* Posts by djstardust

669 publicly visible posts • joined 14 Jun 2012

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Vodafone customers moan about sluggish data abroad

djstardust

No issues here

I'm in in Los Alcázares at the momet. Vodafone 4G is working fine, even using maps on the motorways is no hassle at all. Streaming working fine too.

Microsoft's Surface Pro 2017, unhinged: Luxury fondleslab that's good...

djstardust

If only ....

They stopped pretending to be Apple and demanding their prices. That would be a start.

1 - Bundle at least the keyboard FOC

2 - Make it a realistic and affordable price instead of completely ripping people off for storage and processor upgrades

3 - Put more ports in. Hardly difficult given all the space around the edges

4 - Sort out the sleep issues that have been plaguing the Surface for years.

5 - Stop completely overstating the battery life.

Oh and .....

6 - Stop pretending to be Apple and demanding their prices.

70% of Windows 10 users are totally happy with our big telemetry slurp, beams Microsoft

djstardust

It's easy .....

All you need to do is install DWS lite and Spybot anti-beacon.

Between the two of them it kills slurp stone dead in Windows 10.

Profits plunge 40% as BT coughs up £225m to avoid court battle

djstardust

BT

They just need to concentrate on giving a good service rather than getting involved in shite.

1 - Don't overpay (and then increase non-related charges) for football rights

2 - Don't play the same game as other broadband providers with stupid deals

3 - Retain current customers instead of hitting them with increases then offering a cheaper introductory offer to steal from another.

Just be a good company and money will come in.

Doubt this will ever happen though.

Apple exits music player biz by killing iPod Nano, iPod Shuffle

djstardust

Yes, my wife has the Sansa Clip+ 8gb and she loves it to death.

I have loaded her Galaxy S7 edge with a 256gb SD card and my entire music collection but it gets ignored and the Sansa is taken everywhere.

There are many far cheaper (and better) alternatives to anything Apple.

You know what’s not so throttled at O2? UK sales. They're up 2.6%

djstardust

Maybe ....

But after this shenanigans with restricting EU data there will be a lot of pissed off customers coming back from their holidays.

Watch this space ......

Smoking hot Galaxy S8 and storage sales fire Samsung to flaming brilliant quarter

djstardust

Super profits ....

But putting up the price of your handsets by £80 to £100 every new release will put customers off.

The original Galaxy S was £400 now we're hitting £900 for the current equivalent.

Ripping punters off does generate money ..... in the short term.

Three: No fixed date yet for 4G services abroad

djstardust

Re: *yawn*

Yes, but I complained to Offcom about the throttling and they said it wasn't an issue and feel at home wasn't to be taken oterally.

djstardust

No, you just contact CS and they upgrade your current one. Nothing new required.

O2 admits to throttling network bandwidth for EU data roamers

djstardust

As poor as Vodafone are

In the UK, their roaming has been excellent. since I left Three (for traffic shaping) Vodafone have been excellent in France, Spain and Italy.

I'm going to Spain again in a couple of weeks so it will be interesting to see if there have been any changes.

Ironically Three used to throttle their data on feel at home but apparently now it's better.

Microsoft ctrl-Zs 'killing' Paint, by which we mean offering naff app through Windows Store

djstardust

As usual .....

MS change soomething ..... public outcry ...... MS reverse their decision.

Both the UK government and M$ seem to operate the same way. Utterly clueless and totally out of touch with the people.

Expect the Note 8 to break the bank (and your wallet)

djstardust

Re: Note 4

Exactly. I have two of them (one in use and a nearly new spare)

Apart from a slightly better camera and wireless charging, there is nothing actually *that* better with the newer models. Taking away the capacitive buttons that have been there since the Galaxy S is a stupid move, but of course Samsung just copy Apple these days.

Oh, and the Note 4 has a removable battery. Yipeee!

djstardust

Re: Don't worry

The Galaxy Tab S3 is £600 which is more expensive than the equivalent ipad. Samsung are getting stupid with their pricing because they think they are Apple and they also think they are invincible and people love them.

Brits must now register virtually all new drones and undergo safety tests

djstardust

I'm sure

HM Gov will make a bollocks of this like they do with anything else.

It will just mean that criminals will steal drones for prison drops that are registered to someone else.

