Posts by Piloti

But China Mobile's half-billion customers

Half a billion, or 500 million : there is a difference yo know......

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Lite off ?

Actually, it has pulled the Skype lite, which runs on Symbians as well, such as N's and E series devices. But no current replacement, whicvh means migrating to Fring or other and maybe not using the skype sofware again.

Silly move from Skype.

Oh well............

Korean tat thins time, rather than Chinese tat.

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Requirements...

This process put the onous on the internal reqiremetns capture process. As long as all the buyers requirements are captured, fully scoped and understood, then the auction process is fine.

And in answer to the second post [@Dennis O'Neill] the 'aution' may only have lasted an hour, but the council will have, should have, spent the weeks in advance doing their prep' work.

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Surely the answer is.....

.... to seperate out service from hardware ?

Let the user buy their devices un-latched and then make the networks actually provide a 'service'. This would have the added advantage of providing some incentive to the NOCs to actually improve their service..... if not, the user can whip out the sim and shove in another.....

Subsidy ; the dirth of service.

Tony, are you 'avin' a larf.... ?

"" It's also arguably the first true information appliance. "" .....

I'm sorry Tony but, this time you are barking mad.

Utterly. The Ipad is a me too product treading the evolutionary path laid out before it and is, arguably, a colour Kindle with some bloatware......

If I dd not know better, I would sware you are on the fuity payroll with comments like this.....

I am huge fan of El Reg [and HW Reg] but there is a huge amout of tripe comign from Reg towers about Apple / iphone /ipod blah blah blah.....

If yo really love the ver hyped paper weights so much, give them a microsite of their own, and stop filling Reg's otherwise fine pages with this turgid drivel.....

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How big did they say.... ?

It does make me wonder why we have to keep updating our 'office' software.

The pen and paer has been for a while, so why must we 'upgrade' our office package just becuase MS needs a little more cash ?

Balls to it.

Take Open Office for a spin ?

May not have the superficial gloss of MS, but, well, it works and it is free........

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More Chinese rubbish.....

When wil people learn, just becuase the shininess quotiant is high does mean you should buy.

More and more Chinese rubbish coming our way. We all jump up and down when we read the 'China / Google ' attacks on the Reg', but as soon as something 'pretty' comes your way, you drop to your knees like a Reeperbahn prostitue.

Shame on you all for coverting the shiny things.......

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I seem to recall.....

..... some chap buying a machine from PCWorld or some such place and declining the 'licence' option and getting a refund.

Is this still not a current state of affairs ?

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Oh really....

Nothing is 'unbreakable'. And for the reporter to have to resort to """repeatedly smashed the device onto the tank’s corner. """ to break a mobile 'phone means that, in normal day to day work, this should be a pretty tough old beast.

One nil to the 'phone in my humble view......

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First thinki I thoughts of was ....

... the Acorn Electron.

I had one and it was superb.

$100 seems a bargain to me, even with on half a G of ram.

I assume the HD is at least 40G in which case, bargain.

I also assume that the other $100 we pay for netbooks goes to wards some sort of screen.... ?

I'd buy this, quite happily.

Probably less likely to get nicked as people will think it i just a keyboard!

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Desk top or Cloud.

Desk top, everytime.

I think most users have no idea what the cloud is until they have no access to a web connection, then the questions start 'where is my mail, why is not 'on my computer'...

Cloud is ok as a back up perhaps, but there really is no substuture for actually having your email on your machine....

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Lee and Perrins.....

"" New special sauces claimed by BAE for the Mantis include....""

hot'n' spicey, chilli rush and super spicey I assume....

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@ AC4 : 1455GMT

You know, that never occured to me.

Are they a subscription thing or a one off ? Being network based it would not surprise me if they were on a subs... which means most people who habve them probably don't even realise they are paying for them....

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Maybe in America....

"" We all know that when you drive around, coverage isn't very good... "", but not in Blighty.

Tut, pah.

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Mandriva 2010...

.... and according to this [ http://www2.mandriva.com/linux/features/ ] they have packaged mobile as the Window Manager as well.

KDE4.3 and Moblin : two great options.

Just WHY would anybody spend ££££££ on Windoze 7 from MS ?

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I still don't really see the point.....

.. of carrying around something with a bigger foot print than a netbook, a small screen, less privacy and seems more likely to be damaged than a netbook.

