Posts by Danny Thompson

@Underwhelmed

A Blackberry user "unimpressed". Oh deary me. Lets all burn our iPhones then, because that is all that matters, impressing the Blackberry crowd!

Geez, okay, we get it, Apple cannot do anything right in your eyes. You've proven your point.

Returning back to the real world - the iPhone firmware update 3.0 is a welcome set of changes and improvements. It brings the iPhone closer to matching the spec of the vast majority of so-called Smartphones and others, doing the simple stuff in Messaging like MMS and SMS forwarding. It is a joy to be able to re-join the viral SMS joke distribution that we all enjoy from time to time.

The new firmware works as described on the tin - and faultlessly as far as I have been able to witness so far. The Apple developers seem to have worked quite hard to get this one right. And all the bitching and moaning about any broken apps (i.e. Facebook camera is borked) are unjustified in being directed at Apple. The app developers have had months to make sure their apps were 3.0 compliant - shame on those that simply haven't bothered yet.

Cut and Paste are a complete doddle, and something of a welcome addition - it is useful being able to C&P between the apps that it works for. I was able to use it usefully to pop info from an SMS into a Calendar entry as a reminder - something I seem to need to do quite often in my life! I can't see the fuss, it is fairly intuitive as is the rest of the iPhone paradigm.

iPhone firmware 3.0 should silence many of the critics, but I forecast that it won't. But the less rabid out there in the real world are likely to find that this new release will fill in pretty much all the holes and deficiencies that they worked under in pre-3.0 firmwares for this device.

Well done Apple. This is a nice and rich update to an OS that was beginning to feel very dated.

Its a first

This is noting more than an interesting first, and as firsts go it is not quite so bad.

For sure, this is not going to make EV motorcycles a full replacement for its IC counterparts today. But it does raise awareness, interest, and may even spur development sponsorship as racing has done for decades. So much that we drive/ride around in has a direct link back to race series technologies.

Much as I dislike Comet with a passion

I have to applaud them on this initial step forward. May it be the beginning of the beginning, finally, after several false starts ...

I hope the use is not restricted to EV Cars only - I would like to have access for my Vectrix at resources such as these.

sufficient to trickle-charge a phone that's turned off

Oh great! So then I won't be able to receive a call while the device is charging, or I wont be able to charge the device if I want to be available to receive a call.

What drugs are these numpties on?

Come on Nokia, this is a joke, right?

Its all a matter of trust

This is all really quite simple The Chinese are not to be trusted. They're cheap, which makes the western company's Finance Director look good, but they expose us to needless risk by side-stepping virtually every single standard known to man.

Pretty soon, if not already, China will be as vital to the western economies as oil is today. We're getting ourselves in deep doo doos, people.

Mines the one printed bold "All hail our new Chinese overlords".

Let me be the first to say ...

"Good riddance" ... errr, well I would have been first ... given half the chance. This scab on politics is long overdue being lanced.

There will be no tears shed for her. Now go and never come back.

Oh yes, please give it to me

Its great being in the EU where prices are level in this glorious thing called the "Common Market". Marvelous, too, that Philips think it can stuff us Brits up the botty and allow us the privilege of paying an extra grand for it.

Tell you what Philips - you take your 'cinema TV' and pop it where the sun don't shine. I think I'll get on just fine without your product - any of it.

Paris, 'cos allegedly she doesn't like it up the botty either ...

Luddites

There has got to be change - the petrolheads of course will have none of it. But they're barking at the moon. The change is coming, like it or not. It has to.

The logistics of delivering suitable power distribution points into the street are enormous, but not insurmountable. The current technology is still at a very early stage, but advancing rapidly to the point where in a few years it would be reasonable to anticipate EVs able to take on their petrol/diesel counterparts head to head. Necessity being the mother of invention and all that.

Today's tech for EVs is advanced enough to make sense in a journey radius of around 50 miles, which seems ridiculous by comparison with petrol vehicles. But that radius is suitable for a significant amount of road miles such as the school run, local distribution and commuting.

