* Posts by Mage

9262 publicly visible posts • joined 23 Nov 2007

The fearful price of 4G data coverage: NO TELLY for 90,000 Brits

Mage Silver badge

will have to take care of themselves

That's criminal irresponsibility in Spectrum Planning.

Mobile doesn't actually need the 800MHz, It won't be broadband and all it does is save a few rural masts (more masts = better data rates) reducing data speed compared with the alternative solutions.

This is fuelled by

Government greed on Licence fees

Tech companies

Desire of operators to cut costs rather than improve service capacity

It brings nothing to the consumer and impoverishes DTT, benefits Pay TV on Cable and Satellite.

Only DTT works anywhere. Satellite & Cable are inflexible and Cable is Pay TV only.

ZTE in 4G boost after 'world-first' VoTD-LTE call

Mage Silver badge
Boffin

Not simple. Conclusions wrong

TDD can be LESS efficient. It just can work (more slowly) in less spectrum. Also FDD can be cheaper to implement.

Uplink needs lower symbol rate as client power is more limited than Base Station. Thus even at a 8:1 ratio of download vs upload (a reasonable factor) the uplink needs about the same spectrum.

This means if you use a single unpaired channel your receiver is potentially de-sensed by other nearby modems and the available download speed on average less than 1/2 the FDD paired spectrum. You need guard time between the half duplex Transmit and Receive, reducing efficiency.

TDD will always have higher latency too.

FDD is the more efficient cheaper solution. TDD is only of value to use up odd chunks of spectrum. WiMax had it as it was Intel's concept of outdoor WiFi, hence they stuck it in the LTE spec later to satisfy the small number of operators that would want it.

Boffins develop 'practically free' sulphur-powered batteries

Mage Silver badge

Re: Hot?

Solid in contrast to a liquid electrolyte.

Is ripe Brie solid?

Mage Silver badge

Hot?

It doesn't have to run at 190C or something inconvenient?

The original sulphur batteries needed an auxiliary battery to melt them to start operation.

Steelie Neelie: Crack down on wicked ISPs so we can Skype

Mage Silver badge

Viviane Reding,

Yes +1 on that too

Mage Silver badge
Big Brother

There are idiots in Europe

But Kroes isn't one one of them. Her proposals are pretty consistent in trying to protect the consumer.

If Outfits like Comreg and Ofcom were not simply revenue raising arms of Treasury and mostly supportive of the Status Quo of BT, Sky, Eircom and the Mobile operators and did real protection of Spectrum and Consumer then there would be no need.

Mobile (none is Broadband) and Fixed Broadband is dishonestly marketed by almost all sellers and some don't get it that an ISP just provides a connection.

Of course a lease line or Data Centre connection isn't the same as a Domestic cable connection. The ISPs should be honest about availability, Contention, typical and minimum speeds at peak and off peak times. They should not Block or throttle any Public Internet Traffic.

They are entitled to sell EXTRA services (their own VOIP, Switched Video, Broadcast Video, Hosting, IPTV etc) but any QOS on that should only affect the person subscribing and be made clear before sign-up (i.e. your connection is up to 12Mbps with priority for your IPTV subscription, this is subtracted from your 50Mbps down and 2Mbps up 20:1 contended package with typical minimum speeds of 15Mbps at peak times and 45Mbps at off peak, you might only see 50Mbps at 3AM in the morning if not watching IPTV)

The ASA and ASAI are also complicit in the lies peddled to Consumers. Lets to start with make it illegal to call Mobile Internet, Mobile Broadband.

Broadband: Minimum of 512K (or 2M depending on Jurisdiction) and "always on" (perhaps brief reconnection on DSL once a day). Mobile 21Mbps total sector speed within 250m of mast, Minimum is 120k or no connection. It can refuse to connect or drop connections with as few as 10 users. With 5 users simultaneously streaming per user speed can be under 1Mbps.

