* Posts by npo4

58 publicly visible posts • joined 17 Feb 2011

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Roku 3: Probably the best streaming player on the market ... for now, at least

npo4

Don't buy the Latest Roku 1

I got one as it had okay reviews, and can play Netflix, iPlayer, Youtube and Plex.

But upon trying it, the interface is extremely laggy, and it can't even play HD videos on Youtube or iPlayer smoothly, I paid £30 for it, and have no use for it.

I then bought a Fire TV Stick to replace it, and the interface is really smooth, it plays iPlayer fine, but best of all, you can sideload Kodi onto it, and it plays videos from the web on there really well. (I used a version called SPMC which contains some fixes for the Fire TV too.)

We also have a Chromecast, which works well for Youtube, and streaming local photos and videos from an Android device, and it works really well when using an app like Videostream (I'm sure other apps work in a similar way) to stream local mp4/mkv files of TV shows/movies from an Android device, and it's my favourite solution to play a downloaded video on the TV.

(Apparently Videosteam also has a Windows version which lets you cast files to the Chromecast, but I haven't tested it, so I can't comment on it, but it might be worth a try if you don't want to use an Android phone/tablet).

Russian law will force citizens' personal data to be stored locally

npo4
Mushroom

NSA spying

Russia got jealous of all the capabilities the US has for spying on American citizens as revealed by Snowden, so now Russia's playing catch-up to ensure it can spy on more Russians, and ensure anyone who posts an anti-government comment or email, can be swiftly dealt with.

I assume this could include anyone under suspicion of "promoting" same-sex relations too.

iPhone 5: UK pay-monthly tariffs compared

npo4

Re: Cheaper to buy it outright

True, but if I couldn't afford £500 I don't think I'd want to pay £36 a month for a phone...

It's still a bad trend if it's moving that way though as in the past you typically got a subsidised phone by going on contract.

npo4

Re: Cheaper to buy it outright

This would still be £12 cheaper than Vodafone for 2 years, but if you only want 12 months usage, this would be £132 cheaper...

npo4
FAIL

Cheaper to buy it outright

3's total cost comes to £943 cheapest,

Buying it straight from Apple is £529 and stick a giffgaff sim in it at £10 per month and 2yr total is £769

Saving £174

Ten digital radios to suit all budgets

npo4

Re: "Smartphone + Internet Radio + Speakers" Yep - charging dock with speakers, sorted.

There's always the good ol' 3.5mm headphone jack

npo4
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Smartphone + Internet Radio + Speakers

Job done.

You can always use TuneIn or Shoutcast or even the BBC's own radio apps...

Asus CEO sounds netbook death knell

npo4
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Re: Shame

While people make 11.6" laptops, which shouldn't be affected, I imagine the next closest thing would be getting a Win8 tablet with keyboard dock, which would meet most of those requirements, but I'm not sure about the price.

Global strategic maple syrup reserves hit in Canadian mega-heist

npo4
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Well... apart from the $30 million worth which was stolen...

TripAdvisor didn't defame hotel by putting it on 'top 10 dirtiest' list

npo4

Politics

"The reasonable person, in other words, knows the difference between a statement that is 'inherently subjective' and one that is 'objectively verifiable',"

If only this were true for all Americans, it could do wonders for their political system...

npo4

Re: re: colony

It would probably be cheaper in the Philippines, tbh...

Samsung readies handheld releases for Windows 8

npo4
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Re: Ativ? Let me guess Vita in reverse?

Spot on.

"Samsung introduces “ATIV”, the new brand for its Windows-based devices. ATIV, the reverse order of the word VITA, meaning “Life” in Latin, is a pledge by Samsung to make everyone’s life extraordinary with excitement."

- Samsung Press Release

Nokia, Moto, Sony phone wing of Foxconn is soaked in red

npo4

Re: Elop Effect?

And other accessories, and probably mainly things like

batteries/chargers, and maybe some other components which are then assembled in Finland.

Sony Mobile moves out of Swedish lovenest after break-up

npo4

AFAIK, they're sticking to network infrastructure, but it's sad to see the SE dumbphones gone, as I still use one as my main phone.

Acer dishing out 16,400 cheap OLYMPIC laptops to schools

npo4
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At least the schools are getting a good deal...

and not getting ripped of by spending £1000s on crappy Fujitsus or Dells.