The efficiencies of EV over petrol/diesel are well known and provable, but distorted by the "No" lobby. The economics do a lot better than balance out - my own EV has a financial break-even of 1.2 years against the vehicle it replaced, which I am about to realise in the next 3 months. Provable, no statistics, no supposition, no guesswork. It copes with my 26-mile each way commute, it makes progress with traffic on urban and suburban roads including dual carriageways. In practical terms there are no sustainable arguments against the use of the EV for the commute.

I applaud the official rhetoric in favour of EV - but I also despair at our ability to deliver to it. This nation seems to have lost the ability to actually deliver. But one lives in hope.

"... take on the chaps from Cupertino"

Oh give it a rest Nokia. You're 'avin a giraffe!

I think its long gone the time for Nokia to give it up, admit they haven't got the beginnings of a bloody clue and licence some technology from either Apple or Google Android camps.

If there is one thing that Nokia do dreadfully it is software. They really have not got the foggiest!

IT? - Because Nokia wouldn't know IT if it fell on their foot

@dracotrapnet

Its 3G buddy, 3G, not G3 or any other permutation but plain old simple 3G - thats a 3 followed by a G.

Geez, how could anyone get that that wrong ;)

Paris - cos she got a few things wrong in her time [allegedly]

It'll be lonely this Christmas ...

"... the Pré will arrive here in time for Christmas ..."

Pointless, utterly. By Christmas Palm will have so much other competition that it will be drowned out by the rest of the noise. No wonder the company is ailing - they can't get a simple bit of marketing and release right.

Palm Pre? Why? When there will be more than a dozen other devices to choose from.

Another case of missing the boat completely.

October???

" ... Nokia mole claimed the N900 smartphone will hit Europe in October ... "

A) They didn't say which October

B) They might want to get the N97 out into the street first before blabbing about their next piece of coming real soon now

C) Nokia - Touchscreen = Alsoran, the boat departed ages ago

@Trucks and Vans

Pah! TNT have a couple in use in London already. I regularly see one around the Whitechapel/Aldgate area as I commute to work on my Vectrix electric scooter (not been in a petrol station on two wheels since June 2008). The tech works, and it is improving all the time. See here http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/england/london/6199081.stm

What is disheartening about this London plan is that, yet again, it only focusses on Cars. PTWs do exist also and solve other problems than just pollution! But thumbs up to Bozzer for making the first steps, and throwing down the gauntlet. I've already picked it up, what about you lot?

Thats always supposing ...

... that Palm survive long enough to actually bring the Pre to market!

Expensive OLED?? WTF???

"...Tiwari also warned that they will “cost 2.1 times the price of an LCD”"

And what happened to the talk that OLED was going to be cheaper to produce than LCD? At 2.1 times the cost of LCD the LCD manufacturers are hardly going to be pooing their pants at the prospect of Sony/LG wiping the floor with this new technology. It'll be selling like Unicorn horns.

Paris - 'cos she's a rare bit of expensive stuff also

Its easy really

Drag, drop, click, load any other browser, sorted.

O2's iPhone deal

Errr, I do believe that you'll find "the deal" includes bundled data for the life of the contract, not just for 12 months!

This from T-Mobile seems a fair offering, if you really want a Crapberry. But for the life of me I really do not understand why anyone outside of enterprise would. If you gave me one of these I'd throw it back at you! Nasty wee things, they are.

Microsoft has hired a fiction writer ...

Ah, that'll be the same fiction writer who scripts up M$'s description of their products then. Its a shame that M$ cannot fight their competition with simple fact when fiction and lies make for a better story.

Not sure Gates would allow this - it has all the hallmarks of nasty Ballmer. Watch him cause M$'s reptuation ruination.

Apple buys NAND

Where's the news in that? Apple depend on NAND for a huge chunk of their profitable business.

Go Apple for keeping the NAND business going

M$ greed pays off

What goes around.

M$ had a decent enough following of their previous DRM products. But they got all greedy, brought out the Zune, a new DRM schema and decided to allow everyone to re-purchase their music for the new toy. And guess what? No one fell for it! For my money, M$ got all they deserved.

