Posts by jai

how big are Proview?

Because, the loss of business to Foxconn and Pegatron etc etc could be more damaging to the Chinese economy than a small trademark license?

1.7 inches really a big difference?

I don't see how going from the 9.7 inches of the current iPad screen, down to 8" will really make that much difference, unless they're also making the screen go edge to edge. and if they did, why wouldn't they also do the same with the big iPad?

8" just doesn't seem to be enough of a difference from the existing model to make it appealing to all those that believe the iPad is too big for their needs

congrats

top effort that man!!

now, if only someone could explain what those other El Reg twitter accounts are for - and should I follow all of them? or just the main one?

you know what they when you assume....

> The launch, we assume, is Apple's hyped refreshed TV device.

I thought McRumors theory was far more likely, that the short stock just points to a new version of the Apple TV external device that'll support the hi-res videos that the new iPad is apparently going to be capable of.

IF they are going to be releasing full television sets next month, why would they be running down stock of the Apple TV unit? There's clearly two seperate markets, one are the people that'll pay many hundred of pounds/dollars on a television with the Apple TV interface running on it, and the other those who already have expensive televisions that do not need replacing just yet, who'll happily pick up a hockey-puck type device for $99 to get the same functionality. It doesn't make sense that Apple would be replacing the £99 peripheral device with a $999 lcd television.

TopGear

I just watched the previous week's TopGear where they went to China and were looking at all the car fakes. And how BMW had tried to sue over the fake X5 (or whatever it was) that looked identical to their model, and they lost the case because the Chinese courts ruled that there were no similarities at all.

I'll admit, Apple can be a bit over zealous, but it seems crazy over there, you haven't got a chance of winning unless you're a Chinese company.

ignoring that it's an apple patent for a moment...

...but this seems like a very nice idea for a UI on a small screen.

If there's all these prior art examples, why hasn't anyone gone ahead and produced a phone with a UI where, instead of sliding left and right to get to more app icons, or background apps, etc, you move through the depth dimension. I think it'd be a very cool to see, and very intuitive to use interface.

i don't get it

So i can see how this TLD will be great for musicians and labels and publishers and whatnot.

But do they assume that the general public is only going to look for music on .music and won't look anywhere else?

It's not going to stop pirating. But I guess it will stop someone setting up a site to look like an official one and perhaps phish for people's details?

no more shopping?

that sucks, as I regularly used that feature.

then again, i knew this day would come, when they changed it's name from "froogle" to "shopping"

shall be giving duckduckgo a try out this weekend then

genius

hat off to the man. this is a valuable life lesson not only in actions and consequences but also in the perils of social media. this is top parenting in action and i hope one day to follow his example.

i like the touchscreen dash

i like the lcd screen for the drivers display

i very much like the gullwing doors (with the exception that i'd never be able to get our of my car if the cars on either side of my parking bay were present)

but i don't like the look of the car at all. are all electric cars going to look so ugly? it's got frikken gull wing doors, why doesn't it at least look a bit like a deloran?

no thanks

I quite like my normal wallet, thanks, I don't think I'll be using any of this NFC malarky any time soon until all these issues have been ironed out.

solution

we all know the patent system over there is broken, and it makes it so easy for patent troll firms to thrive. there needs to be a change. patent trolling needs to be recognised as a criminal activity, it is, afterall, practically a form of extortion. so that way, if a company feels they are being trolled, they could counter-sue with the charge of patent trolling ("seeking to pervert the course of commerce and innovation" or whatever the legalese term would be). And such a charge should carry the death penalty. This would both cause companies think twice before attempting to troll, and also reduce the number of active patent trolls out there too.

questions about this survey

survey was by US Consumer Electronics Association - so totally unbiased then? :)

And I note there is a lack of specifics in the report:

- "expressing an interest in electronic kit" and

- "they were especially keen on devices"

Are these "electronic kits" and "devices" the sort of thing they sell in Maplin? or the kind of things they keep at the back of the Ann Summers shops?

bit of common sense

a) it's obvious that the tweet wasn't meant as a serious threat

but b) equally, you've gotta be pretty stupid in this day and age to make a public announcement about blowing up an airport

so both sides are at fault here, imho

the company said that if [things that cost us money] were excluded it would've have presented shareholders with [still a loss of a lot of money]

that's not good news however you spin it

celebrities and newspaper people

The problem, then, is our scientists are, as Pete 2 says above, "white-coated, bespectacled, bearded, geeks"

We need more celebrity scientists, who can command space within our newspapers and our tv shows and the public's mind, and from there can push the reasoned scientific arguments and evidence. Who doesn't enjoy the programmes that Brian Cox makes, explaining complex science in a way that non-scientists can appreciate. Science's very own Amy Pond, Dr Alice Roberts, is infinitely watchable and again, able to explain the science without losing the rest of us. We need more celebrity-type scientist to be in our daily lives. Then the public will start listening to what they have to say, and then there's a chance to public also pay attention to what they're saying as well.

no thanks. am sure they'll start charging for it once enough people start using it

oh i want one, i want one!!!!

where's the cake?

wtf

it's GameCenter enabled???

viewing angle

This seems to be the problem with all these ultrabooks that have been reviewed here recently.

I guess that's why they can afford to give away the case and the adapters, because they've skimped on the quality of the screen, and yet are still charging Macbook Air prices.

Flash - fast going the way of the floppy disk and 8-track drives

[quote]does (Nokia) really care whether folk adopt Belle or not?[/quote]

or, perhaps more importantly, do folk really care to bother with a platform whose end of the line is only a couple of steps ahead?

top stuff

for a moment there i thought i was reading one of Verity's works

They told me about it...

I definitely got a text from them to let me know this was going to happen. I think it was a couple of weeks ago.

Found it - actually it was sent to me on 8th December:

[quote]

O2: Just to let you know, from 1 February 2012 The Cloud wifi won't be part of your unlimited wifi anymore. You can still use BT Openzone as usual. And now, O2 Wifi. Go to o2.co.uk/wifichanges to find out more. To stop SMS, text STOP t 81145

[/quote]

So perhaps it's not that they didn't tell anyone, it's just that no one remembers or paid any attention when they did?

evidence?

Objection, your honour! There is no evidence, these buckets of water are of no relevance to this case....

honeycomb?

isn't ice cream sandwich available now? why release it with out-dated OS?

this is an idea proposed by an analyst? so there's zero change of it ever happening then

iBooks Author

Didn't the iBooks Author license details just get clarified?

http://www.macrumors.com/2012/02/03/apple-clarifies-ibooks-author-licensing-situation-in-new-software-update/

The content still remains under your ownership and rights, it's just the final .ibooks format file that Apple want the rights to. There's nothing to stop you exporting the same text into another format, or probably even running the ibooks file through a converter to produce a 100% epub3 compliant file, and then selling that elsewhere.

impartial

"Crittercism has funding from Google Ventures"

<AV:PD mode> Oh re-ea-ea-ea-ea-eally? </AV:PD mode>

almost tempted

I'm almost tempted by this.

I spent some time messing around with Titanium to develop iOS apps (before going the whole hog and picking up Obj-C), and because that will deploy the same code to Android as well, I have some half-finish lame apps that I could complete and submit with very little effort.

But then.... I'd be stuck with owning a Playbook, with all the social stigmata and ridicule that that will bring down upon me and my family for years to come.