Posts by djstardust

I think they need to have a word

With Microsoft.

There's nothing wrong with their machines (I have several of them) but nobody wants windows 10 (and all the data slurping). Until that hurdle is crossed then things ain't going to get any better.

My Lenovo PCs have Windows 8.1 and to be fair the Metro interface is pretty bad, but installing Start8 and booting to desktop made them fine and they are all really stable.

When I talk to people selling PCs they all agree nobody wants Windows any more, so where's the solution?

Maybe if the ipad Pro

Didn't look like it was stuck in accessibility mode for blind people it would sell more.

The icon spacing is ridiculous and it's such a waste of a huge desktop,

Apple just amaze me with their stupidity sometimes. Adding "Pro" to an item doesn't necessarily make it better.

Having joined Vodafone recently ......

I can state that it's been the worst CS experience ever.

They screwed up my initial SIM only deal.

They screwed up my upgrade to the Galaxy S7 Edge.

My upgrade date and data allowance is still incorrect despite asking them several times to fix it.

The credit they offered me for all the hassle never appeared then they denied giving it to me in the first place.

And to add to that anywhere outside my city seems to be GPRS only with absolutely no data throughput.

Every time you contact one CS channel, you are told within 30 seconds they can't help you. For example Twitter sends you to Live Chat, Live Chat sends you to the store, then the store tells you to call up and you end up with someone in India who doesn't have a clue. Their website is a mess too with dead links all over the place.

Please for your own sanity avoid Vodafone at all costs. As long as companies like this put the shareholders and profits before the customers, nothing will change.

I was quite looking forward to my 50th birthday later this year, but I'm going to postpone my celebrations by a year until my 24 months with this shower is over.

Apple could spend

Some of their billions on a software QC team. that would be a good start.

Ha ha

Offcom are useless. Nothing will change until someone in charge grows a set of balls. Sharon better start taking those testosterone supplements.

Not only apps ....

I remember downloading the pop video for Captain Jack by Captain Jack not long after the iTunes store opened. It was a wee bit dodgy (had some boobs in it) and one swear word but nothing that bad.

A couple of months later when I synced with itunes again they had removed the video from the store (obviously finding out it was a bit ropey) and it automatically got deleted from my devices as well, even though I had paid for it.

Luckily I had converted it to another format and kept a copy but it just shows that apple even have the power to remove apps or media without telling you once you have bought it. Bastards!

It's a cartel anyway ......

Can't really see what difference this would have made. The big 4 operators pricing is pretty similar anyway. Three used to be considerably cheaper than the others but not any more. They all know what each other's tariffs are and mirror them.

Customer service is universally poor and just like the energy industry one leaves and another one joins. No incentive for the networks to improve as they all just play the same game.

Ha ha

GWX control panel > Done

DWS Lite > Done

Windows update disabled > Done

No problems at all and Win 7 Ultimate 64 running sweet as a nut. Screw you Micro$oft.

Hmmmm

Judging by those crappy touch screen terminals in the stores, Argos haven't spent any money on IT in a long long time.

Why get Fibre?

I'm in Aberdeen and get an average 17mbps on a copper line, which is faster than the figure quoted for fibre in this article. Only downside is a 13 year old uploading Youtube videos at 0.85mbps for weeks on end.

Despite our estate having loads of new cabinets saying "fibre has arrived" when we check the BT website we are not enabled. WTF?

At least fibre would give better upload speeds ... or would it?

Microsoft

Another day, another screw up.

Quelle surprise!

Meh

Poor speakers, poor camera, last generation display and too expensive.

It also looks pretty much exactly like the M7 which is old hat now.

The only advantage over the S7/edge is the lack of bloatware, but much of the Samsung stuff can be disabled anyway.

Unless you are an HTC fan there are alternative phones with a similar spec far cheaper or the Galaxy S7 which is far better for the same price.

Newer chips?

My laptop I use every day is a 2011 Sony Vaio SE 15.5" i5 8gb with Windows 7 ultimate.

It is an absolute workhorse and nothing is too much for it.

Why buy a new laptop that won't necessarily be any better and with a far worse OS.

Sad that I prefer my 5 year old machine to a brand spanking new one but that's exactly both Intel and Microsoft's problem.

An amazing amount of excuses

to cover up the fact that Windows 10 is crap.

Oh dear

I can't believe a business of that magnitude would use a dodgy tuppence hapenny Web host like that.

Thousands of ticket sales down the crapper to save a couple of quid.

Bet they're looking for a new It guy......

Hmmmm

I have worn my Casio CD-401 every day since 1983 and it works perfectly and looks great. The apple watch is expensive and will last a fraction of that time.

Oh, and I have a 2009 Mac Pro desktop upgraded with a couple of SSD's and running windows 7 ultimate. Best machine I have ever had.

Dido Harding

Is still in her job amazingly. What gives?

Councils

Funny how they can find £100k roles for "Diversity Manager" and "Language Translation Specialist" but when it comes to, you know, the things tax payers want there's no money.

Public toilets, Libraries, Swimming Pools, Roads ....

Aberdeen City Council has cut £900k from the sport and elderly care budgets, but found a million to put in a cycle lane no-one will use.

This country needs a revolution and soon.

Doesn't feel like home

Whether your roaming is free (or £5 a day in non home countries) Youtube is blocked totally, doesn't even play 240p videos. Same for Maps, Google Play and Spotify. None of the popular streaming services seem to work at all.

They blame the local networks but if you use a VPN suddenly it's OK but with reduced data rate.

Three need to come clean about their traffic shaping as it has never felt like home to me at all. They need to challenge themselves rather than the rest of the mobile industry.