While it was inevitable that the anti-Apple-anything sentiment would arrive in the comments it has to be acknowledged that the iPod has pretty much made it through nothing more than being what the people want. It may not suit some. Who would even bother trying to please all of the people all of the time? Commercially Apple saw the market and addressed it. The rest is a fact of history.

Conversely M$ saw the market, decided that it would try to own it and fuck it up royally. It will not have been the first time that M$ haven't "got it", and no doubt it will not be the last, particularly with that arrogant prat Ballmer in charge.

A little humility and recognition of what a customer actually is would do M$ a power of good. Hell, it may even get them to the place where they are producting exactly what people want. That is as opposed to producing exactly what M$ say the people want.

Karma M$, karma. You'll reap exactly what you sow.

History may record this as M$'s Paris moment. She got caught with her knickers down also.

Leccy bikes work very well thanks

Yay! Leccy bikes - most excellent. There are plenty about, more than you might think from even this article. As if by stealth they are being designed and produced around the world - and some very good specimens can be had too. This race I can't wait to see.

I'm no tree hugger and like my dose of the ole unleaded as much as the next one. But commuter life for me has transformed with one of them thar Vectrix maxi scooters. A bit pricey to buy, but with a break-even of 1.2 years against by regular hack it was a complete no brainer.

If one wants to get all super-Green there are ways of running one of these completely without causing emissions - it has been done successfully already. But I'm quite content to do my bit for CO2 emission by using leccy sourced from coal/oil/gas/nuclear etc via the nashnul grid. My point is that we can better contain CO2 at the point of electricity production than we can from the tailpipe of the average car/bike. Whether we do or not is another matter entirely.

Hydrogen fuel cell? About as likely as LPG that got absolutely nowhere. The national grid is already up and running as a fuel distribution network. Why would we want to perpetuate shuttling liquid energy around our already congested roads?

Whats needed is vision, not perpetuation.

@Protest is healthy in a functioning democracy

Yes, yes indeed it is. That, sir, is a statement of the bleeding obvious. What is equally obvious is that ours is no longer such a functioning democracy.

Copters, CCTV, collaborators, they're all the same thing.

Hello? Goodbye!

Ring ring. Ring ring. Press 1 for ... Press 2 for .. etc ..

"Hello can I help you"

"Yes, you can. You can cancel my subscription to Virgin Media"

"Ok, may I ask why you want to leave us sir?"

"Yes, it is because you have recently announced that you are going to implement Phorm and I have no wish to permit you to snoop into my use of the Internet"

"Ah, okay sir, your contract will end in 30 days"

"Thank you"

Click .....

Well, how could they possibly argue.

Virgin can take their Phorm black helicopters and shove them where the sun really doesn't shine.

By the time ...

... any of these "concept" cars make it to the showrooms we'll have burned up our last drop of oil. Oh, hang on, thats the idea isn't it? I mean, how can it take so long to actually make and ship these things? All the tech is well established. What we need is some Government and Manufacturer commitment and we're done.

Instead all we get is this ridiculous posturing and not actual product.

To all the nay-sayers of electric tech - welcome to history, this is the inevitability, its no use harping on about how it wont work. I do believe much the same was said by horsemen of old about the ICE. They got that a bit wrong too.

I swear, apart from the OLED I'm not finding the IT angle

Winge, whine, bitch, moan

So far the commentators are like a load of old women. Great! We get it! You don't like anything Apple make. Good.

Now go get a life.

It is a bit good

Yes, yes it is. In typical Apple mode it looks and feels slick, performance is good - but I don't think I can see a real difference on this Intel Macbook Pro. The new History and Top Pages are a delight to use. A definite step in the right direction.

This one deserves Two Thumbs

ROFL ???

"I think Sky might have just lost a few business customers because of this incident."

Oh do get a grip lad. Business customers will take this in their stride and carry on as normal when service resumed. They're not going to get all bent out of shape over something like this, unless it becomes a regular happening.

Anyroadup, Sky's T&Cs forbid the use of their service for business use. For that you have to go to UK Online or Easynet which are different businesses. So even if the "business" went all Petulant Petunia it wouldn't be Sky who would lose any customers. So there. With knobs on.

