* Posts by Steve Todd

2644 publicly visible posts • joined 19 Sep 2007

Microsoft Surface 2 fondleslabs finally get off ground with airline order

Steve Todd

Not even a days worth. If I've got my math correct then they are currently selling about 46,500 per day.

Sharp whispers its vital statistics: 15.6in 3840 × 2160 IGZO screen for next MacLap Pro?

Steve Todd
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Don't be silly. Any GFX chip with any pretensions at all can handle 3840x2160 at better than 30fps updates. Scrolling is trivial, it's only high texture and polygon gaming that stretches them at all at these kind of resolutions.

Redmond expands fanboi trade-in program to include iPhones

Steve Todd

Re: 'at least' $200 is a good trade-in

Even merkins have to pay much more than that if they need to replace the handset inside of the contract period due to loss or damage. An iPhone 4 can fetch $200 on the used market and prices go up from there.

'200 million' fanbois using iOS 7 just a week after release - study

Steve Todd

Re: It's cause they're dying for a change

I hate to point this out to you, but market research shows more people jumping TOO Apple than away from it. Market share data ignores the facts that (1) the market is increasing in size dramatically and (2) much of the new market is in bargain basement devices that are free on contract to subscribers who should have otherwise chosen a dumb or feature phone.

Most Apple users were perfectly happy with iOS 6, and more than likely there's going to be some backlash because they didn't want it to change. Personally I'm on the whole happy with it (particularly features like being able to tell it just to get on and auto-upgrade apps without bothering me) but you shouldn't confuse the wants and likes of tech bloggers with the core audience.

Steve Todd

Re: Stats Pedant - @kristian Walsh

As of iOS 6 there is no need for iTunes. iOS devices are perfectly capable of backing themselves up to the cloud and upgrading without ever have been connected to a PC.

iOS 7 SPANKS Samsung's Android in user-experience rating

Steve Todd
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Re: iDIOTS Operating System

However you look at it DLNA is a bad standard. Even the manufacturers themselves worked this out and came up with Miracast which is quite close to AirPlay in its scope and ambition. Doing heavy lifting on a low power mobile device is stupid, and that's mostly where the feeds are coming from.

Steve Todd

Re: iDIOTS Operating System

DLNA is far from simple to get working as the standard has so many options and alternatives. Your TV set may support one variant, your phone another and never the twain shall meet. Apple created their own alternative in AirPlay and the DLNA crowd have been playing catch-up. If there's an AirPlay compatible device on the local network then an icon appears in your media app. Tap that and you're connected and playing on the remote device, simples.

Special format? Well if you count MP4 as a special format ... And you don't even need to do that with apps like VLC. Likewise you can run Plex servers and play media back from that on your device, or iTunes and run that push or pull (ie. sending media from iTunes to a device, or the device requesting the media it's self).

As for WiFi signal strength, it gives you that on the top of the screen when you connect. The only point at which a signal analyser is useful is when you're setting up a network and you want to know what band number has least interference. Even that is dealt with by modern base stations that look at activity themselves.

Steve Todd
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Re: iDIOTS Operating System

Dropbox downloads to its own personal file space on iOS, the only thing you can't do is chose where it is going to put it (and why should you care?)

You need not go anywhere near iTunes, and that has been the case since iOS 6 was released.

iBooks handles ePub format books just fine. Use Dropbox or email to get the files on to your device and then open them in iBooks, easy.

The native format for music is MP4 AAC, which isn't DRM'd, is an industry standard and is better quality than MP3 at the same bit rate. If you still insist on MP3 then it will happily play them, and there are many music apps in the store so you aren't limited to Apple software.

There are limits on what you can do, but for the average user these limits are meaningless (you honestly think Joe Public wants to run a WiFi analyser?)

Hardbitten NYC cops: Sir, I'm gonna need you to, er, upgrade to iOS 7

Steve Todd
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Re: Disable Find my iPhone?

So a mugger is going to hang around long enough to extract the password out of you and test that it is correct? The whole point about these kind of things is not that they make theft impossible, but that they increase the risk to the thief and reduce the resale value of a stolen phone. Those two factors together will reduce the number of thefts.

Steve Todd
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Re: Disable Find my iPhone?

