Posts by David Mantripp

oh whatever

"Technology and features in the iPhone have always been secondary to the cool factor - an area in which Apple is still well ahead of the competition"

Yeah, yeah. What Apple has always tried to avoid, usually succesfully, is to implement features BADLY. So, if you can't initially work out a way to do MMS well, don't do it. Total opposite to Symbian, where you've got everything but practically all of it is so godawfully badly designed that it is totally useless to the average person.

Maybe just part of the reason that it's "cool" is because it actually works, and is a pleasure to use, not a fscking pain in the arse ? Looking nice doesn't do any harm either, but again, the average person doesn't equate a rectangular plastic box studded with more protrusions than a wathog with "looking nice"

Having said that, Copy & Paste on the Newton was very "cool". But it would probably be tricky to implement without a stylus.

I can't think of a title

I'm a very recent "convert" to the iPhone, and I'm very familiar with the Nokia N series and Sony Ericsson. It is true that you can, in theory, do many things on these that you can't do on the iPhone, for example app switching and cut and paste. But they are so god-bloody-awfully implemented that they remain totally in edge case territory - 99% of users will not even find them. It is very interesting to see the stats on mobile data access too: the iPhone is wiping the floor with everybody else (although Android is doing pretty well) despite having a much lower market share.

Stuff like threaded SMS (yes, S-E has had it for years, but see above) and, yes, the App store, are why it is selling. No amount of marketing can sustain sales of a crap device over so much time. And being blinded by the irritating behaviour of the (actually very small) fanboy brigade is just sad, as are ad hominen attacks on Steve Jobs and his staff.

It's a remarkable piece of engineering and design, and has been built to respond to the real world needs of people who want a device that works well, rather than to feature list obsessed engineering-led design manifesto.

I hope that Nokia has the guts to bin Symbian and the N-Series warthogs and step up to the challenge.

Zen

Another vote for Cale here. And KD Lang in #2 spot.

@spezzer - you don't get it, do you

Go and read Sarah's comments again. And TRY to understand. Try very hard.

Dark Horse ? Hardly

Huh ? Panasonic's LUMIX brand is the digicam market leader in many countries.

Usual total lack of research or clue by El Reg....

basically...

...a cult is what big religions call small religions.

Very similar to the IT industry really.

Not necessarily rocket science

Dunno about the US, but in some regions SMS service providers include a number lookup service which can go some way towards designing a solution to this.

But designing something like that gets dangerously close to hard work...

Pathetic

So, a completely misrepresentative piece of "journalism" based on highly selective quotes and plain untruths is justification for labelling Greenpeace as "leeches and scum", etc, is it ? Who is the attention whore here ? Greenpeace, or Tony Smith ?

What a wonderful world.

Down with Voda

"Both solutions use the data channel to send text messages, breaching the terms and conditions for data bundles - such as Vodafone UK's, which explicitly excludes "text messaging clients".

Surely that is as clear a case of anti-competitive behaviour as even a European Commissioner could hope for ?

SNAFU

"Someone in the PR department obviously failed to talk to their counterpart in the IT department."

No, someone in the PR department obviously failed to LISTEN to their counterpart in the IT department.

Like every software company larger than 5 people in the known universe, I seriously doubt that Apple is PHB-free.

Whiff of whalesong ?

What about a nice new logo too ? I've seen some really cutting edge stuff for something that escapes me just now around recently.

How much kickback ??

Web 2.0 ??? It's got a bit of Ajax layered on top of the usual half-baked jargon ridden bollox, with an "Enterprise Level Marketing" web site to match, featuring standard cut'n'paste photos of some slim blonde bint we're supposed to believe is in some way representative of Requirements Management ???

Give me a break. Get Orlowski to give you a few hints on bullshit detection.

WARNING: NASTY WORDS FOLLOW. DON'T READ OR LINK TO.

"Tim 2.0'Reilly"

ROTFL :-)

I'm sure they're both well-meaning, but at the same time so self-righteous, naive and hopelessly clumsy as only these self-appointed New Age gurus manage to be.

Would Tim _Waterstone_ get involved in this sort of caper ? I doubt it. He'd stick to bookselling. Tim O'Reilly would be well advised to do the same, and not risk his business and employee's jobs by getting himself into dangerous waters, A geek backlash against O'Reilly businesses would be sight to behold - reminiscent of the fallout of a certain prawn sandwich analogy.

And it isreally amazing how succesful Ms Sierra's apparently manipulative tactics are proving to be.