If its not easy ...

... for you then it begs the question as to whether or not you should be in there in the first place!

It is all about competence. How many really savvy users are there of these tiny devices? Macbooks, iMacs and Mac Mini are not like yer average desktop. They are not designed to be as user serviceable as a PC World special. So why would anyone think that these Macs are in the same frame? Nor, for that matter, are the vast majority of laptops or super compacts out there from other manufacturers. So why single out Apple [yet again!]?

"Upgrading your Mac ...." [Pro] could not be easier, it beats the pants of any of the opposition taking, for example, no more than 3 minutes to slide in a SATA HDD. So theres some balance sadly missing from the article.

Upgrading all of the other Macs, which are built using laptop components, is no more complex than upgrading any other similar device.

But for the average user they should keep their fingers out and leave it to someone who can.

Paris because she always likes a handy man

IFrames? Microsoft? WTF??

"Another great security fiasco: The IFrame."

Microsoft? No, I read on their website somewhere that was an Apple contrivance, like everything else beginning with an "I"

"It's a shame that Microsoft only recently got interested in security."

Surely, "Microsoft" and "security" used in the same sentence is an oxymoron.

In-store Support?

"....and provide customers with decent support"

Is this as opposed to "... and currently provide customers with crap support"?

Look Microsoft, if you are seriously going to try and follow the Apple store support model you have got to do yourself some very serious mystery shopping first. The Apple Genius support model is world class and sets the bar. Anyone who hasn't experienced it cannot comment with any degree of credibility.

And so what are we to expect in the Microsoft store? When I walk in with my XP-based Netbook, because Vista is too bloated to run on current Atom-based tech, may I expect such world class support? You cannot say that it is a defunct OS because you sold it to me via the netbook's manufacturer. The entire package was a legitimate and conspired sale, not an OEM hack.

This is where it all going to come tumbling down. MS customers are not going to think to themselves "Oooh, I don't have Windows 7 or Vista and so I cannot go into the store for support". If you are wearing the Microsoft brand, and you are claiming to offer support in store, then what you are going to get is folk walking in with XP and expecting better than to be sold the latest iteration of the OS.

Stop = because if Microsoft don't wise up they're going to do themselves a huge disservice.

Horse, door, stable

Its not as if the Symbian camp had sufficient years to get their act together. Now, however, two upstarts open their stall for business within a year or so of each other and its the time to panic? I think not. The best that Symbian can do is to shut the door as they leave. The horse has well and truly left the stable - Symbian will have to grow up compete.

Paris - because she doesn't like a bit of competition either

Wot? No internal 3G/HSPA?

Another "Netbook" with no internal 3G/HSPA? Nothing much to see here then. Moving along as nothing at all to see here ...

Paris, 'cos she likes it internal too

@ Ian Johnston

" It's just a Lotus with a battery and an electric motor...."

Careful dear, your prejudices are showing. What is the big "no" about a battery and electric motor? Haven't you ever seen one of those before? Don't forget the electronics, there is a fair wedge of that stuff in there too.

The usual mistakes are being made here - EVs are an early technology, we're quite reasonably having to take some steps backwards with things like range and refuelling. Does Mr Johnston think that the modern car was in existence from day one?

We are witnessing the start for practical EVs in the same way that our ancestors would have seen the precursors to the Model T Ford. In years to come battery powered EVs will be commonplace, and our travel patterns may well reflect the technology of the day, just as it did with ICE vehicles in years gone by.

What is for certain is that the ICE industry has to die, it has had its day and no further progress is possible or reasonable given our global circumstances. But it will not go without a fight, and it has powerful vested interests and powers of lobby in all major governments. So it will likely be a long, lingering and slow demise.

Meanwhile, the more agile and commercially viable EV manufacturers will be filling in the gaps and establishing themselves.

Flames: Not at Mr J at all but because we cannot burn our way into the future anymore!

Costs of laying fibre

If that were the case there would be no fibre (or Virgin co-ax copper) in the ground.

