Posts by eugene

Stylus? Who wants a stylus?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YY3MSaUqMg

Versions

XP or Linux?

Shouldn't that be ...

XP or RedHat 7.2 (or whatever linux distro was released in 2001)?

Why are people still talking about an 11-year old OS today? Isn't it high time for organizations - especially ones that are very concerned about security - to switch to something more modern?

heh

funny, when macs come with iLife, it's a great feature. When Windows comes with Live apps, it's bloatware. tsk tsk tsk.

App usage, not smartphone market share

Don't forget that many free apps have Admob ads on them. The huge number of half-useless apps would drive the admob numbers up, yet have little relevance to real life.

Sensationalism anyone?

batteries forget

@Anonymous Coward

Batteries will not tell the computer how much runtime is left. They can tell the computer the current power consumption, how much power has been put back into the battery during the last charge, the battery's capacity, and stuff like that. The computer then calculates the runtime from that data. I've seen large numbers like that after coming out of standby, like the other AC mentioned. Fixes itself quickly.

The full-charge-discharge calibration sequence is real - it might take a few months for a battery to reach you - the cells would have self-discharged a little. The battery's chip doesn't account for that, so a full discharge-recharge cycle will recalibrate it.

i want...

... a browser ballot screen for the iphone/ipod touch!

GFC?

I'd imagine the global financial crisis might have a hand in that somewhere?

welcome....

Welcome to 2002, AT&T iPhone users!

I recall with a smile, when the iphone was younger, some apple fanatics claiming that apple left out the mms feature because they thought it should die... that everyone should email pics to each other instead. Awwww.

recovering waterlogged phones is common

Recovering a waterlogged phone is a very common thing. Just google "recover wet phone" or something similar. There must be a lot of jesuses out there. :)

My old phone had it

My old Nokia 5140i from years ago had it, plus more. From the manual:

Automatic volume control — Select On to automatically set the volume of the earpiece at a certain level that you have set with the volume keys. For example, if the environment is noisy, the earpiece volume is increased, or if the person you are talking to on the phone is speaking very loudly, the volume is decreased.

http://nds2.nokia.com/phones/files/guides/Nokia_5140_UG_en.pdf

tsk tsk

I'm another one of those happy Vista users. I run it on three computers and it works just fine under heavy load. People seem to like bashing it because it's 'the cool thing to do', regardless of whether or not they've even tried it themselves! I have friends who say vista is bad even though they haven't used it - quite amusing.

The LAS not seeing a need to upgrade can be seen as praising XP. Perhaps XP works perfectly fine for their needs, so they see no reason to upgrade. If it ain't broken, don't fix it! Of course, Vista-bashers will immediately see it as "they must have thought vista was crap, which is why they didn't upgrade". Ahh, what simplistic minds. :)

Where's my coat?

Don't use google then

If all you google haters are so against Google serving you ads based on your surfing habits, don't use google. Google is free, and it works really well. Don't complain about free things! They make money from advertising to provide you a service. If you don't like how they make their money, don't use their free services.

Read my email? Yes, i'm very sure Google is interested in reading the emails of a few hundred million people.

There's a difference between reading an email and parsing an email. I definitely mind a human reading my email, but if a computer was parsing it looking for keywords to decide what ads would appear on the page, I really, really don't care. How does it affect you? Apart from paranoia.

What's to prevent any internet company from doing the same? They all have access to your email.

Steal my passwords? What, you're all using the same password for all your accounts? tsk tsk.

Bottom line: You google-haters aren't as important as you think. Nobody really cares enough about you to bother to sit down and read your email. You're not that interesting. Really. Paranoia paranoia paranoia.

Did you know that word processors ... read ALL your documents? How else would they know when to put a squiggly red line under mistyped words? Not to mention, online spellchecks on other webmail providers! GASP!! Oh... oh wait... there's a difference between a human reading what you write, and a dumb computer parsing information. Saying "google reads all your emails" is deliberately misleading to instill paranoia in those who like to sensationalize things. Google doesn't "read" your email like a human does. Computers don't "read" things. They recognize things. OCR isn't called Optical Character Reading for a good reason.

Still paranoid? Don't use any google products, and stop trying to "convert" people by sensationalizing things. Don't even use google products through an anonymizer if you're against the way the company makes money to provide you with that free service.