£3 a day on Vodafone and it's wonderful.

Ha ha

Sounds like something Microsoft would do.

Government IT?

Why is it that companies like Facebook, Tesco, Amazon and many others can have extremely complex databases with the addition of online selling, and these sites for the most part are pretty good at what they do and reliable?

It seems to me as an outsider that the IT industry sees Government projects as a cash cow where they know they can give piss poor performance for a lot of money and no accountability.

Or is it the Government that keep moving the goalposts making the final project impossible to deliver?

Who knows .......

Teenage tantrums

Throwing people off the "one" plan and charging them double

Restricting services by routing "at home" traffic back to the UK for filtering but blaming local networks

Useless unprofessional CS staff in India who tell you something different every time you call.

I really loved Three but recently they have been a nightmare. The #makeitright campaign is purely irony. They should look at how they treat their own customers rather than challenging everyone else in the Mobile Industry.

Ha ha

Offcom are a useless, toothless QUANGO and the BBC are above the law. I'd love to see someone hold the BBC to account for their blatant political correct and left wing agenda but I can't see that happening any time soon. Some of their PC must have someone from every background and gender in every programme is embarrassing to watch.

Best thing that could happen is that the BBC go self funded (subscription) and we'd see how long they'd last then. They are the only company (but still called a corporation) that gets paid by everyone irrespective of their performance and unless that changes it will be business as usual.

P.S. Their Pro America Donald Trump coverage can take a hike too.

I wouldn't worry

Microsoft will change their minds in 10,9,8,7 ..........

Great news

All the better for when we tell Europe to sod off and start making our goods in the UK again.

Budget .....

The 5C certainly wasn't. It was a pretty mid spec phone sold at a stupid price.

Budget means something completely different to Apple compared to their customers.

I bet the likes of the Honor 7 will be a far better device at half the price.

BBC bias

The thing that gets me about all this is the totally one sided bias shown by the BBC both online and on TV.

They spun this story completely around to be positive about 36 signing up when the other 64 did not.

Same BBC bias as shown regarding the Scottish Referendum but they carry on regardless. The even better thing is if someone criticises them in the "have your say (when it suits us)" the post gets removed.

Some communist media organisations would do a less biased job than the BBC. They seem to forget that the British public pay them to be impartial. Oh well.

Nice idea but .....

It's bloody ugly. I don't like the shape of the device or the camera assembly on the rear.

As much as I hate to say it, Samsung have got the design language of the S7 just right but it's a shame it's so expensive.

Just fancy that .....

The blocking technology is provided by Israeli start-up Shine, the shareholders of which include Horizon Ventures, the investment fund of Asia’s richest person Li Ka-shing. Ka-shing is the chairman of Hutchison Whampoa, one of the world’s biggest telecommunications groups.

Early adopters ....

What a load of balls.

These were very expensive flagship products (announced months before release) that should have a perfect out of box experience. The Surface is now on it's 4th generation so I don't see what's early about that.

Imagine if Apple released Macbooks and ipads that took months to work properly?

Conversely I bought a Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro and I have not had a single issue with it. Been perfect since day one.

You would think it would be easy for Microsoft especially being both their OS and hardware.

Words fail me to describe the incompetence of this once fine organisation.

Well played Apple

I'm not an Apple fan in the slightest, in fact I detest them as a company.

However they have played this one 100% correctly. Well done Tim Cook. Your open letter explains perfectly why the phones are encrypted and I take my hat off to you (metaphorically speaking of course)

No innovation

Here we go again. Last year's phones slightly improved on (and of course new colours) but 100 times better according to the marketing department.

Samsung really are trying to be Apple at every turn.

Personally I don't like the way the Galaxy range has gone, and the prices are way, way over the top when you look at what Honor (Huwaei) are bringing to the table.

P.S. Where is the SD card slot?

Goodbye Samsung!

Which flagships?

Samsung have so many "flagship" devices it's embarrassing.

I had a "flagship" Note 12.2 Pro that still had 4.4.2 when I sold it recently.

My "flagship" Galaxy Note 4 is still on 4.4.2 as the version 5 upgrade is a disaster and overheats the device whilst killing the battery.

My "flagship" Tab S 8.4 is on 5.0.2 and seems to work sort of OK

Samsung are a disaster and I'm done with them. Too many devices, no roadmap and crap support.

I stopped reading

after Council and IT

Hardly a surprise

Just another excuse to keep things in the walled garden and increase profits.

My son (typical 13 year old) has had multiple repairs to Android devices, some by me with official parts and some by 3rd parties and it has saved a lot of money replacing devices.

A lot of kids at school break their iphone screens and it costs hundreds for replacement devices.

No thanks Apple.

Ha bloody ha ....

After kicking millions off the One plan last week to another tariff at twice the price. Timing is everything.

They also said they wouldn't introduce RPI price increases mid contract and then surprisingly changed their mind.

Three need a kick in the butt. Their PR division with #makeitright challenging the mobile industry is a complete joke and totally ironic given current circumstances. They need to challenge themselves.

Their Feel at home service is throttled to death for Youtube, Spotify, Google Play, Maps etc. as the traffic is fed back to the UK and monitored and feels nothing like at home at all. But if you do a speed test on the local networks (which they blame for this) it all looks fine. Hmmmmm

Bunch of chancers (or should I say muppets)

They were the cheapest of the big networks, but not any more. Filling the coffers for the O2 merger methinks.

Presumably

They will have a note of the IMEI numbers and block them all. Which will be fine until they arrive in Nigeria.