Laying cable is not a Finance Directors 3-year breakeven dream. It is a long-investment that should be amortised in decades, nothing less. There is no reason that, properly laid, said co-ax and fibre would not last hundreds of years, physical damage notwithstanding.

Mobile broadband from all the suppliers is at best variable, but usually takes us back to the days of 48Kbps dial-up and below. The coverage maps issued by all network providers are optimistic, to be as polite as the reality is stretched. In any other business the coverage maps would be deemed outright lies and the likes of the ASA would prohibit their presentation in marketing. Unless you are within eyesight of a transmitter mast you can consider notions of coverage as only that and be lucky for what you get.

So more the fool anyone who buys on the basis of £5 a month or misleading coverage maps. And woe betide anyone who buys into any of the nonsense spouted by Virgin Media. Come the day they actually switch on Phorm they'll be receiving the cancellation of my XL contract with them. 20/50Mbps is great, I actually get such speeds, but lose all interest the moment they start dicking around with my information.

Paris, 'cos she's almost as expensive as cable to lay.

RDF still intact then ....

Webster has spoken, all bow to Webster. What a first order Twat! Oh hang on, no, that can't be right, Twats are useful. Well at least ole Webbers is consistent. His own personal RDF is intact and functioning at 100% power.

I won't say "Never before have I read such utter crap" because that would be a lie. WF himself writes nothing other than, and so this is more of the same, to be expected stuff of nonsense.

Meanwhile, back on topic - a 3G Macbook Net (remember you read that name here peeps) would be a welcome addition to the line, if for no other reason to add completeness. Sure, it won't be for everyone, but then isn't that the case with anything and everything made? But if Apple believe there is a sufficient market they'll produce something like this inevitably.

USB sticks as a substitute? Only if you want your laptop looking like its got a stiffy sitting on your lap on the train. And what do you do when some fat bird squashes down next to you and snaps the USB stick clean off in the socket?

What can we expect next from the naysayers? Wire coathanger arials for our WiFi cards? Rubber duckies for our Bluetooth? Bollocks, give me it all in one box please.

Paris, cos she likes it in her one box also.

Lets face it ????

"Let's face it you spend more time looking at the inside of your car, than you do at the outside, ...."

Oooh look. Another statistic just about to happen. Can you tell us where and when so we can take the GIFs and JPEGs of your imminent departure from this dimension.

Ford still don't get it - we don't want fancy dashboards, the world and its dog wants/needs/fancies ZEV at point of use. And not some crappy "concept" vehicle. If an upstart like Tesla or Vectrix can do it why cannot a major vehicle manufacturer. And why not before 2010? What is so magical about 2010?

Mines the one with "Get a f***ing move on" writted on the back

2010 again? WTF??

Okay, I give up. WTF is so special about 2010 that every single manufacturer is incapable of producing any product (ZEV or Hybrid) until that magical year? Has someone in the industry cartel that no-one will actually retail any of this stuff until then? Its the same with Motorcycles. Apart from a few independents (i.e. Vectrix, Tesla and maybe a few more) the incumbents all say 2010. Is there a conspiracy afoot?

Mines the one with the tin-foil hat on the hanger

I keep on coming

..... back for more of this, and then walking away again.

TBH, Ubuntu on the desktop has never, ever, been an issue for me. Its all been good. But why, oh why, has Canononicaniconical taken so long to address the not-so-humble laptop? WTF have they been doing all of these years? Has someone at Cananaina..... oh you know who .... just discovered the laptop? Ubuntu, and most other Lin*x distros have compeltely sucked on that platform.

Hope really does reign eternal, it seems. I'll give this'un a try and see how it does. I'm not holding my breath for anything too exciting, but it will be nice to see Ubuntu simply work simply on a laptop for a change.

By contrast, Xandros on the EeePC 701 instantly recognised my Voda 3G USB Stick and fired up a 3G/HSPA connection for me in seconds. So what we're reading is that Ubuntu has, in this respect, caught up? Shock. Horror.

Oh well, at least it is smile-inducing, in my opinion [just to be safe].