From a nostalgia point though, i love the all in one idea. Takes me backl to my Electron [ i know, no screen] then the keybaord was the computer.

Wasn't there a Wang or Apricot or something like that that had a built in screen int he keyboard..... ?

More cheap Chinese toss.....

Part of the problem is that it looks ok in the surface, might even last a few months, but frankly, there is no substitute for quality.

Almost all Huwaei product is shoddy, plastic toss and for T-Orange to be asking for £180 is shameful. This is Kellogg's give-a-way item, or maybe should be gracing the inside of a Happy Meal box.

Atheists take a different view.....

of the view that 'religion is reasonable'. [ Some of the code’s more reasonable points include a warning not to use your phone inside places of worship or while driving. ]

The driving bit yes, but where better than a place of worshiup to use a mobile ; there not a load of other people chunttering away in the back ground making hard to talk.

And as for 'don't use a ring tone that will annoy' does that mean every mobile should be on silent from now on ? Oh I bloody hope so......

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Old Stuff....

I have a Psion 5MX. Still works, still does the job and still lasts several days on a pair of fully charged AA's. I use my Nokia e65 to access the web , becuase the Psion just can't, but other than that, Psion is the biz.....

Some quick maths....

.... tells me that the lowest monthly cost is £34.26 which is the 24 month option, followed by £34.71, which is the cheapest 18 month option. So basically over £600 quid for the a device tied to a network for which you will pay over the odds for roaming, may not get an unlock code and will probably spend as much time shouting about the crappy data network, [See Reg passim] , so my advice is : head to a Nokia shop, buy your own SIM free device, then shove a SIM of choice in it : Three UK currently the cream of the crop with lots of free skype to boot.

02 should be embarrassed by these numbers....

Bugger windows....

.... go with Linux.

Then you don't need VT as WINE will do the job IF you should want to run XP stuff.

But if you are running Linux, WHY would you want to run XP stuff anyway ?

@Benny....

There is a small and subtle point here : it is the Janus faced attitude of companies like facebook that really is the epitome of the cynical internet generation.

Your assertion that they are not actually asking us to /do/ anything is accurate, but mis-placed.

Laudable and altruistic endeavours like Boinc and Folding have one purpose : to resolve / understand something.

Face book et al have the ambition of driving advertising revenue.

Advertising is, frankly the bane of the internet, the scourge of the web', the most banal form of communication there is. Facebook does not have a product, it does not exist as an entity, and yet, on the back of advertising, it is worth something. And its assets : the user names and profiles of every moppet and toadying lackey who signs up and logs in.

Running these 'win-tel' applications only through facebook shows the value of giving away rubbish to entice the stupid, to filter web banners and email spam at them who, in turn, think the targeted marketing is, truly, the future of intellectual discourse.

Benny, you ARE a Benny.

Good bye.

Upgrade ?

The thing that troubles me about all of this is the word 'upgrade'. Certainly in the UK, think of the usual consumer user : buy a laptop, wait two years for windows to be well and truly f&^%$%^%$%!!!d , hand it down, buy another.

People ted to stick with what they have, having spent £500 plus in the first case, why another £50-150 just to make it work ? I dont see it happening.

AS for Linux; well, Linux is far superior to Windows, and probably to W7 as well. Currently, the restrictions in W7 suggests that W7 will be a bag of spanners, where as Linux is restriction free. The only problem Linux [Mandriva, Ubuntu, Suse et al] have is that the hardware people don't like to put Linux on too often so that MS don't stop them putting n the cash cow top price machines. The thinking being Linux is ok for the cheap stuff, MS for the pricey stuff. Flawed logic in my opinion, but, none the less, probably not far away from the truth.

For me, I still won't be buying a W7 machine, I will stick with what I have, Mandriva, and all will be fine.

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WOTF?????

"" The cash is earmarked for schemes that could help the UK car industry out of the current crisis and eco-friendly car development projects ""

Just remind me, /which/ UK car industry are we talking about ? Indian owned Jags and Landies, possible russion backed Vauxhall/Opels, Malay owned Lotus.

Ah yes, former Tank builder Ariel and TVR.... no wait , TVR don't even make cars here any more .....

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National Gallery is....

.... correct.

