Re: This goes to show...

You do know that you don't use the camera to take screen shots, don't you?

Re: then add engine management control

You'll get to save 200 quid on your insurance, but you'll pay 300 quid to replace a lost key!

Re: Too many "exclusives"

You don't pay a premium to get AMC - it's usually included in your bundle of Cable Channels, unlike HBO and Showtime, which cost an additional $15/month each.

Mad Men, Breaking Bad and Walking Dead are all AMC shows, and were available without an additional premium to most Cable and Satellite customers in the US.

AMC, USA Network (the aforementioned Burn Notice), FX (Justified) produce some very enjoyable programming - and they aren't nearly as quick to cancel a show with a "challenging" story!

Re: 'Because copyright is an enabler for markets'

That sounds like an argument in favour of creating a Copyright Registry. Proactively register the works that you want full commercial control over, otherwise you're making the same case that a candle maker arguing against widespread electrification would have made.

There's nothing that I do today on my Nexus 7 that I couldn't do on a 7" WinRT tablet. If I could get a 7" or 8" WinRT tablet for $250-$300, I probably would, or it would at least be on my shopping list. (I probably wouldn't spend 50% more than a Nexus 7 to get one, but I might let SWMBO buy me one the next time I'm due a present!)

If WindowsRT supported Domain logins and group policy, then a locked down 7" WinRT tablet that could act as a mobile e-mail/IM/document viewer would be a very, very compelling device in many workplaces - it could replace a lot of iDevices very, very quickly. The lack of Active Directory support in WinRT is a huge flaw, because the consumer market has very little interest in a $600 13" tablet.

Re: Interesting that some still prefer inferior hardware

The iPad mini has front and rear cameras, the Nexus 7 only has a front camera. You don't need a 5MP camera for QR codes and bar codes, so you'll still have people using that rear camera to take actual photographs, but that's people for you.

The iPad Mini also has 5GHz 802.11N, the Nexus 7 only has 2.4GHz.

The Nexus 7 has a higher resolution screen, can read from attached USB devices, and is a LOT cheaper. the 32GB model with Cellular & WiFi costs $299, versus $559 for the 32GB iPad Mini with WiFi & Cellular, though if you use Verizon or Sprint, the Nexus7 isn't an option for you.

You can read and write to USB storage from the Nexus 7 for under $10, the Apple adapter costs $29.

I'm a Nexus 7 user, but I have to admit that the iPad Mini does have a slight edge in some areas. But not enough to justify a 60% price premium!

Re: Surely this is all recorded

The wayback machine contains content from late 1996:

http://web.archive.org/web/19961111191520/http://ncsa.org/

http://web.archive.org/web/19961114070121/http://www.rte.ie/

http://web.archive.org/web/19961115125255/http://www.cern.ch/

http://web.archive.org/web/19961218223009/http://www.nyt.com/

http://web.archive.org/web/19961221155400/http://www.latimes.com/

http://web.archive.org/web/19961221203254/http://www0.bbc.co.uk/

http://web.archive.org/web/19961223185720/http://www.times.com/

http://web.archive.org/web/19961222060658/http://www.guardian.co.uk/

http://web.archive.org/web/19961224082642/http://www.irish-times.ie/

They're just some websites that I figured might be in the archive, listed in the order that they first appeared - I really didn't expect to see RTE pop up there so early, but maybe I shouldn't be that surprised - there was an underground "RTE to Everywhere" project distributing audio files of RTE news broadcasts on the web as early as March 1994!

I think it would be fairer to say that the web overtook Gopher - Gopher hadn't failed, it was still growing when the Web turned up and left Gopher in the dust.

Gopher had point and click clients before we had graphical web browsers, but it was much more about content and organization, rather than presentation. HTML gave more control over presentation.

Form over function - some things never change....

Re: Whaaaa?

Most of those "no-name" tablets are bought solely on price, and the people who buy them either say "what a piece of crap, I should have bought a [insert brand that all their mates bought]" or they say "it's not bad, but I'll probably get a [insert brand that all their mates bought] soon". They don't seem to be establishing any sort of long term brand viability, yet they aren't doing much damage to the notion of tablets as useful gadgets, so many of those customers will end up with a better known brand, sooner rather than later.

That makes it quite a bit different from the airliner or car market. (Apart altogether from the fact that Embraer and Toyota aren't exactly unknown brands in their markets).

Given that you can't access Amazon Instant Video on the other major tablet platform (Kindle or iThing only, no Android), I wouldn't expect to see a big red button with and N on it anywhere on this new box.

This isn't "IP TV", it's "Netflix from Amazon". They're competing with that BluRay box, not with your cable company (at least not directly). The vast majority of the customers for this service will keep paying $50 or more a month to their cable company for the sort of TV that they've grown up with, and still think they want/need. Maybe some will cancel the $15 for HBO/Cinemax, and spend it in Amazon instead.

The cable companies response to services like this is to include Video on Demand, including some free "catch up" services, while charging $15/month per set top box, and $5 for movies (on top of the $50 they charge for the actual cable TV service).