Broadband, low latency, low packet loss to ISP router: Mobile is extremely variable up to 1000ms, can be 50% packet loss to ISP router!

Mobile is often Proxied to save Public IPs and for easier control. Broadband you have no proxy and can run low bandwidth personal services without annoying ISP (i.e. a Public Web Server is usually not allowed or sensible), Mobile typically you can't run ANY services, not even remotely turning the oven on.

Landfill Android devices set to get 4G, courtesy of Qualcomm

Mage Silver badge

Also patents

This is why Qualcomm bought Flarion and killed of its early Flash-OFDMA based 4G markets about 5 or 6 years ago. They only wanted the patents and technology.

Mars Express' 10th birthday celebrated with Martian atlas

Mage Silver badge

Surely

The Bradbury Academy of Sciences.

Ecuador: Let's talk about not having Julian Assange on our sofa

Mage Silver badge

Reality

The Swedish won't hand JA over to the US. But given suitable incentives the Ecuadorians might.

If the US had wanted him Extradited, the UK would have been far more likely to consider it. I think the US are idiots, Ecuador has only done it to annoy US and UK and JA is an egotist.

How Microsoft shattered Gnome's unity with Windows 95

Mage Silver badge
Flame

This is nonsense

There is actually minor difference between Win 3.x and Win9.x desktop.

The actual windows / applications and icons/menus on both are the same.

So what is the differences?

The desktop from Win9.x onwards is one giant global Program Manager group that can't be resized or minimised. You can create folder icons on win9.x desktop that are like Program manager groups so your main desktop isn't too cluttered.

The only real difference is the taskbar with start button. Which can easily be added as an application on a desktop Icon. Of course an Explorer window is completely different to File Manager, but that is really just a different File managing/Browsing tool integrated to the Desktop.

You can operate Win 3.1 desktop very like Win9.x except for Start Button/Task bar, is can easily be added. Nothing revolutionary or patentable.

Win 2.x Win 3.1, Gem, Llsa, Mac and others simply copied the Xerox project and each other.

MS or Apple don't deserve a single desktop patent, nor should anything like that be Patentable, only copyright protected if original.

Part of the fragmentary and Disparate nature of various UNIX/GNU/Linux desktops is due to underlying architecture of X-Windows being more flexible allowing any kind of Window Manager. The MS Windows API is quite different.

Groundbreaking Camino browser digs grave, jumps in

Mage Silver badge
Unhappy

many More Browsers?

If you discount Spyware with Lipstick and simple variations they now have a choice of two rather than one before Chimera. PC Users since Opera is abandoning it's own engine have a choice of three if we apply the same criteria. There appears to be a big selection on Linux, but is there really any more choice of really viable/actually different engines than on OS X?

So another choice bites the dust.

Google nuke thyself: Mountain View's H.264 righteous flame-out

Mage Silver badge
Boffin

Broadcast & H.264

All Digital Broadcast is MPEG2 and much HD is MPEG4. Some countries use only MPEG4 even for SD. TVs, PVRs, Setboxes can't use SW codecs economically. They use dedicated HW. Hence TVs, Setboxes etc with MPEG2 only can't upgrade via Firmware to MPEG4 and boxes & TVs that do MPEG4 & MPEG2 and HD can't have VP8 added by Firmware.

BD players use HW based codecs too, MPEG2 (for DVDs) and MPEG4

The "Appliance", tablet, phone and gadget markets dwarf PC/Laptops. ARM based gadgets use SoC HW in the ARM CPU for Codec and Graphics. No SW/Firmware codecs. So VP8 was dooomed from the start due to only being used for Internet and lack of built in HW support.

2K HD Broadcast will use H.265

This was not decided by the "Internet" or MPEG LA, but Gadget, Chipmakers and Broadcasters.

Microsoft's Windows 8.1 secrets REVEALED ... sort of

Mage Silver badge

Re: Sounds more like 8.01

Didn't Windows 2.0 have resizeable apps?