Sledgehammer to crack a walnut as usual.

UK regulator set to ban ads depicting bumbling manchildren

djstardust

Stereotypes

This is everywhere.

Happy ad (McDonalds, fruit juice, cereal bars etc.) = Sun shining and footage completely over saturated

Sad ad (Funeral plans, Cancer charities) = Cold, dark and raining.

Add to that any kids ad pretty much has the black, Chinese and Indian/Pakistani ones first then a normal white UK kid somewhere further down the ad.

I'm sick of it but nothing will change IMO

The life and times of Surface, Microsoft's odds-defying fondleslab

djstardust

Still no.

The form factor is horrible, especially without the expensive keyboard

The device itself is far too expensive

Microsoft can't even get their own hardware to work properly with their own OS

Data slurping .......

Greatly overestimated battery life

I would probably buy it if it was the last PC on earth, but there are far better solutions out there.

It's still better than anything Apple sell though :)

Samsung stalls Bixby launch because it am English not so good

djstardust

Oh dear

Can they not stall it for good?

Having even more slurp on a handset is hardly appealing, is it?

Brit prosecutors ask IT suppliers to fight over £3 USB cable tender

djstardust

Thank god

They don't procure from Maplins

GB PLC would be completely bust in a week.

Blighty's Department for Culture, Media & Sport gets 'digital' rebrand

djstardust

Just like in business .....

Rebranding is a way of covering up a bad past and hoping punters think you are a new company

DHL > Home Delivery Network > Yodel

Currys > Dixons > Currys Digital > PC World > Dixons Travel > Whatever ......

Travel and holiday companies do it too.

Maybe WH Shit, Boots and Marks & Spencer and "British" Airways should try it as well.

Lipstick on a pig. Simple as that.

Fancy fixing your own mobile devices? Just take the display off carefu...CRUNCH !£$%!

djstardust

Yes

I have Wharfedale satellite sub systems from the early 90s and Wharfedale still have the cones in stock. Coupled with JVC or Technics amps from 1989 / 1990 and it's the best sound system ever.

Far better than that expensive Sonos pish.

It's the iPhone's 10th b'day or, as El Reg calls it, 'BILL RAY DAY'

djstardust

Although

The original iphone was crap .....

S60 was out of date and no touchscreen variants at that time

S40 was out of date and also no use for smartphones

S80 was perfect for this sort of thing (Nokia communicator) but got left to die due to lack of development and the high price of the communicator series, which were always way out of spec by the time they hit the shelves.

Symbian UIQ2 was very good but got quickly buried for UIQ3 which was terrible and slow due to lack of RAM on the handsets.

Windows mobile 5/6 was windows mobile. Nuff said.

It's not that Apple did anything brilliant (apart from the intuitive UI which won customers over).... it's just that everything else was pretty much shit. The app store again helped as Nokia Ovi charging $30 for apps was never going to be a winner.

In celebration I dug out my N95 8gb today, beautiful phone and great sound, but it's still bloody awful to use.

Murdoch's £11.7bn Sky takeover referred to competition regulator

djstardust

NowTV

Just had a real bad experience with NowTV.

When my first 3 month free pass ran out I paid for one month at £6.99 then bought a box with a 6 month pass. I logged it in the site and got a renewal date in August which was fine. I have now noticed my card has been charged £6.99 every month and all records of the pass have disappeared.

I contacted CS with the proof of purchase and the box serial number but was told a manager would get back to me by email. That was 9 days ago and I'm still waiting. Every time I contact live chat I'm told I will get a response within 24 hours and it never happens. Dealing with Indian online support is about as much fun as dipping your testicles in a bucket of sulphuric acid.

This is a ridiculous situation, and you can't complain as the agent won't escalate to a manager. The first agent today cut me off after 20 minutes of chat so I had to go through it all over again to be told exactly the same thing.

I know it doesn't matter to those in charge as they are hidden away, but treating customers like this is embarrassing at best. Companies like this should go to the wall, not get stronger. Bastards!

Despite high-profile hires, Apple's TV plans are doomed

djstardust

Re: Apple

No touchscreen

No foldable tablet mode

No replaceable HDD

No upgradeable RAM

Shallow keyboard that is impossible to actually type on

Last year's memory and processor to make Apple even more margin

Stupid touch bar that adds no value whatsoever (except to the price)

You get the idea .....

djstardust

Apple

Apart from the iphone Apple are very much yesterdays news.