Nice theory, but you can't assign it to another Apple ID unless you know the password for the current ID. Activation is by device ID, not mobile SIM number so changing that won't help either. Once the device is tied via Find my IPhone to your ID it won't let you change that association without entering your password, which the thief won't have.

Steve Todd
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Re: Disable Find my iPhone?

Or, you know, switch it off. The problem is that you can't do anything with it while it is disconnected from the network or turned off. Not much value to a thief.

One of last few iPhone 5Ss STOLEN from within MASSIVE POLICE CORDON at Apple Store

Steve Todd

Re: One wonders if he'd activated "Find my iPhone"

Which still doesn't let him wipe/reactivate the phone without knowing the iTunes password of the owner.

Steve Todd

One wonders if he'd activated "Find my iPhone"

If so it's going to be an education to the thief.

Qualcomm turns back hands of Toq smartwatch

Steve Todd
FAIL

If they haven't even announced a product

How do you know that they will, and that it will be a copy?

First look: Apple iPhone 5S and 5C

Steve Todd

Re: Whatever. - @Lusty

What you're missing is the fact that Obviously! is a well known Apple hating troll. There's no point in trying to get into a rational argument with him, just down vote and move on.

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Is it ... Win Phone 8? No, it's APPLE'S iOS 7

Steve Todd

Re: OSX? Original iMacs?

Here's a screenshot from OS X 10.1 circa 2001. Translucent/glass effects galore.

http://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/article/20000913/apple2.jpg

Steve Todd

Re: Not the end of skeuomorphism on ipad

They're apps, not part of the core OS. Apple will no doubt update them separately.

Steve Todd

Re: Thumbs up. Apple Vs Microsoft

That whooshing noise is the point going completely over your head. He tried to pay Microsoft as soon as they actually sent him the email. They made the process unpleasant and, after he'd jumped through rings and hoops, said no he couldn't have the package after all. Apple made it simple and easy to get their free update. He wouldn't have minded paying Microsoft, and considering they were asking a customer for cash you'd have thought it would be something they'd make quick and simple also.

Steve Todd

Re: Is it a bird, is it a plane? ( Darren Barratt)

I think the point was that if it's something that is affordable by single mums then it's not really eyewateringly expensive or out of the budget of mere mortals. The S3 isn't a "value" phone either.

Steve Todd

Re: OSX? Original iMacs?

Those original iMacs as in the G4's (the G3 had admittedly gone out of production), glass effects were liberally spread about in that. Aeroglass was a mix of that and hardware compositing, which was a feature of 2002's OS X 10.2.

Steve Todd

Re: Is it a bird, is it a plane? @jemma

Who told you that they were building a value phone? Apple certainly didn't. Their "budget" model is the old iPhone 4S. It would certainly be unwise for any manufacturer of high end/luxury products to jump straight to the budget end of the market. Firstly it devalues the brand and secondly the margins are terrible. There are basically 2 companies these days who are making a profit selling smartphones, Apple and Samsung.

Be happy with your budget phone, but stop trying to pretend that there's no cost or value in producing higher end products.

Steve Todd
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I guess you've never seen the early Aqua interface for OS X then, as released for the original iMacs and copied by Microsoft in Aero.

Dog bites man: Apple's Macs trounce all Windows PCs in customer love

Steve Todd
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Re: Hmmm...

Since the OP asked "when was the last time they used a Windows PC (objectively) to compare" then I gave a perfectly valid answer. I use Windows PCs, of high quality and from an objective viewpoint, on a daily basis. Having made an objective comparison then I prefer the Mac option. There is always going to be a subjective component based on what you use the device for, but for my set of use cases the Mac works better and requires less maintenance.

Steve Todd

Re: My Macbook experience, and observations of those around me.

One has to wonder about the voracity of your post given a number of the errors above.

The Pro is an all aluminium device, with an internal slot loading DVD drive. You couldn't bend the drive if you tried. The eject button is on the keyboard, at the top right. The trackpad is all glass, capitative and configurable to accept light taps as clicks rather than full presses. It's generally regarded as the best trackpad on the market, the gold standard to which PCs aspire. There is only actually 1 video chipset, the other is Intel's integrated version (i.e. crap). The OS switches between the two transparently depending on load, no need to bother about manual tweaks, reboots etc. There are many PC laptops that tried the same trick, mostly with far less success.