It's a bikini on a hippo

Developer codes VNC-over-GIF tool

Mage Silver badge
Holmes

Umm..

What's the advantage over the ancient already MJPEG (NOT MPEG) format?

I suppose 256 colours + palette is acceptable instead of full colour and no palette.

Of course MJPEG was designed for files not streaming, but unlike GIF was envisaged to be used for video.

This is unlikely to work with any GIF viewer as they expect a file and can't read a stream. Also there is a hardly used animated version of PNG, The APNG format supports 24 bit and transparency as well as 256 colour palettes. Surely a better starting point if you don't like MJPEG (i.e. licence conditions or content non-photographic)?

An MPEG-TS can in theory be used for streaming M-APNG or M-GIF variant, MJPEG etc and not just MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4 etc as it's just a multiplex envelope and has advantage it can do sound, non-image data (IP Broadcast or non-IP, even Unicast using DOCSIS) etc all in same stream.

At least he admits he can't see the point of it!

World's richest hobo (Apple) has worked 'tax-free' in Ireland since '80s

Mage Silver badge
Devil

Re: Easy answer then

I think currently the EU's finest are trying to figure if there is merely Tax Avoidance (can be immoral and not what intended but not actually illegal) or Tax Evasion (Illegal) or both and if both can be reduced.

But EU and USA need to co-ordinate and pressure Singapore, Caymans, Bahamas, Switzerland etc to have the same rules.

Stage one: Make everyone report earnings in Each country. Even Tesco when reporting UK results refuse to divulge Irish figures, lumping them into the UK figures! Sky Might be breaking VAT rules on Irish subscriptions.

I'll be surprised if some (many? all?) Large Multinationals are not technically doing Tax Evasion as well as Tax Avoidance.

Brit spooks bugged Edward VIII's phones, records reveal

Mage Silver badge

Winston and Stalin, and Molotov

I guess Stalin didn't let Molotov mix the cocktails.

Happy 23rd birthday, Windows 3.0

Mage Silver badge
Alert

Re: This was 1990, when most people at home

Most people at home didn't have a computer at all.

DOS, CP/M, DRDOS and loads of types of incompatible dedicated Terminals all being used in small offices. Almost zero use of Windows 2.0, Windows 286 and Windows 368. Very very few Mac. Far too expensive for ordinary small offices.

In 1989, Apple disposed of approximately 2,700 unsold Lisas in a guarded landfill. Never saw one.

Early Mac used ROM based OS and one 3.5" floppy. I did see some of these.

If you had serious money it was the era of the Mac IIcx, I never ever saw one of these despite working in with computers from 1979 and IT training & Support from 1990.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macintosh_IIcx

IBM OS/2 + MS LAN Manager, MS OS/2 (released 1989), DR-Multidos, Xenix, Cromix, Novell etc all being used for small office servers.

Win 3.0 was very short lived really. Many upgraded quickly to 3.1, then 3.11 which were the real OS/2 killers. OS/2 Warp was too late.

Mage Silver badge
Devil

Was it an OS?

Not exactly, but more than a Window Manager. Win 3.1 was a big jump, Win 3,0 was rubbish compared to Win3.1.

The Real and Standard modes very much just a GUI shell to launch DOS Programs. Win 3.0 Enhance Mode a not quite OS, but Win 9x and Win ME not quite OSes either.

WFWG3.11 properly set up with Win32s, 32 bit TCP/IP, good Graphics driver and 32 bit Disk Driver was better than Win95a and as much an OS as Win95, Win98, WinME, which is to say a horrid mish-mash and not a proper OS like NT 3.1, NT3.5, NT3.51 and NT4.0 (You could run Explorer Shell Preview on NT3.51 and Run Program Manager & File Manager on NT 4.0 instead of Explorer Shell).

Mage Silver badge
Coat

Infamous Filemangler?

