Posts by Steve Evans

Re: "...it's only since the iPhone..."

@Bc1609 There were quite a few phones prior to the iPhone which had plenty of functionality, and still had a multi-day battery life. The Nokia N series comes to mind.

You could even get Opera onto the models like the N70, not to mention removable storage and a music player.

What the iPhone *did* introduce was much shiny shiny, and the concept that just about making through a day was a worth-while trade for shiny!

Oh, and my main "feature" gripe they introduced - PAYING FOR TETHERING!

I had been tethering mobiles for years before Apple came along with it as a "pay for" feature (usually by serial cable to the laptop, or irDA). Carriers didn't care, data was data and what I had paid for... Suddenly Apple start charging for it, and carriers suddenly think "Oh hang on, we've sold this guy a data package allowance, how about we charge him for it again if he wants to use the paid for data in a slightly different way?!"

Too many people running about in a blind panic in the "land of the brave"...

"he brought the clock – a simple project housed in a pencil case – to show his engineering teacher. When the clock was seen by another teacher, school administrators and police were called in and the young man was eventually led away in handcuffs."

Given the "other" teacher and administrators were obviously complete ignorami, why didn't anyone think to ask the engineering teacher to have a quick look before they started calling the feds?

Or maybe a chemistry teacher (who I hope would be able to spot a lump of possible explosive)... Or anyone who doesn't get their entire world view from hollywood?

Honestly, it's mains powered, it doesn't even have a nice cluster of cylindrical batteries to *vaguely* represent the stereotypical 6 dynamite sticks... It's less likely to explode than a mobile phone on a cheap Chinese knock-off charger!

So who fancies sending the school a present?

http://nootropicdesign.com/defusableclock/

Re: where as android needs months to bring all their users to that update

Unfortunately Google gave other manufacturers a nice phone OS to use for free, with very little tie in... In hindsight it might have been better to have a little more control, such as enforcing timely upgrades for at least a couple of years after a phone model stops being sold. They didn't, and Android as a whole cops the bad press, when the delay is with the OEMs.

But that's hindsight for you... Reality is get a Nexus, and get updates, or go to HTC/LG/Samsung etc, and hope.

Re: Rare Bacon?

I knew that sounded a bit wrong almost before I hit submit!

But hey, it was worth it for the giggle.

Re: Suck it up, haterz

Whilst this might be clickbait, and what part of the internet isn't these days? I like to think of this article as a satirical, text based, slap of "get a grip" on all the hype swallowing/regurgitating news channels.

By God they need it!

Re: Absolutely brilliant, except the screen size

Don't worry, these things go in cycles... I'm sure the race to the tea tray size phone will soon stop, and we'll begin the race to the USB stick size again...

I for one am not looking forward to the Nokia 8210 scale devices, my sausage fingers are way to big for such toys...

/me lovingly strokes Nexus 6...

Re the Swift - I can see a big market for this phone, not bad at all!

Re: @Ilmarinen - @6x7=42

Don't blame the company, they are simply reading and obeying the rules written by HM Gov... The only reason they can avoid paying as much as you is that they are multinationals, so have a several rule books, with big holes to drive the monkey truck through. the accountants as simply doing their job.

The whole demonising of "avoidance" by the HM Gov is laughable, they're all at it with their trust funds and country houses owned by companies (so they can pass to the kids avoiding inheritance tax), and accounts on far flung islands.

If Cameron was really serious he'd start fixing the rule book instead of going for media sound bites, but then those in the houses of commons and Lords would feel it right in the wallet.

Re: I supposed that ...

It raises an interesting question... Does this mean that video/music piracy is legal in France? After all you have paid a tax which assumed you are going to pirate something on the media, which rather blows a hole through claims of "theft" and denying the right holders of their income...

(Yes, I know, I live in a dream world which is far too logical).

Re: I have an Honor 6

Software updates are always my concern, especially with Chinese manufacturers. I lose count the number of times I've become the nominated support person for some crazy cheap phone, and then battled with "Chinglish" websites in an attempt to find updates, only to find that what it shipped with is all that it ever got. Having said that, even the likes of HTC have bitten me with that on my first Android. Abandoning me with an unsupported phone less than 6 months after I bought it as a current model several years ago (which is why HTC rarely even make it to my long list, let alone my short list these days).

However, it's still interesting, and if CyanogenMod started supporting it (binary firmware blobs permitting of course), I could be very interested in recommending it to my cheapskate rellies.

Re: Ok so 10M have installed it

It's certainly "on" two of my machines, having downloaded (and eaten a chunk of my C drive), but I haven't installed it yet...