DNSchanger shutdown may kick 300,000 offline on Monday

npo4

They could hand over the IP to a free DNS provider

They could give the IP addresses to a public DNS service like OpenDNS or Google's DNS

Nintendo supersizes 3DS

npo4

Re: Since when does $$$ to £££ actually add up ?

Well Amazon lists it's preorder price at £180, so hopefully it isn't that much.

Menaced cartoonist raises $60,000 for copywrong

npo4
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Its over $150,000 now...

You see the donatations here: http://www.indiegogo.com/bearlovegood

That new 'Microsoft GCSE': We reveal what's in it

npo4
Alert

Re: Good words

VB.net is what put me off programming in school, but it seems I was lucky to experience any programming in the first place...

I would argue at least something object-oriented would be better, but I will agree that VB is pretty easy to learn.

Americans stand against UN internet-tax plan

npo4
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Re: Not all Americans are that brainwashed, I'm glad to say.

I'm glad you brought up that point, some of these comments seemed a bit too insulting for my liking...

I've spoken to Americans who don't like their system, some of whom it made life difficult for, and liked the idea of free healthcare like in the UK.

But in the comments on some American sites I read, there are also a lot of people who don't like the system and support changes to it like Obamacare.

npo4

Re: Indoctrinated

While I agree the NHS is much better than the American system, baear in mind that not *all* Americans are happy with it, and I wouldn't make any blanket statement insulting Americans.

I've spoken to plenty of online friends who would appreciate our system, and I would say that I have plenty of American friends who are far more friendly/ nice than my British ones...

How to get a job in Australia

npo4

Consider Canada too

If you are looking to work abroad, Canada has a growing IT sector, and several skilled worker programs too (at federal and provincial levels).

Facebook needs Opera - to rescue it from dependence on Apple

npo4

Re: Opera...

I agree, I'm one of the tiny percent of Opera users, and I personally like some of the features like the built in email and IRC clients.

But if Facebook buy it, I can see it becoming either more bloated, or too much social integration...

and to pick up more use they may change it's styling to be more like Chrome or whatever and lose what makes it unique...

UK mobile broadband carriers compared

npo4

It makes sense that GiffGaff/ O2 have similar speeds as they use the same signal, but Three shares it's mobile broadband network with Everything Everywhere ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everything_Everywhere#Joint_venture_with_Hutchison_3G_UK ) , so it's surprising they're so much faster.

Megaupload case near collapse: report

npo4
WTF?

Billions of lost value

Just before this happened, Mega was looking into floating on the Stock Exchange, and it was expected to be worth billions of dollars.

Also, the article I read about that talked about how in order to do that, they would have to undergo thorough inspections to ensure they were a legal company...

PC World, Currys, Dixons websites all go titsup

npo4
Mushroom

I wonder how many sales they've lost because of this...

Serves them right probably

Compulsory coding in schools: The new Nerd Tourism

npo4

Better than nothing

Although HTML isn't the best language to teach, teaching anything even close to code is miles better than "ICT" where kids learn basic skills they already know...

Although I'm not sure it would encourage people to go into Computing, having Computing on the curriculum and getting more people to try code is definitely not a bad thing.

npo4

Scratch?

A good tool for kids would be something like Scratch, which is a drag and drop program maker.

This would let kids use their creative side, and see if they enjoy making programs, in which case they can move on to a real programming language.

Great HR mistakes of our time - Aviva fires 1300 by email

npo4

Re: Nokia hired Stephen Elop

Well, they've had massive job cuts, so it would make sense that they did...

Barclaycard slaps pay-by-bonk plasters on mobes

npo4

I think these stickers are they're interim solution until the tech finally catches up...

But unless taking your wallet out to "bonk" of your pocket is significantly slower, it's probably not too significant, as if you left your phone lying around, you wouldn't want anyone to see the sticker...

The benefit when NFC comes is that it would still be authenticated which would prevent anyone else using your card.

Moody's downgrades Nokia to near-junk status

npo4

Might improve with Lumia 900 sales

The Lumia 900 has been doing better than expected in America, and once we see the WP8 devices, I'm sure sales will increase.

Obviously, they'll never reach their former monopoly, but as their devices improve, sales will increase somewhat, and their share price will be higher.