Steve Todd
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Re: rounding error

You really need to learn about statistics and sample sizes. The accuracy of the numbers depends on the number of people they ask compared to the total numbers sold. I doubt in this case that the margin of error is more than a percentage point or two.

As for Lenovo, I suspect they don't have a big presence in the consumer space that this survey was interested in. For business use they sell truck loads.

Steve Todd

Re: Hmmm...

Beleive it or not there are those of us who are paid to develop on Windows but prefer the Mac if we're spending our own money. We're not talking about cheap and nasty PC's either, my work PC is a twin Xeon workstation with a 30" Dell screen.

DARPA: You didn't think we could make a Mach 6 spaceplane, so let us have this MACH TEN job

Steve Todd

Re: Basic questions for DARPA projects

And yet there are research projects that started in DARPA that have changed the world (the Internet began life as ARPANET, when DARPA was called ARPA). Research is not a bad thing. What you do with the results can be.

Apple's liquid-crystal screen pusher mulls $2bn IPO – report

Steve Todd

Re: I wonder if.... @random handle

The 1% OPERATING margin (i.e. after costs are subtracted) they were talking about was due to a cut in orders from Apple. It's the same in any business, if you have a large customer who cuts their orders then you're going to see a cut in profits. It doesn't matter WHO that customer is.

A margin of only 1% is still a profit, not being "nearly sunk". Foxconn run almost permanently on not much more. What we don't know is why Apple reduced orders as their sales numbers weren't as bad as the pundits were predicting and they also source from 2 other display manufacturers (AU Optronics and Samsung). It's possible they were struggling to reach quality standards or volume.

Steve Todd
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Re: but they don't seem interested in buying manufacturers per se

Sorry, which company that Apple bought were actual manufacturers rather than design houses? They are interested in designs/IP but not so much with physical manufacturing.

Steve Todd

Re: I wonder if....

Apple will help with financing of new/additional production line capacity for their suppliers (I presume in exchange for guaranteed capacity), but they don't seem interested in buying manufacturers per se. Samsung have to be careful in buying other companies in this field or they may find themselves in a monopoly position, and will have all sorts of restrictions dropped on them if they do.

Apple to uncloak new iPads, iMacs at October 15 event?

Steve Todd

Re: still waiting

"time was when Apple announced, Apple shipped...."

No, if they have something completely new then they have been known to announce it long before you could buy one. Remember the original iPhone? If its just an upgraded model then they don't want the Osborn effect to cut it so they ship quite close to the announcement.

Steve Todd

Re: Sounds like a fantastic idea

Erm, iOS *is* OS X ported to ARM, with some clean up and adjustment to the GUI layer to make it work in a touch environment. Porting applications between the two environments is comparatively simple. Expect the two to converge to a greator or lessor degree over time.

Apple named in criminal lawsuit over Premier League–streaming app

Steve Todd

Re: Apple can't be responsible for every app in its store

Rights licensing internationally is a complete mess. Even here in Europe, where we theoretically have an open market that allows private citizens to buy in whichever country they want, there are all sorts of odd legal hurdles to doing so.

All Apple can do is ask a publisher to provide some kind of documentation that they're entitled to provide the material in the country in question (and don't forget that this is often split by the original rights holders into regional and media type packages so even this may not be obvious). The publisher can lie. Does this make Apple liable?

Steve Todd
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Re: Apple can't be responsible for every app in its store

Kind of depends what they are responsible for. Are they responsible for the Kindle app for example if Amazon publishes a book they don't have rights for? This app could have also been used to view legitimate content.

What they have responsibility for is that the app meets their guidelines, that it doesn't do anything to compromise the device and that it isn't designed to do something overtly illegal in the country of sale. If the author then uses it to provide media that is unlicensed in the country of sale without Apple having any approval rights on that media then I'd say Apple aren't liable. If they are informed by the rights holder and continue to sell it then that would be another matter.

Apple’s iOS 64-bit iUpgrade: Don't expect a 2x performance leap

Steve Todd

Re: 64 bit chip

Even Intel don't think the Atom Z series is ready for use under a 64 bit OS yet. They are talking about 2014.

Steve Todd

Re: 64-bit improvement

Apple have an ARM Architechural license. They design and build their own cores. They have done since, IIRC, the A5. The A6 Swift core was quite a lot faster, clock for clock, than a stock Cortex A9, getting close to the A15 in performance on much less power.