Given the nature of PR, I imagine he chose his words carefully, and I do count +2 to the total.

Re: Cover: Blown.

Gives a great excuse though... "Sorry dear, we know who you are... You must understand you can't be allowed in the building with any clothing or footwear."

Re: No substitute for a big battery

I used to think like that, but since getting the Nexus 6, which supports Qualcomm turbo charge, and the Aukey 10,000mAh USB battery (which also supports Qualcomm turbo charging), I'm rather glad the Nexus didn't have a bigger battery...

That keeps the weight of the phone down, and 30 minutes tethered to the Aukey whilst I'm having my lunch, driving the car etc, and the Nexus is juiced up again.

The USB thing looks interesting... At the moment I'm trying to find a site where they understand that converting a price from $ to £ involves a bit more than just changing the $ to a £.... *mutters*

Re: Taketh away

IIRC, the US patent system will basically take your registration fee and register it... They leave the arguments of prior art to be sorted out later in court.

In other parts of the world you have to pay for a search to ensure your patent isn't already registered, and it's actually checked to see if it's even worthy of a patent before you can actually go about registering.

You can see how the US one would be more profitable for the patent office, and the lawyers a few years later,

Re: Not much difference in distances....

I remember doing 50mph on my pedal bike as a teenager, it was easy...

Only became terrifying once I let go of the sissy bar on my brothers motorbike and had to rely on my own little brake blocks and not just stopping myself via my arm braced against his bike.

I'll admit there was probably about a second of "weeeeeee" enjoyment, just before reality and outright terror set in.

Re: Absurd map

I just checked my office... It appears 4G indoors is expected...

Odd, because we struggle with voice calls inside, and generally struggle with 2G data outside... Must be my phone... And those of all my colleagues...

It's a tricky thing to judge.

It's not safe to assume that the white hat hacker is the only person to discover the flaw, a black hat could have discovered the flaw since, or more concerning, before.

Re: Totally .... @Steve

Not a problem Peter.... I try to never overestimate the ability of people on the intarwebz to blow themselves up!

Re: Talk about risky locations..

Canvey Island wouldn't last long if all the gas storage went up... Although TBH, I'd be more worried about the other side of the river and the North Coast of Kent...

Only 1500 tons of high explosive, sitting in the river and too unstable to dare do anything with!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Richard_Montgomery

Re: Next Case...

@Andy E

That functionality might be what it does now, but it wasn't how it worked originally. So if that is indeed a true description of the functionality, and the iPhones verify both ends are happy to iMessage before each communication, it looks like the Apple engineers have moved faster than the wheels of the legal profession (who would have guessed!).

Yes it is possible to unregister from iMessage, but you need to realise you are in iMessageLand to start with. Many don't.

IIRC, the leaving iMessage option only appeared, or became known, after this fuss first started.

@Cynic 2

The difference being a BBM number is a BBM number, not a mobile number... For communication between BBM users, you can change phone, mobile number, network, country, whatever you like, and install the BBM client on your phone (BBM client available for iPhone, Android, BB and probably Windows mobile), tell it your BBM number, and you're away. It's like an email address, completely portable. iMessage is tied to your Apple account, unavailable on other platforms and is "subverting" communication which should be routed through a mobile phone standard.

Re: Dunno about other banks...

The Barclays apps (pingit, banking) bork and throw all their toys out of the pram if you dare to root your android phone. They seem to have a team who do nothing more than find new ways to detect the device is rooted... Every release seems to bring new detection which neutralises the last technique hiding the rooted state.

Which to me sounds like their data storage relies on hiding it somewhere inaccessible as opposed to encrypting it properly like a real programmer should do.

Anyway, back to the new G... Looks nice.

Re: A trick up its sleeve?

I was just about to make the same comment... As far as I can remember, every AWS system I've ever experienced has done that same "trick"... The Nissan 300ZX from the (very) late 80s for example, not to mention the Skyline GT-R.

Re: Oh well, at least you get to watch some fun TV whilst waiting for a delivery...

Actually AndyS it was about a UK TV program appearing on Amazon prime...

I chose to stick the boot in from the prime angle, which for me in the UK, is pretty poor for package delivery.

Re: I sort of agree

I feel the urge to build a much larger drone, with a trawler net hung beneath it to hoover lesser drones from the sky... Kind of like the Stromberg's submarine swallowing Liparus, although more maneuverable and with less water.

The lesser drones can then be imprisoned in bamboo cages with their cameras fixed pointing at a random note.

(Because firing a 12 bore from a UK back garden would get an armed response team kicking the door down!)

Re: wtf do you do with all the icons!

... Display them in a carousel, which orbits slightly less frequently than Pluto!