Posts by Fihart 1150 publicly visible posts • joined 3 Jun 2008
The "My T Mobile" app shows data usage on a daily basis, Orange probably has something similar.
App's a bit slow to load (perhaps a hint that you should switch to EE's 4G service, ho,ho)
Mostly all it proves to me is that I use much less than I have paid for, but it's useful if you are pushing your limits.
".........a friend of mine also had his MacBook replaced under standard EU warranty rules."
Pleased to hear that Apple has caught up with the fact that they have to operate according to local law.
Of course Apple Store has always been subject to the Sale of Goods Act in UK but, apparently, not always acted accordingly. Friend complained that a few years ago he returned a defective iPod to Apple Store where he bought it, just outside warranty and the best they would offer was a small discount on a new one.
Absolutely right.
It's as if the phone, camera and laptop makers are looking to make their batteries unique so one is forced to buy a replacement from them at any price -- or, more likely, some fake from e-bay that risks burning the house down.
There is no need for this as most laptops run on 19.5 volts and many phones on 3.5 volts. There needs to be a range of standard sized and voltage battery designs around which manufacturers can build their products. If necessary by EU legislation barring imports that do not conform.
An interesting point about the glue - the issue then is how many of these devices get recycled in the way this proposes.
Sadly, most will probably end up in the unsorted trash and go to landfill where the batteries will not do the environment any favours.
Much better to make products user-maintainable -- almost every laptop I've own has long outlasted its battery and can then be used on mains power or the battery replaced if one is available at a reasonable price.
I gather from friend that you cannot use an iPad while the battery is charging -- which suggests that it is useless once the battery fails unless one is prepared to pay Apple's ridiculous price for a battery transplant.
What is the point of me recycling when companies like Apple and (now) Microsoft seem determined to prevent their stuff being maintained.
Just how hard is it to make the battery (which will inevitably die before the device) easy to replace.
Eventually this sort of corporate hooliganism will be outlawed -- the EU has started with phone chargers.
I must have world's worst netbook (Elonex WebBook that was free from Orange) but I love it.
Dumped the hopeless crippled Ubuntu version, installed XP from external CD drive. Faffed around getting drivers that were NOT on the the Elonex site.
Terrible but real keyboard still better than any touchscreen virtual keyboard I've tried.
Just the best computer format yet.
"Oh the irony. The BT HomeHub has been cited by amatuer radio operators as the cause of much radio spectrum interference, partially due to the use of ethernet over power."
Oh God, those power line adapters that BT gave out -- completely unusable as well as interfering with nearby audio equipment.
Along with the current topic which displays the technical ignorance of whoever briefed the ad agency, one has to wonder what is going wrong at BT's broadband operations.
I think I rightly laid the blame on the inadequacies of the 802.11 wireless system -- and the fact that some people who use wireless would actually be better off using an ethernet cable.
Obviously, it is not just me that is being affected by this, so I don't see why you need to personalise your comments.
Something I didn't raise, but should, is how so many wireless routers end up in the trash as tenants on "assured" shorthold tenancies are often forced to move annually and tend to dump the router on the correct assumption that they'll get a new one when they change address and supplier.
Wireless congestion in urban areas is caused by ISPs like BT giving out wireless routers like candy.
Where I live, surrounded by young singles and couples in bedsits, it isn't uncommon for me to detect anything up to 30 SSIDs -- no doubt located within feet of the laptops etc to which they are connected by wireless.
Perhaps typically, a friend's tenant had his desktop machine within inches of a wireless router, where it could have been connected by cable for better results (and less interference for neighbours).
The situation is getting critical with the advent of smartphones, as users can save by connecting via router wireless rather than 3G -- and tablets which only have wireless connection (which is usually always on, no doubt adding to the problem).
The ISPs don't help by setting the routers to automatically detect the "best" channel -- which I guess just means they avoid vying with the strongest channels nearby. This doesn't help when they are nearer my PC than our router and switch to and interfere with "our" channel (the one I found gave best reception for me).