Nokia on 'brink of failure', warns analyst

npo4
Facepalm

Re: Costs too much :-(

Wait, what?

You mean Microsoft are charging people to publish apps?

Surely they want to attract more developers and bring more apps to the platform.

Naked gyrating iPad vid exposes truth behind Apple's billions

npo4
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Can be a better fate than others...

Although I'm sure there are many bad things which go on in these factories, it's important to remember it's not all bad. According to reports, Foxconn pays more than many other factories, and probably can get away with less than smaller ones.

When listening to the first radio show, one interviewee said that most of the factory workers they've spoken to, said they preferred this work to the only thing they had before, which was working in the paddy fields, effectively living in poverty.

npo4

I read a while ago that the suicide rate at the factories was less than China's average.

But what was worrying at the time was the fact they were all doing it at once. Also at the time there was a high compensation paid to the victims family if they committed suicide.

At least things seem to be better now though.

Windows XP support ends two years from now

npo4

Re: For your amusement

Although it'll run better overall with more RAM, for a quick fix you can always try using a different web browser like Opera.

I'm not sure how well the newer versions work on very old machines, but I had it usable with and old machine with only 128MB RAM.

npo4

Still on XP

I still use XP, and it runs fine on my older hardware.

Although I will upgrade to 7 eventually, I'll have to install more RAM, and a new graphics card in my machine, and more RAM in a my sister's laptop (which I downgraded from Vista) too.

'Unibody' iPhone 5 said to debut in October

npo4

Polycarbonate?

Perhaps it could be something similar to the Nokia Lumia 800 and the HTC One X, made from one piece of polycarbonate material.

Sky joins BBC for Olympics coverage

npo4
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Re: How about

Well unless Top Gear did a special last Olympics, you'll be fine.

Internet Explorer nibbles browser rivals, swells by 1%

npo4

Re: The NHS remains on IE7

Well, at least it's not IE6...

Sitting down all day is killing you

npo4
Meh

Well, guess I'm gonna die sooner then...

WTF... should I pay to download BBC shows?

npo4

Although I doubt I'd use this service, I'm happy to pay the license fee for the BBC, just because of the quality of programs/ unbiased news...

Symbian smacked by Windows Phone

npo4

Bad for Nokia?

Surely this is bad for Nokia, as although I agree Windows Phone is better than Symbian,

The WP gain has failed to make up for Symbians loss after their switch...

TDK BA100 earphones

npo4

Re: Sorry but no

I use SoundMagics (PL30s) and they're great earphones for the price.

I'm sure these earphones would be good, but I'm happy taking the view that ignorance is bliss,

as if I got used to a £130 pair of earphones, I'm sure I wouldn't want to go back, but I don't want to spend more on headphones than the iPod I'm playing the music from...

PlayStation Vita OS in your phone and telly - Sony's saviour?

npo4

Re: Re: Good new for OS choice

Wow, didn't expect that. Didn't Sony once say they weren't even going to make any feature phones?

Hopefully they'll change their minds, I still use a Sony Ericsson featurephone, and it works great.

npo4
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Good new for OS choice

I think this is good news, as when Android came about, phone manufacturers gave up on making their own OS's. Hopefully we'll see more choice, and better "dumbphones" and other low-mid range phones which can't fully utilise Android or quickly become obsolete due not receiving/supporting later updates.

npo4

Re: Internal politics

I'm hoping they're still keeping most of the staff from SE, as they made some great phones even before android.

Samsung: 'We'll nick Nokia's global mobe crown this year'

npo4

Nokia's barely been making any new dumbphones lately, so if it can't supply these cheap phones in volume, people will look elsewhere.

Archos G9 101 8GB Android tablet

npo4

Vega

The Advent Vega would be a cheaper Honeycomb device, but it is unofficial.

Nokia rests Symbian's future on a bunch of muppets

npo4

I like Symbian Belle

I agree, it's a shame that once Symbian finally has a good UI, Nokia are giving up on it...

I'd personally rather a Symbian Belle phone over a Windows Phone, but it doesn't seem to make sense that Nokia aren't planning to continue much work with Symbian, when it was their biggest seller...

Psst, kid... Wanna learn how to hack?

npo4
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Love this

I've been following the Raspberry Pi for a while now, and I can't wait until it's out, I can think of a lot of uses, including take advantage of it's low power to keep it running for downloads overnight.

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