Flashblock
I run flashblock on all computers I use, I only see a handful of sites where I see blank spaces.
It's usually used for video or some horrible navigation panel, in some cases really irritating flash adverts.
2536 publicly visible posts • joined 13 Dec 2006
It's a PC, it's not a device in-between a smartphone and a computer, it is a computer in tablet form.
Complex, slow to start up and a UI designed for a mouse and keyboard.
I've seen a Windows tablet PC at a customer's site, he was trying to take notes with it, but had to restart it. Hardly convenient when everyone is waiting to begin the meeting.
I think it looks ok, but it's still a niche product.
The problem it will have is it doesn't use an epaper screen. So as a reading device its appeal is limited.
I think basically what Apple thought was rather than create a desktop surface computer, why not make it mobile? being sat at a desk using a computer is so old fashioned now, outside of an office anyway.
Which all goes to show how Apple's control freakery is there for a good reason.
Damned if they do, damned if they don't.
If they provide developers with APIs to make calls then it can be abused.
If they don't provide access to such APIs then developers and user complain.
Touch screen PCs already exist. I would find them pretty annoying since I've spent ages trying to stop people touching the screen when pointing at something on the screen. It leaves greasy spots all over the screen.
So unless the screen has some sort of coating to stop greasy marks then I won't be bothering.
Personally I think lifting up your arm to touch a computer will be quite annoying. Having a tablet in your hand or flat on a desk is a more useful configuration.
It's about time Microsoft stopped hyping Surface and got a product out.
Symbian has been without a touch screen UI for phones for years. Sony Ericsson filled the gap with UIQ for a while but that died.
I seem to remember them designing Symbian Touch in 2007? but from what I could see you still needed a silly stylus for some things (screen too small).
So why they delay in competing with Apple and Android? perhaps this is why Nokia is suing Apple, it's mere jealousy and publicity?
People now realise that if their computer can render near believable landscapes in games, encode video quickly and play blu ray that something simple like an OS should easily run on the hardware they have.
It's a tough sell to get people to upgrade their hardware now. They're more likely to wear it into the ground before getting another one.
People don't have systems with ugly CRTs they want to off load either.
What's the killer application?
In meetings you might as well just take in a laptop if you want access to software, if you want to take notes then why not type? beats any hand writing recognition.
A paper and pencil is hard to beat in terms of reliability.
A desktop OS is great in terms of running the software you know on the move, but the GUI really isn't ideal for the job, no matter what extensions the OS provides.
They need a roadmap and they need consistent policies and opinions on various subjects.
All to often there are people at Microsoft who build bridges with the open source community and competitors only for Ballmer to come along and start sounding off about GPL being a cancer and Linux stealing all their code.
The top brass at Microsoft are too opinionated, they would find they would make it into more markets if they thought before sounding off about the competition.
Will be interesting to see what it turns out like. Google have no track record of designing consumer products.
It's a lot easier to write web services than it is to design hardware.
What are the chances that it will just be a case design and some specs which they will get some far east company to finish for them?
Can't do it on that either!
Why? simply because people who downgrade their PSP firmware are doing it largely to use exploits in the software used to run pirate software (or homebrew).
On the iPhone people would want to downgrade to unlock the phone and run unofficial software or pirate software.
A few might be unhappy with a new release, but much of these problems are often due to restoring backups.
Mobile web can be painstaking on the move, so any adverts or content that gets in the way will be loathed to the point of making people avoid it completely.
Internet on the move is a much different market to Internet at home. People are not going to tolerate anything that wastes their time, they'll throw the phone at the wall or go to another site.
Let IE stay in the slow lane while everyone else benefits from SPDY.
If servers fall back to HTTP for IE then IE will have a slow web experience until Microsoft supports it.
Of course with their usual EEE strategy they would release MSSPDY which will work well with IE and have quirks with anything else.
It was developed in a fraction of the time of Vista as they didn't spend 3 or so years travelling down a dead end only to scrap it and start again.
Surely development costs were much lower on 7? so either M$ is practically giving it away or they're doing some creative accounting?
It's not about the distraction, it is about the fact that you can't drive a car properly one handed.
You need to change gear, indicate and steer when driving. You simply can't do that safely and effectively while driving, even with an auto gearbox.
Plus there's looking at the screen to dial, etc..etc..
In the split second you're looking down a child could walk out into the road.
UK drivers can be pretty awful as it is, phones make it even worse. Especially younger drivers who have an attention span so low that they have to text people while driving!!
What has open source got to do with it?
If the Tories are thinking open source programmers will do IT work for government projects for free then they're deluded.
If they're talking about hosting using open source software abd components then that's the case already with many projects.
Who cares if data is stored using proprietary software like Oracle or SQL Server? the data can with extracted and migrated. It is file formats they need to make open source, to do so they need to banish PDF and Microsoft Office formats.
Or cycle and don't get screwed for any taxes, parking charges. Plus it is good for you and you can park your bike in the town/city centre.
Of course many car owners constantly bleat about their 'victim' status despite the actual cost of motoring and fuel being comparably cheaper compared to years ago.
Someone has actually designed an attractive Android phone, shame about the 2.5mm socket, who uses 2.5mm headphones or headsets? Bluetooth is widespread now.
I would wonder if the touchscreen can do multitouch or if this is a software limitation.
Can't really go wrong for £180. But will it get updates?
Unless they break it down into which handsets disappointed people then how are they going to determine if it is the touch screen or the implementation that is to blame?
There are many generic touchscreen phones that are pretty awful and are just jumping on the bandwagon. Some aren't capacitive touch screens and so are useless when used with fingers.
>"Win 3.1/95 created the industry standard for how people would interact with a personal computer via a GUI."
Utter tosh. Xerox Parcs created the industry standard WIMP environment. They also invented the mouse. Apple licenced this work when they created the Lisa and Mac, Microsoft didnt!
I suggest you read this to get yourself up to speed on computer history:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_graphical_user_interface#Xerox_PARC
Yes, others will have the same processor. Have you ever owned or used a Mac Pro?
They are quiet, well designed and very weighty. Open a typical rival and there's wires all over the place, flimsy plastic clips holding in the hard disks etc...
It's a workstation aimed at professionals and people who don't care about the price (if you have to ask you can't afford).
A workstation is only as good as the software it can run, you can run Windows and OSX on a Mac Pro legally, can't do that on a rival brand.
I want WebOS to succeed as it looks a damn sight better than anything else out there. But why can't Palm get some decent hardware?
You really need an amazing piece of hardware to launch a new platform, good software isn't enough. No point adding a hardware keyboard that sucks.
Please Palm, licence the OS.