Have had to daisychain a second wireless router -- which boosts signal -- but inevitably adds to local congestion.
The choices made when the current system was agreed must have been based on typical suburban usage and no expectation of today's popular hardware. The interference overlaps between all but three of the (up to) 13 channels means the system is approaching unusability in urban areas today.
Your comment makes mistaken assumptions about my provider.
T Mobile actually offer a good deal on PAYG data (£20 for 6 months at 500mb a month). This is regardless of phone brand.
The problem for me is that sometimes I'd prefer to carry my old Nokia, which has good mapping and is lighter/slimmer than the Blackberry despite having a bigger battery.
The best explanation I had is that because a Blackberry uses Blackberry's pipes, the SIM is set to do that and won't work with T Mobile's.
I've tried tweeting Blackberry and T Mob for answers but the above explanation, which seems to make sense, came from local Carphone Warehouse branch staff.
To be fair, my greatest irritation (among others) with Blackberry is my phone's 3 minute+ cold boot time. Puzzled that got past the prototype stage.
My every dealing with BB since getting one of their phones has left me irritated and wishing I could uncouple the hardware from their services, rather than the other way round.
As I don't think I need push email or BBM, the discovery that Blackberry rendered my SIM unusable for data in my spare Nokia phone was bloody annoying. I gather this doesn't happen with thelatest OS, but my phone runs an older one.
Blackberry are a PITA about email addresses -- tried to download a T Mobile app from BB World to my phone and it proclaimed that the (fake) email address I'd given would henceforth be my email address -- which would be hopeless if I opted for push mail at some point.
Instead downloaded app via my PC with BB Desktop -- which spent about 20 minutes faffing about with updates and then rebooted the phone twice (at 3 minutes* per cold boot !! ). But at least it didn't get into a knot over email addresses.
* Yes, three minutes to boot a BB 9800 -- how did that get past the prototype stage ?
Accidentally breached a neighbour's WPA protected router. I was using Netgear wireless adapter's interface and clicked on the neighbour's SSID and suddenly was in. Backtracked and discovered that if I flipped the Netgear interface between WPA and no security the neighbour's router was accessible. I could, if I wanted, use their internet and change settings in their D-Link (as it turned out to be) router.
This was a couple of years ago and the ISP has stopped issuing that D-Link model.
Good to know they've reformed, but it's a bit too late (especially for me as I have an older model).
On the upside my 9800, though an old model was box-fresh (replacement for one of two BBs that had gone kaput). It was a gift from a friend who'd given up on BB and switched to Apple. My next phone in 24 months time will be probably be a rather tired iPhone 4S. So out of one control-freak enviro into another.
Well, at least, with this cloud strategy Blackberry are recognising that their raison d'etre is control of users by others (including by BB).
Their diversions into the launch of very expensive consumer phones -- Z10 Z30 -- against the low cost and (relative) freedom of the Android empire was a misunderstanding of their role for which they are now paying.
I don't like the fact that my relationship with my provider (T Mobile) is mediated by Blackberry -- like I now can't easily move my SIM between phones and still use internet. May make sense in a corporate environment but it's annoying to an individual user to the point that I don't think I'll go for their hardware again (always assuming any retailer is still offering it by then).
I'm fond of the Mk 1 Dyson which I found in a skip totally jammed with congealed scraped off wallpaper -- not a task for which it's warranted. Jamming can happen with the Mk 1 even in normal use, so several more Dyson rescues ensued. As I haven't yet found any Mk 2 or later models abandoned, I assume that Dyson has fixed the problem.
Once unclogged they work well but I suspect that the main thing is the enormous motor, rather than the eye-catching swirly effect technology. The latter, combined with the Red Dwarf styling and the sheer noise of the thing has man-appeal that no vacuum cleaner ever had previously.
"The police state that because Nominet receive fees for domains, they are receiving proceeds from a crime when that domain is used for "illegal" purposes...."
I wish Police had taken a similar line with BT when they were profiting nicely from dialler programs which were infecting computers in the days of dial-up.
