Yay!
I await the fire-sale eagerly
Posts by Bob Arthur
12 publicly visible posts • joined 11 Aug 2008
HP has another crack at fondleslab market
Playboy sneaks NAKED LADIES onto iPad
Saturday 21st May 2011 09:46 GMT
No...
... the word I was looking for is "participating". Any app introduced onto the app store is a business agreement between the app developer and Apple, whereby they become partners in the sale of said app. An app goes on the store, Apple are actively participating in the sale thereof.
There is nothing hypocritical about their policy, any more than if I were to open a jam store and refuse to stock marmalade.
EXPLODING MELONS terrify Chinese
Boffins authenticate Apple 'Antennagate'
Saturday 31st July 2010 19:27 GMT
Why not?
Apple's engineers knew the phone demonstrated a greater degree of signal attenuation, but also knew 1) that the improved performance in low signal compensated for this, and 2) the only real ways to change that would be to fit less into the phone, or increase it's form factor.
So release a phone whose antenna works fine _and_ has the features and size of the iPhone 4, or release a phone with an antenna that works better than fine but sacrifices other features.
Apple's only mistake was not to realize that the gaps would be seen as an obvious target for people who don't actually understand the physics of antenna design as well as their engineers do, and who would misinterpret the visible effects of the phone when held as being a problem. Which they admitted in their press conference. The tests being described here, in combination with the tests of the phone's performance in low signal, are now telling us what Apple has known all along. The phone works fine.
Saturday 31st July 2010 19:27 GMT
Oops
Forgot to mention the other thing Apple did half-right; they made bumpers that would allow users to choose to shift the balance between signal and form-factor I mentioned in the above post. But £25?! They should've bundled from the get-go. Apple need to understand that brand-loyalty is their greatest asset, and sometimes it's the small details—the little touches that go above and beyond—that strengthen this.
But let me just be clear: the phone DOES WORK without the bumper, insofar as it holds calls and handles data—even when gripped—in areas where other phones manage. It just works even better in a bumper.
Saturday 31st July 2010 13:49 GMT 
Non-issue
Yup - seems clear: independent testing shows the iPhone 4's signal strength is within normal ranges, but at the low end. So in combination with independent testing showing the iPhone 4 holding calls ahd handling data at consistently lower signal levels than other phones, you get what most of its users report - normal performance.
Just because PA Consulting don't know there's more to an antenna than a dBm number, doesn't make them right. Now of course I'll get derided for being a fanboy, blind to the truth and devored to the cause. But that's apparently the cost of understanding basic physics.
Saturday 31st July 2010 13:49 GMT
Physics check
Have you tested the antenna with a thin insulating coating? Are you a qualified antenna engineer? Clearly (no pun intended) not, as you're confusing resistance with impedance.
Thin insulating coatings on antennae do not affect their performance in any meaningful way, despite what the snake-oil tape merchants claim. Impedance varies inversely with frequency, and drops to near zero over a thin insulating layer at radio frequencies.
I mean for the love of the wee man, you think if it were that easy, Apple wouldn't maybe have thought of it? Come on people—engage brain before posting please! Have you seen the press pictures of Apple's testing chambers? You do not build those then fill them with morons, no matter how much you'd like that to be the case.
If Occam were here, he'd have a luxuriant beard by now.
6Music: Dead man walking?
Wednesday 26th May 2010 00:09 GMT
OK
And down to earth, if cheesy, light-hearted comedy is something you get on 6 Music from Shaun Keavney, with modern popular music of mixed genre pretty much 6 on the head.
As for lack of DAB, with the (currently planned, some are skeptical) analogue switch-off in 2015 means that someone's gonna have to address this soon enough (I'm led to believe that signal improvements for cars is one of the pre-requisites for that switch-off).
Wednesday 26th May 2010 00:08 GMT
Nope
Nice thought, but commercial experts have already stated that they have nothing to gain from the closure of 6 Music, as they cannot feasibly occupy the space it would leave (http://www.thedrum.co.uk/news/2010/03/05/13011-radio-boss-commercial-sector-will-gain-nothing-from-6-music-closure). Commercial stations absolutely need to stick with "safe" music, or risk upsetting the nice people that pay them for ad-slots. The fact that a bunch of 6 Music presenters used to be at XFM demonstrates nothing but a normal career progression; it doesn't show that XFM is in any way the same as 6 Music, any more than the newsagent that payed me for a paper-round is like the software company I now work for (OK - analogy's pants, but I couldn't quite resist ;-) )
Radio 2 is a non-starter too - it is explicitly stated in the review that Radio 1 should target 15-29 year olds, and Radio 2 target 50+ "or higher". 6 Music has no explicitly stated target audience, but currently seems to be most listened to by the 30-somethings. The only way 6 Music content could be rehomed would be by giving it graveyard shift slots, which is pretty much as wrong as closure.
And as for the article itself, the Board has stated clearly that they are not planning to cut the total radio budget, but to redirect money currently spent in 6 Music and Asian Network to the other stations, so the call for cuts doesn't add up as a good reason to axe 6 either.
Net shoppers bullied into being Verified by Visa
Monday 11th August 2008 15:32 GMT
Anti-phishing
What a lot of people bemoaning the phishing potential of the scheme are missing is that a properly written issuer system will present the user with a personalised message when asking for their password.
If you don't see the message, it's not your issuer. VbV/SecureCode is a good system.
Admittedly, some issuers don't implement the personalised message, or present a static one. This is poor practice, and I'd recommend complaining to your issuer or switching if this is the case.
Bob.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