The A7 is slated as twice the speed of the A6, but with the same battery life. That isn't efficiency?

As to Apple packaging features up, have you not yet learned that this is what they are best at. They package them in a way that is attractive to users rather than what techies think is attractive (see Windows Tablet Edition vs iPad for an example of that).

Steve Todd
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Re: Exactly - with a modern multitasking OS this would do really well

Erm, iOS is a modern, multitasking OS. It limits what an application can do in the background (and those limits are being relaxed further in iOS 7) to conserve battery life, but under the hood it's the same BSD/Mach hybrid that powers OS X. Google are doing the same kinds of thing under Android BTW.

Steve Todd

Re: Performance?

Until someone gets around to running 32 and 64 bit benchmarks on the new phone we don't really know the answer. It is however unlikely that the new chip would run 32 bit code slower than the old model.

Steve Todd

Re: One wonders

Not quite that simple. 32 bit apps have to run inside of the WOW32 environment in 64 bit Windows, DLLs have to be kept separate and, at least by convention, programs live in a different directory tree. There is no such distinction in OS X. Apps run side by side. The OS knows if they are 32 or 64 bit, but there's no segregation.

Steve Todd
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Re: LaeMing

Even ISRs need only push the registers they use (and modern compilers track this for you). On a CISC machine like x86 then that tends to be most of them, on RISC machines with many registers then no, you don't bother.

Steve Todd
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One wonders

How much the author actually knows about programming. There is no need to have a 32 bit and 64 bit version of the operating system software loaded at the same time. Worst case you need a mapping layer which adds a small overhead. Just because Microsoft have traditionally made a complete mess of this doesn't mean that everyone has to. Take a look at the migration path for OS X apps. 32 bit and 64 bit apps coexist happily on the same core OS. The only part that MUST be 64 bit are device drivers.

Steve Todd
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Re: LaeMing

It's rare in any program to push ALL your registers to the stack, you just need to push those that will be modified. If you don't touch the upper 32 bits of a register then just push the lower 32 bits etc.

TWO can play this 64-bit mobile game, says Samsung, crossly

Steve Todd

Re: Why oh why

Because the instruction set is more efficient and more compiler friendly than 32 bit ARM. Even if you're only doing 32 bit things, your code recompiled in 64 bit mode should be faster.

That and ARMv8 is much better at floating point math than its predissesor, which is worth having in many 32 bit program's also.

iPhone 5S: Apple, you're BORING us to DEATH (And you too, Samsung)

Steve Todd
FAIL

Can we down vote an article please

Markets mature. You can't keep making huge improvements every year. Moores law says you can have double the number of transistors on a chip every 18 months, but says nothing about how fast or efficient they will be. Despite that Apple have managed to double performance again, on the same battery power, while adding new hardware that looks like it might actually be useful (RFID? Meh).

What else were you expecting from a phone?

For PITY'S SAKE, DON'T BUY an iPHONE 5S, begs FSF

Steve Todd
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Re: Blah blah blah -@AC 14:24

Your tinfoil hat is loose. You don't store images of fingerprints, you store signature data. It's like saying you can steal the contents of a file because you know it's hash.

Steve Todd

Re: Blah blah blah -@AC 14:24

By implication fingerprint verification is done in hardware on the A7 chip. How are your VHDL/Verilog reading skills? There's no such thing as a totally open system, and even as close as we get to it there isn't anyone who understands the whole system in its entirety.

Steve Todd
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Re: Blah blah blah -@AC 14:24

You missed the bit where Apple said that fingerprint data would only ever be stored inside of the A7 chip and be accessed by their security API? You've got some evidence to disprove that?

First rigid airship since the Hindenburg cleared for outdoor flight trials

Steve Todd

Re: I'm curious

You have bike tyres pressurised to 8 bar? I really wouldn't want to run a tyre much above 3 bar and car tyres run closer to 2 bar.

Apple's no-news Beijing event leaves it adrift in China

Steve Todd
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Re: Shareprice in freefall

Stock market rule of thumb: buy on rumour, sell on news. Lets wait until the price settles before we start with the snarky remarks shall we?

(Oh, and down 2.3% on the day is not "in freefall")

New iPhones: C certainly DOESN'T stand for 'Cheap'

Steve Todd
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Re: Biggest change

Did you miss the word "default"?