Today, people are still being ripped off on both landlines and mobiles (cellphones) by illegal conduct that also profits the provider -- which gets off without penalty and usually keeps their share of the loot.
I wonder if no-one writes apps for Blackberry is because Blackberry (the company) is a bugger to deal with. They seem the same sort of control freaks as Apple. What with PIN numbers and restriction of the so-called Blackberry Internet Service I'm beginning to wish the bloody thing would break (again) so I'd have to buy an Android. Mind you I'd then have to negotiate with T Mobile to unlock my SIM and credit for use with a non Blackberry phone.
I guess I'm just not the "prosumer" their delusional mindset imagines will buy the new overpriced OS10 hardware they are pushing, just as consumers, resellers and the banks desert them
Almost all US movies feature cardboard-cut-out characters, unbelievable plots, people shouting, car chases, too many resulting explosions. Mostly aimed at short-attention-span yoofs.
These days I mainly watch stuff with subtitles -- fact is Iranian, Argentinian, Mexican, Korean, Japanese, Swedish, Danish, French, Italian, Spanish films that make it into the UK market have to be outstanding to make the transition. Almost always better than the Hollywood stuff forced into Europe by heft of marketing hype and distribution muscle.
Bought a Steve Winwood CD that contained extra DVD with so-called "enhanced stereo" version of album. Played back via Sony DVD, Quad 405 Power/Pre amps and Bowers & Wilkins speakers could hear no difference.
Sadly, though some remastered CDs are definitely better for it (Doors albums which were nicely recorded in the first place) in other examples experts have merely noted that they sound louder.
I like the CD medium much better than MP3 -- better value and you get something tangible -- but trying to push yet another format onto a shrinking market is financially stupid.
....they look like bankrupting the supermarkets. See case of man who consistently, for months, told the machines that everything he bought was loose onions and (eventually) got nicked on a specimen charge of stealing £145 worth of groceries.
As you've observed, half the time they are playing up or totally blue-screened, other times not enough staff to man them so whole banks are closed.
There was a time when local Sainsb had a selection of Bangladeshi lovelies on the tills. Now I usually have to deal with machines.
Jesus, look at the disk space Windows retail pack occupies. Each iteration gets bigger and bigger. Win 3.1 came on a boxful of floppies, Win7 on a DVD.
The growth has a lot to do with added (often pointless) features obviously, but lazy coding and cruft too.
I wish I could still demonstrate how an early DOS computer could have a Word Processor and some documents all running from a single floppy disk.
On the question of whether Blackberry like my older 9800 can do internet without paying for Blackberry so-called Internet Service......
A little research suggests changing the phone's TCP/IP APN settings to include your provider's data server. In the case of T Mob you type general.t-mobile.uk in the blank space.
There are several You Tube guides to doing it.
So if BB folds or starts charging silly money to continue internet on legacy BB phones, the above might get round it.
.........." if you don't have BlackBerry services then you won't be getting internet on your Z10. I should know, I had to call EE when I couldn't access the internet and they told me BlackBerry Services had to be enabled on their end."
I wondered about that when I activated a BB 9800 given to me by a friend. Took a good 4 hours for the internet to start working and this seemed to coincide with a message from BB that my phone was now "registered". WTF is that all about ? Tweeted Blackberry but they blamed EE.
As far as I am concerned, my relationship is with EE and BB just made the hardware. If I'm paying EE for internet, they'd better provide it even if it involves fixing the hardware so it's not longer tied into Blackberry.
This is like the bad old days of BT and Deutsche Telecom when you couldn't connect a modem to their lines unless they supplied it.
With a business philosophy stuck in the 1970s, Blackberry deserve to disappear.
To take the example you cite, if the EU is meant to be a single market, the efficient German retailer with his lower prices is being artificially disadvantaged. Samsung's products being crippled prevents our German taking advantage of the common market.
However, as I recall, Levi Strauss and the French toiletries companies has been successful in blocking parallel imports by Tesco and Superdrug.
