Posts by Lord Elpuss

Re: Muppets

@Is It Me

You're right. The downvotes are from pissed off Garmin or Suunto users who just realised the AW Ultra is better than theirs; for the first time.

Re: Muppets

WR100 means 100m static depth, i.e. not moving. Meaningless in real life. Apple didn't just quote that though, unlike most manufacturers; they also said it's diveable to 40m. i.e. you can actually dive, swim and use it at 40m. That's impressive.

Re: Priorities

My local watch shop has always offered both options; a straight battery replacement for around a tenner, or battery+waterproofing for €30. Puts the $99 replacement charge for an AW battery into a different perspective.

Re: Priorities

The equation is dividing $99 by 24 months; as that's the cost of replacing the battery. That's just over $4/month assuming it's dead in 24 months, which it isn't. My AW series 2 battery has only recently started to not make it through a full day, nearly 6 years on ($1,37/month).

Before I had my Apple Watch, I had a Tissot T-Touch and an Oris F1. The T-Touch chewed through batteries (I seem to remember it had 2?) and my local watch shop charged me €30 to replace it/them and make the watch waterproof again. Compared to this, $99 to replace an AWUltra battery is not a bad deal.

Re: Errrr.... But....

@Steve Davies 3

"Can't you claim on your household insurance policy for the repair/replacement?

If you do have cover then you are not alone in forgetting that for accidental damage to expensive devices like phones."

No, no, and I didn't forget; I chose not to do it. Costs €16/month for accidental damage, and given I've managed to go 10 years without cracking a phone, that would have been €1,920 in insurance payments for a €699 one-off. No thanks.

Re: Repairability vs component theft

Personally I think coding parts is a GOOD idea. I know there are arguments for and against, but I despise thieves and muggers so as long as the coding is (very close to) unbreakable, I'm happy to pay an Apple premium to put them out of business.

The argument against coding tends to work in 2 parts:

1. It doesn't stop theft because thieves will still nick it and sell it down the pub for £20 even non-working, and;

2. Coding monopolises parts supply, driving parts prices up.

My argument is yes there will still be that undercurrent of pond scum who will nick and sell non-working phones anyway, but that represents a small portion of the organised theft market; and a non-working phone is still FAR less attractive to thieves. Therefore the whole 'nicked phone' market shrinks massively.

And 2 whilst it's definitely true that coded parts limits supply and keeps parts prices up, this is partially offset by the shrinking of the theft market and the maintaining of the quality level by using OEM parts which reduces overall support costs.

Re: Brother

Guessing the downvotes are from people who don't know what the Instant Ink programme is? Can't see a reason apart from that to downvote free ink forever, it doesn't get cheaper than free ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Re: Brother

If you can still get it, the HP Instant Ink programme is genuinely very good value; as long as the printer doesn't give up. I'm still on a grandfathered 'free 15 pages a month' plan, which is all I'm likely to ever need. On the very rare occasions I need a couple of pages more it usually costs me not more than €1, and if I need a lot more (like 1000 pages) I'll go to a copy shop.

I'm no particular IBM fan, having been on the sharp end of one of their rebalancing exercises a few years back. Nonetheless, your comment is imbecilic. Reg rules forbid me from posting what I want to here, but suffice to say it comprises a 2 word answer involving sex and travel.

Re: Apple should not warrant 5 and 6 year old laptops

I should have said what you WERE fighting for rather than ARE. You're now taking it further, and I wish you luck with that.

Having said that, this case was about YOUR laptop and nobody else's. The Order from the tribunal was explicit in the fact that they were ruling on an individual situation, and not the wider context. The fact that you may be taking the fight further as a SUBSEQUENT step doesn't change this fact.

"The Order does not, however, offer an opinion on whether 2017 and 2018 MacBooks have the FlexGate issue. Deciding that matter was not necessary to determine that this individual computer was not free of defects."

And for clarity; I'm not in a cult, and I'm not your friend. I just hate bias and misinformation from all parties on all sides.

Re: Apple should not warrant 5 and 6 year old laptops

I'm probably one of Apple's biggest defenders here; el Reg (and the majority of the Commentard cohort) are usually vehemently anti-Apple so I often read these articles with a jaundiced eye.