Their tablets are failing, laptops are expensive and mid-spec at best and there's been nothing innovative from them for years.

They're just a one trick pony now and when the isheep wise up and realise how poor and expensive the iphone is they will be doomed.

Can't wait for the day. Good riddance. Their wanky hipster patronising staff will have to get new jobs at Starbucks.

Expansys shutters online mobile gadget souk to consumers

djstardust

Hmmmm

Although they were quite expensive the customer service was pretty good in the experience I had with them.

Just Clove left now then .......

TalkTalk customers complain of being unable to load Amazon website

djstardust

Oh wow ....

At last a reason to sign up with Talk Talk. Keeping my wife off Amazon would be fantastic.

Ofcom fines Three £1.9m over vulnerability in emergency call handling

djstardust

Feel at home

All that traffic is routed back to a single point the UK then throttled to death, even more so for streaming services and Google maps which are totally unusable abroad.

Nothing new for Three.

Currys PC World given a spanking for misleading laptop savings ads

djstardust

Don't believe that .....

All Maplins stock is at least three years out of date and three times the price. Not a chance.

djstardust

Yada yada

Same old same old. Sorta pointless rapping them on the knuckles once all the stock has been sold.

It'll happen again and again and again.

Remember folks, just like DFS sofas 50% off an artificially high starting price is not a saving in the slightest. Until retailers are stopped from increasing the base price then giving a discount to the "normal" selling price then nothing will change.

Mind you, Debenhams have been caught out by this as no-one shops there at full price anymore, they just wait for a blue cross day and buy it then.

British Airways poised to shed 1,000 jobs to Capita

djstardust

BA

Would never fly with them. Toxic company who rip off the British public then send the profits offshore. UK Gov should do something about this but won't as big business dictates the law.

Some day stock market companies like this will put the customer first before profits but it's gonna take something really bad to make this happen. BA came close recently.

I treat them with the same contempt as Marks & Spencer, WH Shit and Boots of Nottingham (Monaco)

Bastards the lot of them.

Apple gives world ... umm ... not much new actually

djstardust

Re: Sign of a mature market?

My 2009 Mac Pro has Windows 7 ultimate running on it and it's sweet as a nut.

I removed the Apple HDD completely and it only now has a SSD with Windows on it.

That was really the end of excellent Apple hardware. It all turned to shit after that.

djstardust

Re: Sign of a mature market?

Sign of Apple giving customers as little as possible for as much money as they can get.

Apple are a greedy corporation that focus only on margins and profit. The customers are just an inconvenience to them.

Vodafone to block its ads from appearing next to 'fake news'

djstardust

Ha ha

Advertising billboards showing 4G in an area where you only get GPRS could be considered fake news.

Are you listening Vodafone?

Nest leaves competition in the dust with new smart camera

djstardust

Ermmmm

Burglar breaks in, switches off (or steals) the wifi router. Camera utterly useless.

Am I missing something?

It's just 'Pro' now, guys: Microsoft gives Surface a subtle resurfacing

djstardust

More overpriced crap

Who do they think they are .... Apple?

The price of the tablet is bad enough (with the obligatory storage rip-off) then add on the crappy pen and keyboard ......

No thanks M$.

Pioneer Kodi plug-in unplugs

djstardust

They should look

At Facebook buy and sell groups (although many are closed groups)

Loads of people advertising them on there. Easy pickings to get this illegal activity curtailed.

No nudity please, we're killing ourselves: Advice to Facebook mods leaks

djstardust

Closed groups

We have a local buy and sell "closed group" where several people are advertising illegal cigarettes on a daily basis. All that is posted is a picture with no text and the sellers won't communicate on the page and every query is met with a "PM me" response, so it's obvious the selling is not legal.

Every time I report to Facebook it sends an automated message saying the post doesn't contravene community standards, however other FB literature tells me it's against the rules to sell cigarettes on their site.

I have also reported obvious religious bigotry relating to Glasgow football teams which again isn't an issue to them it seems.

Society is a far worse place with Facebook, it's just that people don't see how it is slowly eroding our way of life and allowing certain sections of society a free reign. There may be trouble ahead ......

