Posts by Dave 126 10660 publicly visible posts • joined 21 Jul 2010
>Honest question, who does a phone these days with a removable battery, SD card slot, decent hardware, and good build quality?
Samsung still do make the S5, k'know! They also make the S5 Active, a waterproof variant with a rugged mae-over.
What do you mean by 'build quality'? Materials, tolerances, proven durability, stiffness?
>It's the Sony phones that all have waterproofing, not the Samsung.
Samsung do make 'Active' versions of the S4 and S5 that are waterproof, but they have been given a rugged style in addition.
But yeah, waterproofing is Sony's way to distinguish themselves from other high-end Android phones. Samsung's has always been, until now, to be throw all the latest technology together along with removable batteries and SD storage. Now, it seems Samsung are going all in for style and thinness - and I suspect they do have to shed their reputation for plastic.
Perhaps Samsung will release a variant of the S6 with a removable battery, or simply a fatter model with a bigger battery.
>This lawsuit is nice, but better yet, someone needs to go back to ~2001 and figure out how a company that had almost shit for spending wound up spending so little to create so many products so quickly
Basically, Apple read Wired.com's advice '101 Ways to Save Apple', and did the opposite on almost every point:
http://archive.wired.com/wired/archive/5.06/apple_pr.html
But seriously, Jobs returned to Apple in '97, the iMac was announced 18 months later. The iPod was released three years later in 2001, the iPhone 6 years after that... that's not a breakneck speed.
Remember that Apple's problem in the mid nineties was too large a product portfolio. They already had a talented design team - with experience of ARM-based hand-held devices - that wasn't being fully used by upper management.
The rounded corners thing was a 'Design Patent' - which is not what we would think of as a real ('Utility') Patent - it's more akin to Aston Martin protecting the shape of the grills on their cars, for example. Whilst a Design Patent has been granted to Apple for the specific corner radius and ratios, it may be too broad to enforce and it hasn't yet been tested in court.
http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/ido/oeip/taf/patdesc.htm
http://www.theverge.com/2012/11/7/3614506/apple-patents-rectangle-with-rounded-corners
Next!
> battery sucking smart watch... ...not some cheap bit of tat with a plastic strap or plated metal that wears off.
A Bluetooth watch that never needs a new battery or charging, has a leather strap and stainless steel case:
http://www.citizenwatch.com/en-us/watches/watch-detail/?model=AT7035-01E
>essentially serves no new purpose.
You see no benefit that is worth the cost (cost being daily charging, bulky size, and money etc). So we're looking at a cost benefit analysis.
What if someone could offer you an EcoDrive watch that was the same as yours, but just had a button to help you find your phone? Citizen do:
Introducing Proximity, a perpetual calendar chronograph with second time zone, 12/24 hour time, power reserve, sporty leather strap with a nylon backing, 46mm case & 100M WR. This timepiece is Bluetooth 4.0 compatible and just like the watch this low energy Bluetooth is powered by Eco-Drive technology. Through the Bluetooth 4.0 connection with your iPhone®, you can be alerted to incoming calls, emails, messages, reminders, and alerts.
- http://www.citizenwatch.com/en-us/watches/watch-detail/?model=AT7030-05E
>A face that's always on, and it's design can be changed via a USB connection. Just a simple watch.
Why would you want that?! If you want a different watch design, just put on a different watch. Seriously - accurate, reliable quartz watches are available for so little money.
The connected part of connected watches isn't a major power draw, as Casio and Citizen have shown.
>"Judging by the comments often made on Reg articles, we suspect It'd have a winner on its hands if it did the same again now."
Isn't that idea the norm now, separating the panel, sound system and 'tuner'? The tuners and speakers of many LCD sets go unused by many owners. The inclusion of speakers in LCD sets rarely makes the set bigger - instead the compromise is in the sound quality because the expectation is any user who cares audio will use multiple external speakers.
Satellite and cable receivers, PVRs and streaming video boxes are often used instead of the TV's internal tuner.
I came across this handy list of tips for Evil Overlords. Much of the advise could be useful for system design and architecture in general :
" The Top 100 Things I'd Do If I Ever Became An Evil Overlord
My ventilation ducts will be too small to crawl through.
I will never build only one of anything important. All important systems will have redundant control panels and power supplies. For the same reason I will always carry at least two fully loaded weapons at all times.