You need two instances of Explorer to manage files, its still got UI design flaws since Win95 and more awkward for moving or copying than File Manager.

My Archos File Browser is very like File Manager. Why is it Infamous? What was wrong with it?

Mines the one with a Smart Phone, Kindle and Archos 605 in the pocket.

Irish deputy PM: You want more tax from Apple? Your problem, not ours

Mage Silver badge
Devil

Channel Islands, Caymans, Bahamas, Isle of Man etc

Curiously a lot of the Offshore locations are British or Dutch offshore locations.

The problem with the Irish Taxation system is that in making Royalties tax free (to encourage artists & writers) and also trying to avoid Double taxation that it opens a massive loop hole for these Corporations to exploit.

The anti-double taxation provisions are obviously flawed as is what constitutes valid royalty payments (e.g. Starbuck's transfer of all profits to IP charges of stuff worthless on open market)

Mage Silver badge

Except

They don't pay Ireland 12.5% either.

Soylent Corporation prepares to DEFEAT FOOD

Mage Silver badge
Thumb Up

Re: Geeks.....

Also beware of Geeks bearing gifts.

That shiny USB mouse might have something extra inside.

It! Started! With! A! GIF!... Yahoo! Actually! Buys! Tumblr! for! $1bn!

Mage Silver badge
Flame

Pointless

Twitbook is stupid. But at least for their owners there is the Knowledge BBC and other broadcasters promote it almost every radio program, also many big companies.

Tumblr should be called "Tumbleweed". They have flushed $1B down the drain. Probably even if they got both parts of Twitbook $1B is throwing money away.

They could have done something with Geocities, they owned it and it was reasonably popular. Not sure how they could have made money out of it without annoying the users, but then that's true for Twitbook, Flickr, Tumblr reddit, etc

Nvidia opens pre-orders for handheld Shield console three days early

Mage Silver badge

Replaces Consoles?

HDMI port and 2kHD?

So a handheld portable AND Flash based Console for 42" HDTV in a controller.

So either it will be a Jaguar or WII in Sales depending on games. People aren't going to buy a Console any more to simply to play CD / DVD /.BD (Sony PS1 / PS2 / PS3). Maybe they think Flash makes Optical Drives and HDDs obsolete for gaming.

Hey, Teflon Ballmer. Look, isn't it time? You know, time to quit?

Mage Silver badge
Devil

Re: Gates and Ballmer

No.

1) Mid to late 1970s: Gates got a friend to Port "free" Dartmouth Basic and flogged it as MS BASIC to CP/M users. Launched them.

2) Early 1980s: Bought an 8088 / 8086 rip off of CP/M and licensed it to IBM. Secured them for nearly 10 years.

3) Late 1980s to Early 1990s: Hijacked IBM OS/2 by being partner. Integrated LAN Manager to sell it as a server OS (MS OS/2 1989 after they fell out with IBM). Created Windows as a Shell on DOS copying the best ideas of Apple Lisa, Xerox Star, Digital Research Gem and IBM Presentation Manager (the Windows bit of OS/2).

4) Rebuilt MS OS/2 with some ideas from VMS (ironically a great security Model and NTFS with "Streams" because both rarely used by MS or 3rd party applications). Integrated WFWG 3.11 32bit TCP/IP and Program Manager + File Manager as NT 3.1 (This why Windows 8, really NT 6.3 approx starts as NT3.1)

5) Nearly kills embronic NT Workstation (NT Server OK) by the Evil Shell Makeover for Game Playing based on WFWG 3.11 called Win95 (no USB in 1st version, by 1994 WFWG has 32bit Disk manager, 32 bit TCP/IP and Win32s to run NT applications as well as working Multimedia). Win95 DirectX is a departure from Win API and excellent NT OpenGL really to allow easy porting of DOS Games. NT gets DirectX with NT 4.0 and no OpenGL on Win95. Win95 has 5 further versions, the Win98SE the best and Win ME the worst. Win95 success kills OS/2 Warp, but IBM mainframe people doing their best to make OS/2 a failure anyway.