But as long as the cable companies provide the best option for reliable high speed broadband for most customers, Amazon and Netflix aren't going to aggressively compete against the cable companies. There'll be some "cord cutters", but the average user is going to get Netflix or Amazon in addition to their Cable TV package, not instead of it. When of if the cable companies feel the competition is getting too hot, they will just charge more for broadband, and make their TV offerings cheaper to compete.

The interesting aspect of this hardware that gives Amazon an edge over Netflix and your cable company, though, is Music. If this allows SWMBO an easy way to access the "free MP3 library" that Amazon gave her for buying all those CDs over the last 10 years or so, then hooking this box up to the system in the living room might become hard to resist.

Re: Cancelled shows

He meant "pick them up" as in "pick them up and make new episodes".

Re: Usless Ligislation Thats not Enforcable for Most Businesses

I guess he better hope his business doesn't grow - even 5% growth would put him in the tax collection category within a few years.

Re: Long live...Die poor.

If you purchase a car out of state, you'll be charged your home states Sales Tax rate. If that wasn't the case, a state like Delaware would be completely paved over with car dealerships catering to NY, NJ, PA, MD, VA, WV and DC car buyers, and there wouldn't be a new car dealership within a 5 hour drive of the state.

At $1K-$3K in taxes per transaction, the States sorted that particular issue out a long time ago. (I have no idea what Delaware got out of the deal - though it may simply have been that other states refused to register cars bought in Delaware, which tends to put a damper on customer satisfaction).

Try registering your brand new out-of-state car without showing proof that you've paid your Sales Tax/Use Tax to your home state if you don't believe me.

Re: A small article about the investors dumping ms stock...

Yeah, dumping it after a 2 day rally that set 6 month high prices, leaving the current price still marginally higher than it was a week ago.

If you need an analyst to tell you that the outlook for PC sales is gloomy, I'm not sure why the fact that you're dumping stock matters.

Re: Price point

I use my Nexus 7 a couple of hours a day, most for browsing a couple of news sites, e-mail, e-book reader, listening to some foreign radio stations in the background, and playing a couple of time-water games. I have maybe 5 or 6 apps that I use every couple of weeks (an RDP client, WiFi analyzer, web-cam viewer, a DVR control), and a few dozen that I've only used once or twice since I installed them, but keep thinking they might be handy some time.

There's absolutely no reason I couldn't be doing all of this on a Win8 7" device (can I play music/stream radio in the backround while running a different foreground app in RT?). But I have zero interest in paying even $1 extra for an Office RT license - it has absolutely no relevance to my use of a 7" tablet. I can't imagine that there is any great demand for any kind of Office Suite on 7" tablets.

A 7" Win8 tablet might be Microsoft's best hope of getting wider acceptance of Win8, but they have to get their heads out of their arses and recognize that they are competing with the Nexus 7 and the Fire HD - and that means a $200-$250 price point. And that Amazon and Google set those ground rules a year ago. You have some chance of competing on function - if you prefer to compete on form instead, and go for an iPad Mini price, you're wasting your time and ours.

That's the oldest _printed_ book - there plenty of older manuscripts that were written out by monks up and down these islands.

Re: Opera

Tabbed browsing was available in a browser called InternetWorks, part of suite from O'Reilly's Global Network Navigator. This was a year or two before Opera was released to the public.

Re: Cork city - population 119K

Co Cork has a population of half a million (I know, it surprised me too!), While some of these are as close to Shannon airport as they are to Cork airport, if the services were there, ORK would also serve South Kerry, South Tipp and West Waterford. (Waterford City is 50 Km closer to Cork than Dublin, but the driving time is the same).

Re: Change of Use - EMCs fault

He didn't ask anyone to pick up the tab to rework the transport for them - he is quoted as saying that getting more hi-tech firms into the area might generate enough additional demand that the commercial airlines would actually start to use the already existing infrastructure!

The airport is already there, it's just badly under-utilized. For flights to Dublin, there's competition between a 2.5-3.5 hour drive versus an hour at the airport, 30 minutes in the air, and and hour to get from Dublin airport to wherever it was in Dublin you really wanted to go to - Cork isn't quite far enough from Dublin to make that route commercially attractive.

It's 260 Km from Cork to Dublin. The train takes 2.5 hours. It should only take 90 minutes. That would be the best solution for Dublin to Cork traffic, but it wouldn't address the need for US based businesses traveling to Cork - that really does need better DUB-ORK, LHR-ORK or NYC-ORK links. (SFO-ORK probably isn't likely to be on the cards any time soon!)

Re: Alternatively

Actually, a private "Air taxi" service between Dublin and Cork might not be such a bad idea, given the number of tech firms that might take advantage of it.

Re: Maybe the government might get the hint

Last I checked, Governments have been getting out of the business of running airlines. If RyanAir and AerLingus don't think they can make money flying in and out of Cork Airport, I'm not sure what you think the Government should do about it.

Re: Bus Deregulation can work case study = AIRCOACH.ie...