If I must have computer systems with publically available terminals, the maps they display of my complex will have a room clearly marked as the Main Control Room. That room will be the Execution Chamber. The actual main control room will be marked as Sewage Overflow Containment.
Before employing any captured artifacts or machinery, I will carefully read the owner's manual.
I will never build a sentient computer smarter than I am. " continues:
- http://www.bombshelterzine.com/bobnew/bobfun.html
I don't understand your comment.
The only thing that I can find about Bolden's view on extra-terrestrials is:
Bolden said, "J.R, I must admit, everybody that goes into space wants to see an alien or wants to see evidence there is other life in the universe and I am no different. But I am here to report that I saw no evidence. Although deep in my heart I believe there is good potential for other life in our universe."
Sounds reasonable enough.
>If you're using a diamond cutting disk in a way your wristwatch is at risk, it's not the watch I'd be most worried about!!
Ha ha! It's the not the cutting disc directly, but the resulting dust with diamond particles in that can damage watch faces.
>I got rid of my wrist-based, easily banged up watch when cell phones came out.
I still wear a watch - when my phone battery runs out, I am still able to tell the time. Phone battery last longer because I'm not using its screen to tell the time. Watch battery last years. I have an active job and I'm a clumsy sort - yet my watch doesn't get 'banged up', due to the steel bezel and sapphire crystal; I only worry about damaging it if I'm using diamond cutting discs.
That said, none of the current 'smart watches' really appeal to be, though Casio and Citizen come closer to my desired balance of function against form than others.
>I smell... hype. Lots and lots of hype. That or I've missed something. But looking at it more closely - I don't think I have.
Perform a time and motion study on how long it takes to get your phone from your pocket and unlock it, read the time, lock your phone and return it to your pocket. Ditto an incoming notification.
Socially, I don't always want a loud ring tone on my phone.
There is nothing in the Kickstarter rules to prohibit an established company using it.
Just because a company has sold a previous generation of product to happy customers doesn't mean that the company has the cash flow to tool up for a new product - so the idea of gauging interest and acquiring cash on crowd-funding sites before making a big investment in manufacturing still holds.
Buy a Blackberry Passport - they run most Android apps without issue these days.
Some older Android phones with QWERTY:
http://thedroidguy.com/2014/03/top-7-android-smartphones-physical-qwerty-keyboards-87556
Some Blutooth keyboards for Android Phones:
http://www.geeknaut.com/bluetooth-android-keyboards-07192518.html
If you don't see what you want - and you are that confident that other people will want it too - there is Kickstarter.com
To answer your question:
The target for the team was the unique Ki encryption keys baked into each of Gemalto's SIM cards. These 128-bit values are hidden away inside the SIM electronics, and are supposed to be kept secret. Every SIM has one regardless of its manufacturer.
Mobile networks keep a copy of a SIM's Ki key before the card is given to a subscriber. This is so that the carrier can identify and authenticate the device containing the SIM when it joins a network.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/02/19/nsa_and_gchq_hacked_worlds_largest_sim_card_company_to_steal_keys_to_kingdom/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subscriber_identity_module#Authentication_key_.28Ki.29
>in the event of loss because it represents only a small fraction of the customer's actual worth
Why don't you meet me in a dark alley after work to tell me more about your idea? I'm only holding this lead pipe because I wouldn't want you to trip over it.
[It should go without saying that I'm joking, and I'm not actually threatening Mr Barnes!]
Yeah, I'm generally in favour of cash, but it is not always convenient. For ordering goods and services online, it's useless. For some people, their intended purchases do represent a fair portion of their monthly income. I often do carry cash (ideally, just a little more than I feel I'll need for the day and night ahead) but some of my friends don't feel as comfortable doing the same.
Apple don't collect you transaction history, or share it with retailers. This hasn't pleased some big US retailers like Wallmart, which would rather you use their clunky ConnectC payment system instead.
Strange that retailers weren't mentioned in the article beyond Tescos coupons- after all, these new payment systems depend upon the adoption of Point of Sale terminals.
>So....are there any recommendations for actually learning the whys and therefores of document creation?
One idea: Get a good existing document, and reverse engineer it.
I learnt some very useful things by being irritated a feature, and then discovering what that feature was actually for.