6) Belatedly discover Internet after everyone else and make horribly incompatible Browsers even though based on Mosaic..

7) Dominate Office Apps, Internet Browser and Desktop. So give us the Rubbish of IE 6 then of Ribbon and Vista. Have cheek to charge for Vista fix pack as Win7.

Mage Silver badge

Pippin

At least after years of loss making the Xbox is beating Pippin.

But MS had Smartphones YEARS before Apple did a phone and went down the drain years for befoore Symbian crashed. Windows phone (CE) was once 1st in USA, though never 1st worldwide. They then fell to less than 5% in USA

They also had PDAs and true Tablets over 10 years ago,

So they didn't fail to see the market, they were holding it wrong. Ballmer is useless. Most MS software in the last 10 years is either incremental or where there are big changes they are STUPID changes.

Windows 8 'sales' barely half as good as Microsoft claims

Mage Silver badge
Facepalm

Re: Do the Windows Shuffle!

CP/M

DR Dos, (Servers Cromix, BSD UNIX, DR Multidos)

Win 3.11 WFWG 3.11 (Server NT 3.5, then Server NT 3.51)

NT 4.0 (Workstation and Enterprise Server). [Keep a PC with DOS and Win98 for specialist tools using Serial and/or parallel port]

(1999 test Linux Servers & Workstations start)

XP (2002)

(2006 Linux on one Laptop for ARM development)

( 2007 Update Server to 2K Advanced)

( 2011 Update Windows Server to Debian)

....?

2014 Maybe Linux for main Workstation, keep one XP for legacy apps?

Who is Samsung trying to kid? There will NEVER be a 5G network

Mage Silver badge
Boffin

Huh?

This isn't even new.

But 28GHz is more appropriate to feeding masts, car roofs from space or roof top aerials. My Broadband is by Fixed Wireless at 10.6GHz, the aerial panel (outdoors, high up) gets a Mast 14km away and has an array of 64 aerials in it. It's six years old.

There may be a 5G. But it won't be this.

Lego fan constructs Bletchley Park Colossus

Mage Silver badge

Re: LEGO vs. Playmobile

Or the Cute version of Playmobile, Sylvanian Families. I like Lego, but Sylvanian Families is the Ultimate "Dolls House" toy to recreate "Tails of the Riverbank" without live animals? ;-)

Mage Silver badge

That scheme was European.

Mullard was Philips' secret entry to the UK valve Cartel in 1928. No-one really noticed till 1939. EF36 etc isn't a British nomenclature.

There was the Marconi numbering scheme. That was British.

Also till about 1942 Ever Ready had their own scheme which replaced Lissen's in 1930s. They were mostly relabelled Mullard valves.

Some UK makers used the US scheme.

see Radiomuseum and National Valve Museum

Google's cloud dumps custom Linux, switches to Debian

Mage Silver badge

Debian Makes Sense.

CentOs is essentially the Free Redhat so Ditto.

Spotify spews 'unencrypted' FREE MP3s all over creation

Mage Silver badge
FAIL

DRM on music

Pointless to stop real pirates

Option 1: Virtual Audio Cable

Option 2: Two sound cards or second computer.

'Quantum network? We've had one for years,' says Los Alamos

Mage Silver badge

Why does it worry me?

Eve is offering to sell me Quantum Hubs.

Nokia shareholder tells CEO Elop he's going to hell

Mage Silver badge

Re: Oh Dear

Nokia took the wrong turning sometime in 2002. Even without Elop they were doomed. As if he is slowing or accelerating the end, I don't know. But they are doomed. It's too late. They are now really just a Marketing and Distribution company. Maybe they should flog that bit and the name to someone instead of the long drawn out demise of Kodak and Polariod?