That said - Apple are wrong here, and so are you. If a 2016 machine is known to have a manufacturing problem which limits the lifespan, and a 2017 machine has exactly the same issue, it's unreasonable for Apple to start a free repair programme for one but refuse the other; all other factors being equal.

Also note that Goode isn't fighting to force Apple to repair ALL 2017 machines for free, just his.

Re: the Apple representative's audio was characteristically poor

Could well be deliberate. I've been on calls where people have been summoned to provide their evidence, and despite all the benefits of modern technology, high quality laptop & webcam, office building with fast stable WiFi... they still managed to appear like the 1980s called wanting their videophone back.

And yet on other calls where THEY wanted something, under exactly the same environmental conditions, they appeared clear as day.

Re: Man, this was predicted day one

You know Suffolk Gazette is satire, right?

Re: Definition

Sentience means having the capacity to experience feelings and emotions. Consciousness is an awareness of internal and external existence. Something can be considered conscious and sentient when it has an awareness of itself in relation to external factors, and when it can experience feelings and emotions.

The definition isn't difficult. Measuring whether it has been achieved, however, is.

Re: Real companies any more?

If you want to change tax behaviour, change the tax rules. As long as the rules 'permit' something, individuals are entitled to maximise their own benefit; and companies have an actual fiduciary duty to maximise for their benefit. Otherwise the shareholders will riot.

tldr: don't pay more tax than you have to.

I don't think letter banded executives needed to do that? Or they had a special version just for them?

Re: Apple ought to

Fair point on the bulk wipe, downvote for the childish Apple dig. Gonna be hell when you go through puberty.

Re: There’s a $10m bounty…

"They were wrong, and the latest 'fix' is lockdown mode."

No, and no.

'Wrong' implies a viewpoint which has been discredited. Apple has operated a bug bounty programme for years, and this isn't the first time they've offered millions of dollars for discovery; so they have demonstrably long held the viewpoint that others might be able to spot things they haven't.

Lockdown mode isn't a 'fix'. It's a feature intended for a small group of people who are prepared to sacrifice a substantial degree of functionality in return for a higher level of security. For the average Joe, it won't 'fix' anything; in fact they probably won't even know or care that it exists.

Re: I propose a new law

” Nope. I had a phone (don't remember the brand) sent to me by work. It arrived in a clear plastic retail package (inside the shipping box of course) and I could easily see the moisture indicator on the back was a bright red.

“

So it was broken. Not relevant to the original argument.

Re: Common sense...

I guess I just expected better from Reg readers. 99% of the time I don't have a problem with downvotes; I have some controversial views on Apple for example, which always get their share of downvotes.

Having a different opinion and expressing it with a downvote is absolutely fine and I respect that. Downvoting someone for saying they don't know how to do something however is not 'having a different opinion', it's 'being a twat'. And I'd hoped that people here were better than that.

Re: Common sense...

Incredible. Downvotes for saying I don’t know how to do something. There really are some pricks on this site.

Re: Common sense...

To be fair I'm pushing 60 and have never needed to bleed a radiator. I'm sure I could given a quick Google, but I wouldn't immediately know how to do it.

Re: I propose a new law

"These moisture indicators turn red when phone is used in a humid environment, so they are pretty useless."

The inside of most modern phones is a sealed space and not impacted by external humidity in any meaningful way. Using the phone in a humid environment will not change them.

Re: I propose a new law

"Moisture exposure turns a dot red and voids the warranty? It's not waterproof. A little bump breaks the glass and it's not covered? It's not a durable phone. 5G not guaranteed to work? It's not a 5G phone."

Define 'moisture', 'exposure', 'red', 'waterproof', 'bump', 'break', 'durability', '5G' and 'coverage'.

Not defending Samsung here because I f*ing hate them with a passion, but if manufacturers weren't allowed to make "within reasonable expectations" claims in their marketing material, then we could expect that the terms and conditions of warranty would need to be delivered by a forklift as EVERY single possible convolution of every single term would need to be legally defined. Which would put the price of a phone up into the tens of thousands, just to pay the lawyers.