"In order to provide customers with the optimal mobile experience in each region including customer care services, Samsung has incorporated the 'regional SIM lock' feature into Galaxy Note 3 devices. "
More corporate-speak claptrap.
Move over Samsung, your phones are sold at premium prices and do not seem all that sturdy -- plus your add-ons to Android are considered naff. Now, this attempt to curb the grey market to the potential inconvenience of users.
Move over for the Chinese who have been learning from building stuff cheaply for you. The first Chinese brand to market properly in Europe with a dual SIM, plain vanilla Android, decent battery life etc for around 150 euros could clean up -- are you listening Huawei, ZTE ?
The domestic market is highly controlled, some stores even being subsidiaries of the mega corps familiar to us. But young Koreans travel quite a lot and the temptation must be to bring in stuff from cheaper markets like Singapore, Hong Kong.
This was demonstrated to me by a neighbour who bought a Sony camera in London and found she could not download the Korean language manual for it from outside Korea.
Add eats batteries so even "portable" needs to be plugged in. DAB is another example of technology that just seemed like an interesting idea -- until someone realised it would free up FM wavelengths to be flogged off to telcos.
In the end that's what it's all about.
As for more stations, we've seen how well that worked with Freeview -- so much crap programming and advertising to wade through that anyone with an alternative (i.e. downloading movies and select stuff like Breaking Bad) has given up on broadcast TV altogether.
Coming to Blackberry as a newbie last month I was struck by the extent of jargon in the Blackberry manual. Services are described only in as far as how to set them up -- no overview of what they are or why I needed them.
So I explicitly don't want to be involved with Blackberry's services until I fully grasp the benefits (or costs). I know I don't need push e-mail, and I know few people on Blackberry Messaging. Nevertheless I find I'm getting pointless Facebook notifications pushed to my phone.
Similarly confused consumers must have made Blackberry more labour intensive to support for the telcos. T Mobile know their business so we can assume that others will follow suit.
It's the end of Blackberry's retail products -- if the hardware continues at all it'll be supplied direct to businesses. If they are to be a purely service provider they'd better get their act together porting to Android and iPhone a bit better than the botched launch recently.
On internal flight to a provincial Nigerian airport. I was delighted to see how well things can go -- passengers waited in a lobby, man appears with a handcart full of luggage, passengers reclaim luggage, leave. Not all that different on a flight from Southampton to the Channel Islands.
All seemed to work, without the delay dramas, herding and bullying which are the main features of the endless Airport themed reality shows on TV. Never mind the ghastly website booking procedures, these shows have made me completely budget-airline-averse.
Good point -- people spend all that money on a cool looking iPh and then, because it's fragile and easy to drop, spoil the effect with a crap looking protector case.
New Nokias and Apple C have crap effect built in -- and no extra cost.
If they really want the chav market they'll copy the stupid protector that purports to make your iPh look like a compact cassette -- cool and ironic ? -- except that it's far too long.
....pointless emails, apparently from friends one hasn't spoke to in years, announcing that they've joined LinkedIn.
Like I care ?
I guess LinkedIn don't realise that recipients of such mails take it as a warning to stay off LinkedIn or risk irritating everyone they know.
My message to all such nincompoops -- just because the technology facilitates it doesn't mean you have to do it.
"And a development sign up process that seemed like something out of an adventure game - they didn't make it easy for people."
Similar to my feeling as a user. Up against a "our way or the highway" corporate quite willing to waste my time with apparently pointless downloads and reboots when I simply wanted to install an app from my telco.
Reminds me of a brush with Cisco's website, so gigantic and terrifyingly serious it seemed to have been designed by Albert Speer. Took ages to find a simple wireless adapter driver -- which then didn't seem to work. Vowed to stick with Netgear after that.
"Why on earth a bb7 device? You'd be paying for instant obsolescence. At least get a bb10..."
Corporates aren't adopting BB10 -- they can't be bothered to switch from the earlier OS when employees are happier with BYO (doubtless, mostly iPhones and Android).
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
