on newer versions of windows with UAC enabled it pops a UAC request before telling you there's an update available. This happens for administrators and non admin alike. It's so annoying that I would imagine the java updater is simply disabled on most peoples computers.
Lost my custom months back
"Where it couldn’t do this, it played along nicely with whatever hardware people want to use: laptops, phones or tablets."
I used to subscribe to sky player, the forerunner to the sky go service. One nice thing about sky player was that it was integrated into Windows Media Centre. When sky go launched the media centre plugin was withdrawn. I cancelled my subscription. So I guess it's any hardware you want as long as it's on the list of hardware sky want to support.
If you sell a $540 phone at a 50% discount then of course you'll have a huge turn out. I'd talk about going, and then not bother because it was a Friday night/I forgot, just to get one to sell on for profit.
Where's your troll icon?
"No tethering"
I don't know why Nokia have chosen not to include tethering, my HTC mozart received an update last week that included it, wifi hotspot for 5 users, works really well.
"No remote desktop"
There are at least two native RD apps in the marketplace, both of which are far superior to the built in client in 6.5. Like all phone RD apps they are essentially useless on such a small screen.
"No simple way to get to the outlook subfolders"
From the email screen, hit folders then subfolders and the list appears, you can choose to sync a folder with your phone, you can even choose to pin the folder as a tile on the start screen so one click takes you straight there and the tile shows the number of new messages in that folder.
"Constantly flickering tiles (not wonder the batteries flat its always jiggling the screen)"
You do realise the tiles only animate whilst you're looking at them, they don't do it for their own amusement in the background whilst you're doing something else or the phone is in your pocket.
I suggest you upgrade to V1.5 it fixes a bad anvil related issue.
People still buy bottled water? Do they know you can get water out of the tap?
I think there should be a requirement to state this on the side of bottles. Similar to the health warnings on cigarettes. WATER IS ALSO FREELY AVAILABLE FROM THE TAP
Typical users
If your connection has a FUP of 500MB and the telco is going to charge you extra if you use more then your connection is 500MB, it's not unlimited and should not be sold as such.
Posted in HP unwraps Ultrabook
yawn, another "ultra" book with a 1366x768 screen, what's ultra about that?
Posted in Acer Aspire S3 Core i7 Ultrabook
A £900 laptop shouldn't have parts that aren't quite right, it shouldn't have a keyboard that takes getting used to or a touchpad that is next to useless or a fan that gives you tinnitus. I also don't think it should have a screen where the resolution is a compromise.
We can maybe forgive using a spinning disk (I notice the review doesn't mention the SSD cache or how well it works) but the rest of this stuff needs to be fixed before people are prepared to shell out this amount of money for an Acer laptop.
Not sure where you get that idea
My home PC has the entire drive M: shared maybe it's a pro vs home thing
That's nothing
Try a 500GB momentus XT. Before the flood price was around £80, current price £220 that's a 175% increase.
Vacuuming; not always a good thing.
No, no, no and no
The problem is not the screen size, 13" is fine. The main problem is cost.
The ASUS is £999 for that you get a touchpad with buggy drivers and a screen with 0 contrast.
All of the other ultrabooks are shipping with 1366x768 screens.
Most people aren't going to buy a 1st generation product, everyone in the know is waiting for Ivy Bridge.
The final issue is that they aren't available to buy. The only model I could find in stock near me to look at was the 13" ASUS, couldn't find any of the other offerings.
Posted in Nokia Lumia 800
Guess you don't have many friends then
Microsoft have decided (don't know why or how they came up with the magic number) that the jump to letter function only appears on both the people hub and the app list when you have more than a specific number of entries.
Posted in Nokia Lumia 800
Tethering, IE9
The review doesn't make it clear that not supporting tethering is a failure of the Lumina, not windows phone mango. I have an HTC radar at work and it support tethering just fine.
IE9 is fine on my HTC mozart, I've read in another review that the blurry fonts on the lumia are a bi-product of the screen choice.
As has been posted before, can we just get a review of Mango with all the features thrashed out and then review the phones as reviews of the hardware and additional software only.
Posted in The Great Smartphone OS Shoot-out
That's where Windows phone does well. I have 3 email accounts configured on my phone, two of them are personal and I have merged, the third is my work account and I have that separate. You can choose to merge any number of accounts into different groups each group can have its own tile. Or you can choose to leave them all separate (the default).
Thumbs up for the war games reference
Posted in Yamaha RX-V471 5.1 AV receiver
"I just wish there was a standard way of tuning in to internet radio and standard codecs. That might all exist already, never really looked into it. DNS SRV records would be perfect for this as you could just tune in to 6music@bbc.co.uk, then the stream server is located through DNS."
What about a .radio tld then the radio could scan for stations
I just managed to get in and order myself a momentus XT that I've been thinking about buying for ages. I got one at £80 for the 500GB model, it's now running at at least £160 and out of stock.
Where are they
I've had a look for the two Asus models in the UK, the 11" one is out of stock everywhere and the 13" one is on sale only at DSG for £1149 in an i7/128GB guise which is too much money.
I have an OK laptop at the moment, it's still going OK and it's not too slow so I'm going to wait until one of the manufactures comes out with something that ticks all the boxes. The Asus is almost there but I've heard reports of poor wireless performance, dodgy touchpad drivers and crummy screen. If I'm paying top prices for a laptop it needs to be perfect.
Posted in Farewell then, Sony Ericsson
You were unlucky,
My T610 is still going strong, I use it when I need to quick booting phone. Battery lasts forever, nice clear screen.
My T28 died because the flip front snapped off when it popped open in my pocket.
My T39 ran for at least 10 years and had to be replaced by the friend I lent it too when the battery had to be persuaded to stay attached to the phone with tape.
I think they went downhill after that. Never really liked my K700.
Posted in BBC iPlayer to require TV licence
Sounds fair enough to me and potentially far easier to police than any other method of watching BBC content.
SSL
Presumably this is just a simple wire tap type of filter so any comms can be intercepted without having to talk to anyone. In which case running facebook under SSL (which everyone should be doing anyway) will stop it.
If on the other hand facebook have to provide the Swedish authorities access to any data on request then it's a different matter.
This is a problem that's easily solved. What Google need to do is police the Android Marketplace more heavily, allow any app but make sure the app is safe before it gets out there. Then still allow users to install apps through other stores or manually. That way everyone is happy, all apps can be catered for and if you stick to the official market place you are guaranteed a reasonably level of security.