Aircoach charges EUR7 to get from the Airport to Dublin City Centre, versus EUR 2.80 to get Dublin Bus on the same route.

Aircoach is a great service for getting between the airport and most major hotels in the Dublin area, but it's hardly an argument in favour of Bus deregulation - for a start, it's managed to be successful without Dublin Bus being regulated.

Re: Boo hoo

Just because the public are interested in it, doesn't mean it's in the public interest (and vice versa!)

"increased options is demonstrably better for consumers"

That must be why US customers who have to choose between GSM and CDMA providers get demonstrably better deals than consumers in the rest of the world, who only have GSM providers to choose between?

Re: Don't blame Apple for the price drop

"from just shy of $800"

52wk Range: 419.00 - 705.07

(according to an! extensive! search! that! took! about! 12! seconds!)

Re: google won't care

Users who frontload ABP are in a minority too - it's not exactly the first thing that the Man on the Clapham Omnibus installs when he gets a new Android phone.

Tabs across the top, when your screen is so much wider than it is tall?

Your tabs belong down the side, where space isn't at a premium, and then they don't have to accordion into one another!

Re: How to ensure failure?

There is no 28% premium - the Euro price includes VAT, the US price is before Sales tax.

$499 + 20% VAT =EUR450. At 23% VAT, it's EUR459.

If you used the exchange rate from mid-November, the Surface RT would actually be cheaper in Europe!

( $499 * 0.7834 * 1.23 = 480.82)

Re: Advertising

They call it the CALM Act - it was supposed to come into force a couple of months ago.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commercial_Advertisement_Loudness_Mitigation_Act

Re: Pardon me

He hasn't been convicted because the Home Secretary didn't extradite him. If he ever falls under US jurisdiction, he could still be prosecuted (and would presumably be convicted, because he has admitted responsibility for the intrusion, and the law is an ass). A pardon would put an end to that.

Re: WTF?

There's no such thing as a "forward slash" - just slash and backward slash!

Re: probably won't notice

My wife constantly buys DVDs - most of which are only ever watched once (and sometimes not even that much!), and then they gather dust. Maybe if we had kids who watched the same thing over and over again, but we'd be financially far better off if I could just get her to "rent" what she wants to watch, even if it meant paying 2 or 3 times for stuff that she theoretically wants to watch again (but never does).

I'm not entirely innocent - I have a couple of dozen movies that I've recorded because "Oh that was a good movie, I should watch that again", or "That movie got good reviews - I should watch it some time". But we needed a new hard drive in the DVR anyway :-)

Re: Refuelling geosynchronous satellites.

Once in place, the satellites only need relatively small "nudges" to maintain position, or to start moving in the direction of a new location, and then a few small nudges to slow down and stop once they get to the new location. So it should be possible to attach small, impulse devices to the outside of the satellite, with it's own small fuel tank. That's what I understood the references to the nickel fabrication in the Micro G Foundry was about - the Dragonflies would be able to build relatively simple impulse engines and fill them with fuel, which could then be attached to existing satellites.

Re: BYOD?

SShhhhhh!!!!

You don't want people to think that you're not cool, do you?

Re: Netbooks destroyed Windows?

I think you'll find that it was Intel that was forcing OEMs to limit netbook specs, not Microsoft. OEMs didn't have to put Win7 Starter on their netbooks, but that was the market they thought they could make a buck selling to.

Re: Top gear franchise

Has anyone checked the schedule on BBC America recently? Today there's 5 episodes of "Law & Order UK" (less than 40 episodes made, so they could show the whole series in 2 weeks at that rate, even if they do something else at the weekends), a couple of hours of BBC World News, an episode of the Graham Norton show (at 9AM!), and episode of Dr Who, an episode of Battlestar Galactica, 4 hours of Gordon Ramsay and 8 hours of Top Gear. Oh and they stick and hour of "childrens programming" in between the BBC World News and Graham Norton at 8AM.

Really top class stuff - the America media execs must be really shaking in their boots that ordinary Americans might discover what they've been missing.

Not!

BBC America occasionally (maybe 5 or 6 times a year) carries some quality new show that's worth watching. But if I had to chose between $1.50/month for BBC America and $5/month for USA Network or TNT or AMC, I'd pass on BB America. Top Gear is amusing, but it's just fodder - nobody actually stays home to watch it.

The vast majority of PCs running XP came from Dell or HP or some other large OEM. And from 2006 on, most of those boxes shipped with XP Media Center Edition.

So you could argue that the boxed version of XP Home was a "lower end" version than XP Media center edition!

Re: The news will be a blow to users with hard drives full of Word docs...

Does anyone else miss the days when articles on a tech website were written by people who actually understood what the hell they were talking about?

Re: Smart tv's run Android

And in 3 years time, when developers are writing apps for Android 7.2, where are you going to get apps for your "Smart TV" running Android 2.1? Unlike a phone that gets replaced every 2 years or so, a TV is likely to be taking up space in your living room for at least 5 years, and probably longer for most people.

Having the "smarts" built into the $800 TV is dumb. It makes more sense to have the smarts in an add-on box.