Oz chap blows his own Google Glass

Mage Silver badge
Coat

Re: Do they come with a remote?

In the big open plan office ...

Replace

"Jimmy! How do you format your disk?"

--"Format C:" he shouts

"Are you sure?"

-- "YES!"

With "How do I do a factory Reset?"

Unless you are on your own (or some sort of disability) voice control is nearly as bad as the "Heart of Gold" gesture controls.

Peak Apple: Foxconn contemplating life after Cupertino

Mage Silver badge

Radio China (Not they I listen to them usually)

Radio China last night had a very critical article on Foxconn. I remember wben Foxconn made dodgy 486 Mobos.

Of course a Taiwanese company isn't a PRC Comapany.

NORKS powers down whole towns to find pirates

Mage Silver badge
Coat

DVD Player

How many in NK have?

Electricity,

TV sets

DVD players

It's a baffling story. Hope my passport is where I left it.

So long, Hotmail: Remaining users migrated to Outlook.com

Mage Silver badge

Re: No

Yes, that's when you don't want to be taken seriously.

Why next iPhone screen could be made of SAPPHIRE - and a steal...

Mage Silver badge

Re: True, but...

Yes, Watch faces have used Sapphire for maybe 50 years. Due to the fact it's much more scratch resistant. Cheap watches used to get quite poorly with scratches in a few months due to softness of the glass.

Want to know what CIA spooks really think of spy movies and books?

Mage Silver badge
Coat

Re: Err, hang on a minute ...

Yes, Obviously Ian Fleming was paid to create Bond.

His brother though was probably a spy and reading his factual books the question that's in my mind is why was he there if he wasn't a spy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/News_from_Tartary

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One%27s_Company

" Peter and his brother Ian were commissioned by Colin Gubbins to help establish the Auxiliary Units. This was to be the "secret army" of civilian volunteers that would fight on, behind enemy lines, as part of the British anti-invasion preparations of World War II. [Peter ?] Fleming later served in Norway and Greece; his principal service, however, from 1942 to the end of the war, was as head of "D Division," in charge of military deception operations in Southeast Asia."

So Bond was a latter day "deception" exercise by Ian.

More about Peter

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Fleming_%28writer%29

I can't help thinking of Sherlock Homes and his less famous Brother.

Mine's the one with the "one time pads" on Rice Paper and Bubble gum.

PEAK iPHONE? Apple mobe growth slumps to ‘lowest in its history’

Mage Silver badge
Thumb Up

Re: 1/3 of their market value as cash

Excellent point.

But that was Marketing clever, not innovation. Once that is out of the Bottle it helps every gadget maker. I had a Nokia Communicator N9210 Fortunately the office paid for it; handy being able to send and receive real Faxes as well as real email.

Actually I still can't justify a Mobile Data contract. I have to find a WiFi point when I travel.

Mage Silver badge

Re: Mage

And Braun Radios.

Ives even has admitted that all the simple white Apple products inspired/copied Braun Products case designed by Dieter Rams. He is still alive and quite Chuffed.

Mage Silver badge
Facepalm

Re: Erm... profits?

Yes, before the iPod they made a lot of profit from Premium price Macs when IBM was losing money on PCs.

iPod November 2001

Dell took over the top spot of PC manufacturer from Compaq in 2001

Compaq taken over by HP in 2002 (called a Merger)

IBM sold PCs to Lenovo in 2004

Apple was making huge margin on the Macs.

Apple still makes more profit on Macs (as they still command an Apple Premium) than other makers but Mac share is still at Windows Phone levels.

Unless there is a massive culture change in Apple they will still make 20%+ profit on a Niche Phone /Tablet /Mac etc when others make 5%+ profit or a loss in a commodity market.

Mage Silver badge
Alert

1/3 of their market value as cash

But really there is a natural limit to how much you can polish an OS or Phone. The original wasn't actually revolutionary, the bits had just become economic and they added some 1950s Dieter Rams Style.