On this I stand with the Gallery. Just because he feels like posting and wikipaedia are happy to post, does not make it correct.

Sue the SOB and wikipaedia for not pulling them.

Mandriva as a desktop....

.....beats the paps of XP and Vista, no doubt.

I've been using Mandriva for around 18months on my home laptop. Works like a treat.

Would recommend it without a shadow of a doubt.

AS for the usb stick, well, if you already have Mandriva there is a 'save as a bootable....' option, but you still have to buy the 8gb stick to put it on ; £15 for the usb and 25 for the 'ease of having it done correctly...', is perhaps not a bad return.

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@Will 22

Have to say, agree 100%.

My variation on what you have written would be that as the user, purchase, I own the device and as such, it is up to me which way I use it.

It is not a rental device it is a purchase. The fact that the Network may have subsidised it to zero does not negate the purchase element: it is still my hardware.

For as long as this sort of shenanigans continues, I'll buy my Nokia sim free, unlocked and un-latched so I can shove in which ever sim I want, where ever I happen to be.

Done.

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As James May would say....

...cock.

This guy Zuckerman, if the numerous Reg stories are to be believed, is a complete and total one. "Facebook is changing the world...."

Pah.

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@ Bassey

Not sure about the DataWind, but the Elonex really is utter pap. Very very cheap Chinese rubbish, that is £100 badly spent. There are no re-deeming features with that at all.

The DW at least sounds good, except the on board storage!

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The safety shaver.....

... was nto invented by Gillette in 19someting.

Wilkinson Sword : the Pall Mall : 1898.

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The Conservatives.....

... may have a point.

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@Cathal Gantly 1 and Anonymous Coward 7th July 2009 12:06

Actually Cathal, you are correct. But it is the nearest thing I could find that would have some meaning, without setting up another, counter item.

However the comment from AC also holds some water and perhaps Reg could be the linch pin here. I don't see this happening myself, but it would give some clout to the whole thing.....

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@ Anonymous Coward 1st July 2009 15:01

Yep, that's about correct.

The only caveat is the 'storage / retentions' question ; ie how long is the info' held for.

Yes you are correct in suggestion they have the capability, but it is not always the case that the info is kept very long; storage is often limited to a 30 day period, after which pre pay users have forgotten and post paid have had their last invoice......

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If you are unhappy.....

... take it back and get a refund.

As it is latched and the NOC and the manufacturuer are in cahoots about choice restrictioins, then having both the airtime and the hard ware costs refunded wil nto be an issue.

Then you are free to go out and but a decent 'mobile 'phone!

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What.... ?

The Reg is a fantastically good read, but frankly, reviews pap for an Apple devices that is neither a good mobile 'phone nor a better than the rest music player is really scrapping the barrel.

If you must, really really must, then please follow these simple rules :

1 ; don't do it in the Reg Hardware site, do it somewhere else.

2 : Stop pandering to corporate balls by calling these turgid programmes 'apps'. Applications if you must, or programmes. These words have served us well for, oh, ages....

3 ; Don't.

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Ho Ho Ho.....

A 300 meg down load and the best yu get is 'copy / paste' !!!

And you're happy with it! Astonishing.

Mind you, at least it starting to get to a point where the I 'Phone is now merely average, rather than simply poor.

Nokia's have been doing 'copy / paste' for ooh, eight, ten years perhaps. I think my 6110 [little silvery thing with a mono screen] could do that way back when.....

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Seti....

Not sure if it will run on the apple os, but drop if it will,m run the seti screen saver.

http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/

Not good for the carbon footprint, but hey....

If this does nto work on the apple os, partion, drop in any linux apple distro and then run seti!!

Enjoy your weekend.

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http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/

@@ International ? By Anonymous Coward

Basiocally, buy a good nokia. Almost anything from the E series.

But get to from Nokia direct and then it is unlatched.

Therefore you will not be paying sill roaming priices as you will be able to drop a local sim in whereever you habppen to be.

This is always the best option.

Thenm you can get a good mp3 to boot which you will be able to use on the 'plane......

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Mandriva....

... is my Linux distro of choice.

I have an MSI Wind and Mandriva runs like a dream.

Ok, batery time is now where near the numbers quoted int he glossies, but they never are : three hours is about as much as I get with the WIFI off.

XP ? Pah, who needs it.