Re: James Anderson

Just one or two smartphones? I prefer the many-different-models approach. There is no one (or two) phones that will suit everyone - different people have different wants and needs in a phone. An iphone is an iphone is an iphone. Don't like the lack of a keyboard? A heavy user who needs to replace the battery in the middle of the day? Need corporate features, and a phone that actually cares about data security? Sorry, Apple doesn't have a phone for you.

On the other hand, if you need business features, you can get an E66, if you want a keyboard, you can get an E71 or E90. Want just multimedia? You have a selection of N-Series phones to choose from. Don't like the look of one? Get a different one. In the end, nokia will end up selling more phones ... oh .. they already do! :)

Apple seem to have done pretty well with just 4 models? What's their market share now? They're selling an image. It's like saying Prada is doing pretty well with bags. They are, but it doesn't mean Prada bags are superior to <another brand> bags. With the iPhone, people buy them for the name and image, or get fully taken in by the hype and great apple marketing, while the remaining others actually buy it for what it is.

"Makes more sense than the current scattergun strategy" -- it sure seems to be working very well for them! A phone for everyone - not "everyone, you will like this phone!"

I used an iphone for a while but really didn't like typing on a touchscreen. It's a great web surfing (as long as you don't need to type too much) and multimedia device, but a very, very ordinary phone.

Really?

Really, Annoymous Coward?

Do you really want to be lugging around a mobile ITX PC with cables running to your gun and your HMD, while you're trying to be stealthy and run around while maintaining your agility?

What happens if your power-hungry PC runs out of batteries? If a cable gets damaged in the field? If your cable gets caught in something and pulls you down?

Do you even want to be wearing a HMD when you're actively running around? What if in the heat of battle, your HMD moves off to the side just a fraction, throwing off your aim, and you end up shooting someone innocent?

Will you be able to come up with a mil-spec TOUGH device that does everything, and fits on a gun, won't get damaged easily, won't be rendered useless by a damaged cable, etc etc .. for 2 million pounds?

Maybe that's why you're not designing things for the military. :)

watch that battery!

Watch that battery usage! If your laptop's battery life is of a concern to you, a mobile phone that supports HSDPA will have its own battery, which will allow you to work longer on the move.

Get one that can be charged over USB and it'll still work if you forget to charge the phone - plus you have a spare phone to use. :)

look at it in context

Some people would pay for build quality and the fact that it's a premium phone.

After all, people pay premium prices for Mercs, Jags, and BMWs that have less features than e.g. a Lexus.

Some people really just have too much money. If they want a phone, and have plenty of money and aren't tech nuts, it's a drop in the ocean. So, why not? They could shred the cash and dump it in the trash and not blink an eye.

I wouldn't mind being one of them. :)

Yawwwn...

Yawwnn... all these rants against Vista will soon be forgotten, and Vista will become the next standard.

Who remembers moving from Win98 to Win2k? Now XP is the new standard. Inevitably, Vista will be the next one.

forever...

You do realize that you'll be waiting forever if you do that!

wires suck

I'm all for a single plug - it'll be a lot more convenient for people who swap phones during the week. I just hope bluetooth headset manufacturers do the same!

Plantronics is moving in the right direction with their Discovery 6xx series. You can get them with charging adaptors to suit most major brands.

In the end though, wires suck! I'm personally waiting for inductive charging to get small enough to be practical. That, plus UWB or whatever becomes the next short-range wireless standard, would be awesome. Assuming it doesn't break itself randomly, like bluetooth.

Of course, if battery manufacturers can come up with a next-gen batt technology that allows you to recharge your phone once or twice a month with regular use, the type of charging plug becomes less of a hassle!

Chris, you're "an idiot."

While you may have had valid points Chris, insulting Jason and following-up in a derogatory manner gives the impression that you're a "fanboy" and Jason's post hurt you personally, hence the need to retaliate in that tone.

I think both sides have valid points, but for larger businesses who work with others, I personally think MS Office is the only way to go at this present moment simply because everyone else uses it. It is true that OpenOffice follows open standards, but if lets say 95% of the world uses MS Office, realistically, that is the 'real' standard that matters. Keep in mind that Jason was talking about sending and receiving files from his clients.

A big feature of MS Office is Outlook - my clients extensively use its scheduling features with Exchange to check and sync appointments with everyone else in the office. Sync'ing all their appointments with their phone, whether remotely or when at their desk, also works well. Cached exchange mode is also a blessing for those with laptops. I haven't been looking around, but is there an opensource equivalent for the Outlook/Exchange combo that works well and has all the major features?

It'd be interesting to see what happens with Office 2007 now that it uses an open standard.