Styles: Very useful. Styles, usually named:
<u>Chapter Heading, </u>
Heading 1,
Heading 2,
Sub Heading 1,
Sub Heading 2,
Body
They are groupings of text paramters like Font, Size, Underline, Line/Page Break etc. Change the font size of Sub Heading 1, for example, and all your Sub Headings are updated.
Styles are hierarchical, so by using them you are automatically creating a document map - handy navigating straight to a certain section of your document. You can use it to make a 'Contents' page, too.
I remember one very short chapter in Michael Baywater's book 'Lost Worlds: What We Lost and Where Did It Go?'
"This book was researched and written without the aid of any Microsoft software at all. Such a pleasure; you can't imagine."
(Michael Baywater was the inspiration for his friend Douglas Adams' character Dirk Gently. He worked on some interactive fiction games in the 1980s and later on Adam's Starship Titanic. )
>I'm guessing this only works if (a) the phone has a SIM card in it and (b) the phone is turned on?
Yes, that is correct.
The idea is this:
- Location data (GPS and course location from cell tower ID and trig) require permissions in Android and iOS.
- Power Consumption data and Network access are commonly granted permissions in Android and iOS.
The researchers are using 'innocent' power consumption data as a proxy for signal strength data.
The researchers' app has GPS access to compile route profiles in advance of an attack. They haven't bothered to actually make a dedicated app to deploy on target phones - they don't need to do so. Such a malicious app on the target's phone would only require access to battery data and the network. From the PDF:
Suppose an attacker measures in advance the power profile consumed by a phone as it moves along a set of known routes or in a predetermined area such as a city. We show that this enables the attacker to infer the target phone’s location over those routes or areas by simply analyzing the target phone’s power consumption over a period of time.
. . .
We emphasize that our approach is based on measuring the phone’s aggregate power consumption and nothing else. We do not read the phone’s signal strength since that data is protected on Android and iOS devices and reading it requires user per-mission. In contrast, reading the phone’s power consumption requires no special permissions and we therefore focus all our efforts on what can be learned from this data.
We assume a malicious application has been installed on the victim’s device and runs in the background while the victim is tracked. The malicious application has neither permission to access the GPS, nor other location providers (e.g. cellular or WiFi network). The application has no permission to access the identity of the currently attached or visible cellular base stations or SSID of the WiFi networks.
I'm not really a photographer (more design and 3D visualisation), so perhaps I need the less mainstream tools more often than some people. I have used the Gimp, and I kinda get on with it*... and then find some functionality just isn't there.
- *.EXR and *.HDR files, containing high dynamic range information. Gimp doesn't do HDR. A Gimp fork called CinePaint does.
* with some help from a GIMP plugin called 'GIMPShop'- as you can guess, it mods The Gimp to closer resemble PhotoShop.
>I understand your financial concerns, but I would not send a son/daughter of mine to an art/photo school that didn't teach them digital imaging without Photoshop. Because you may like it or not, it became an industry standard, and it's much easier to find a job in those sectors if you can use it proficiently.
I think it's just assumed that students and young people will just pirate Photoshop, and become proficient in it. This makes the chief advantage of The Gimp irrelevant. Adobe doesn't really lose out -those young people couldn't afford PS anyway. The students will become proficient in PS, and go on to use legitimately licensed copies in industry; If they become self-employed, the PS licence goes against tax.
Don't worry AC, I know what you mean.
Some users would exhibit intelligence, others would design that car Homer Simpson created for his brother.
Really, the average user isn't in a position to 'design their ideal X' because they haven't got the time and the space to carve up dozens of foam prototypes.
In any case, and assuming Ive was talking about the MotoX, Ive's dig was that giving a choice of colour and material alone didn't make the phone good value. [Reviews upon the release of the Moto X said it charged a high-end price for midrange internals. Actually its USP was a that it was always listening for a voice prompt, 'Touchless Control' made possible by dedicated processing unit. It was sold on the user experience and not just the bare specifications. Motorola went on to drop the price of the phone several times after its launch.]
The rest of the NYT article mentions Ive's Bentley Mulsanne - a model with over 100 exterior colours and four paint finishes to choose from, alongside 24 different coloured leather hides and 10 veneers. Additionally, the Bentley factory can match any colour you provide. If you don’t see what you’re looking for, a bespoke colour scheme can be created just for you.
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