Samsung Galaxy S8+: Seriously. What were they thinking?

djstardust

Note 4 here

And still fantastic. Apart from a slightly better camera the new Samsungs are inferior in many ways.

1 - Weird screen resolution. 16:9 is perfect for 99% of phone use

2 - Non changeable battery

3 - Bixby slurpware

4 - No capacitive buttons (easy to find)

If only Samsung would release a new Note 4 many would buy it. No curved screen, a removable battery and no hipster voice thingy shit.

The Note 4 was a huge seller and many still love it, so why go so off piste Samsung ..... oh .... to copy Apple of course.

ICO fines telco £100k for 3.2m mobile phone text spamhammer

djstardust

P.S.

We're going bust later this week to avoid the fine but will be back in business with a slightly different name next week.

Vodafone loses €6bn mainly due to Indian biz writeoff

djstardust

What a shame

Lack of investment anywhere outside London, terrible CS, GPRS standard outside the City centre and they wonder why they're losing customers.

They are also very expensive. Three are significantly cheaper with not that worse a service.

For years they have put profits before punters and now it's coming back to bite them in the arse.

WannaCrypt ransomware snatches NSA exploit, fscks over Telefónica, other orgs in Spain

djstardust

Does this mean

I should install Windows updates?

I've had them permanently disabled for years, and even moreso when all the win 10 crap started rolling out to older versions.

S is for Sandbox: The logic behind Microsoft's new lockdown Windows gambit

djstardust

Sorry

But this is just a mess. Yet again decisions made for future revenue and not what the customer actually wants. Sadly everyone wants to be Apple and are making bizarre decisions to try and get there.

Typical Microsoft. Pissup Brewery.

LinkedIn chatbots to help with 'important conversations'

djstardust

Linkedin

I deleted my profile as soon as I heard that slurp had got involved.

I never ever got a job (or even an offer) from being a member, and from what I could see it was full of people blowing their own trumpet and getting "recommendations" from ex-colleagues which seems completely false at best.

I did however get six Nigerian brides so it's not all bad I suppose.

UK outsourcing market hits record levels

djstardust

I really hope

This all turns to shit.

It's just companies absolving their responsibilities and passing the buck to someone else.

Just look at (I don't give)ATOS and CRAPITA ripping off just the government alone.

I hate modern Britain.

What is dead may never die – how to get a post-BlackBerry BlackBerry

djstardust

Ha ha

"We plan to disrupt the market with a unique offering,"

Sounds a bit like the Liberal Democrats for the upcoming election. I guess Blackberry will have about the same success.

Don't install our buggy Windows 10 Creators Update, begs Microsoft

djstardust

Another day

another M$ screw up.

Jesus wept.

TVs are now tablet computers without a touchscreen

djstardust

Samsung. Eurgh .....

I paid £1800 in 2014 for a top of the range Samsung "smart" TV.

All the literature banged on about how it was the future, integrated services, quad core processor blah blah.

It used to get regular updates for a couple of months then it stopped. The only updates we get now are to remove services. Now TV isn't even supported on it as it's too old. Really ????????

The menus are a confusing mess and it's literally impossible to find anything. No coherence at all.

Next time I'm getting a hi-sense panel and a plug in box.

Yet again I fell for all the Samsung marketing bullshit but never again. Thing is the 1080 picture quality is very good and the 3D support is fantastic. I just wish Samsung would stick to making good core products without all the crap attached to them.

eBay denies claims it's failing to thwart 'systematic fraud'

djstardust

It seems

That if you host an elaborate web based scam you can "hide" and get off scot free.

Steal a tin of peas from the local grocer and you get the book thrown at you.

Neither eBay or Paypal are the remotest bit helpful to the genuine user putting blocks and payment holds in place everywhere. Even reporting dodgy listings gets you nowhere,

Horrible company.

For the first time ever, Verizon sheds subs: 300,000 punters walk out

djstardust

Ha ha

Provide a shit service ...... lose customers

Offer something cheap ..... get some back again.

Sure this isn't Talk Talk?

Microsoft shrugs off report that Edge can expose user identities from JS Fetch requests

djstardust

It's not really a problem

As no-one actually uses Edge.

If they do they need their head examined.

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