A lot of Jobsian Hype.

So they are reaching a natural plateau and without someone with MORE Reality Distortion Field and More vision than s. Jobs they can only make changes that make it worse (i.e. Apple Maps).

So far to soon to buy the shares. They will eventually be 1/10th of the peak 2012.

Guess who PC-slaying tablets are killing next? Keyboard biz Logitech

Mage Silver badge

Logitech killed themselves

They started as the distributor for Modula-2 and one of the first Mouse makers (perhaps due to Lileth?).

But long ago their products became tacky and overpriced compared to better Asian ones. The "Universal" Remote idea is good but the Logitech ones are too expensive and actually not the best concept.

They need to seriously rethink their product lines.

Mosaic turns 20: Let's fire up the old girl, show her the web today

Mage Silver badge

Trumpet?

I remember hearing that. But I came late to the Web, though had used Prestel then various services via X.25 via 300 baud dialup PAD.

So though my first Browser was a Mosaic version, it used MS 32bit TCP/IP for WFWG 3.11. Dial up modem on the PC.

October 1995 we trashed our NT Server installing MS beta proxy (Catapult?) and after fixing it installed Wingate 1.0 to share the phone line Modem on demand to five PCs with WFWG3.11. We put Win95 on only 1 machine (for kids to game) and gradually added NT4.0 Workstations with Netscape in 1996 onward. A couple of Win98 PCs in 1999 for the kids to play games on.

Today an 11 year old Laptop with XP and Firefox connecting to Internet using my own design of Linux based Router & WiFi (108Mbps WiFi on Laptop) , cable modem to outdoor 10GHz 14km Microwave link (8Mbps/1Mbps speed). 2 x 1 Gbps switches for the rest of the Network. No MS Server, Linux Server, though we did have a Microsoft Server for nearly 18 years.

Smartphone and tablet displays: Reg readers weigh in

Mage Silver badge
Coat

WE knew this 30 years ago

It was just too expensive then

Phone

More than 4.5" and you need to keep the width the same. maybe 2.4:1 rather than 1.85:1 (16:9) to get any bigger screen and still fit in pocket.

For Tablet overall size including case needs to be about Clipboard / Letter Size / A4, thus the 11" screen.

You need minimum 133dpi on a 11" or larger screen and about 266dpi minimum on a phone as it can be held closer.

Desktop/Laptop minimum either 15" 4:3 or 17" Widescreen, minimum 1200 pixels high, ideally more.

HDTV for 2.4m distance viewing, 42" screen. Needs quite large text and GUI that works without Touch, Mouse or QWERTY.

These need four different GUIs. Trying as per Win98 and WinCE *OR* as per Win8 to use the same "home screen" and GUI on the full range is stupidity.

Mine's the one with a Tablet pouch :-D

High-rollers’ shop pitches wallet-pounding, wall-pummelling MONSTER TV

Mage Silver badge
Coat

Harvey Norman

The local Harvey Norman has an 85" on display (I forget if LG or Samsung). Very nice too. €13,500 sounds a lot but much shorter life Plasma TVs with only 480 lines used to sell at €6,000.

Considering all else equal 84" panels will have about 4 times as many rejects as 42" panels and all the Electronics etc, you'd expect the 84" equivalent of top of the range 42" to be about £5000 rather than £35,000

Sure isn't everyone watching 4" and 7" screens now :-)

Peak Apple: Cupertino belatedly spends some money on R&D

Mage Silver badge
Childcatcher

2.5%

How much of the R&D spending is researching and writing up all those patents? I'm sure that is on the R&D budget. I accept the ligation is a different budget.

Google's Euro antitrust offer: Fine! We'll link to our search rivals

Mage Silver badge
Black Helicopters

Re: Another dodgy practice...

There are search rivals? Actual viable alternatives?