So that seems any better when your lawyer is there? Are you meant to make up some form of alibi? Are you supposed to try and make up a place where you weren't?
It might be an unfortunate fact that where you were was somewhere, alone that's quite unverifiable. However this is reasonably common, what are you supposed to do?
I don't buy that example one bit.
Wait for a couple of years for the apps to be developed.
But current Tablet PCs do so much already! With the kick of "Apple's doing one" we've got some innovation finally, they'll get as cool as the Apple one but be a fully fledged multitasking OS to boot.
Firstly, what is to stop you from using a stylus?
Somewhere to keep it!
What is stopping application developers from creating apps that allow annotation of PDF files or that duplicate the functionality of "One Note". If the market demands such functionality, will the market not deliver it?
As you said, they will but it will take time.
Furthermore, what makes you think that software such as "One Note" is anything but a niche market for certain professionals? And do you really need to be able to scribble ugly handwriting on the screen? Aren't there better ways of inputting text? I suppose the market will decide.
I agree, a decent touch on-screen keyboard is a good idea that should be used on other systems. The correction is really good too. It is faster than using a pen, but with the auto-completing browsers and search by keying one or two characters will be just as quick with the pen. Don't forget that doing sketches, diagrams and mixing writing with text (think notes, maths work) is a very useful part of the pen's function.
Anyways, my opinion is that this is an embryonic platform. Once HTML5 starts to take over, the Flash issue will be less of a concern. And with HTML5, you will be able to do things with a browser that you probably couldn't imagine.
HTML 5 based apps, and therefore cross platform, would be a really good launchpad. But with the Apple iStore interface behind their core product lines now i can see plenty of iPhone OS-only based apps.
Will it flop? Not completely, there is a market. But this doesn't innovate, it's not the magical grand leap forwards they want us to believe and it won't be massively popular. It will sell well, but it's not going to be a major line.
Exactly my thoughts, they've done the Tablet PC without including the pen, the reason that Tablet PCs are so useful.
Our Uni publishes all the notes online as PDFs, i load up aforementioned app and annotate right on the notes. But i can also insert extra pages, copy-paste and insert diagrams. My logic coursework and having the ability to copy/paste/edit previous lines, as well as doodle without wrecking it is so much more useful than a pad of paper. The brilliance of a Tablet PC is the pen, not the fact you can poke it.
My 3.5 year old Tablet PC has a 1.7Ghz Pentium M with 1GB RAM and is now running Windows 7. It blows the functionality of this thing out the water.
The 2 classic locations I can think of are:
Natural History Museum, nearest tube South Kensington.
Somerset House, nearest tube Temple.
Of the 4.5m individuals in the database, a fifth have never received any convictions or cautions from the Police.
Than means that for approx 80% of the people they initially suspected, they were right!
No, that means that 80% of those have had some form of criminal conviction or caution at any point in their life, which could be for a large array of fairly minor things.
Cautions can be given out for petty vandalism or fairly minor crime, lots of things that people may have done during their younger years. Not the sort of crimes that i think DNA should be kept on a database for.
When I treat the European Union as a single united government under a single president (because that's what they are now that Lisbon Treaty has passed), I see this:
Yeah, except for the fact that we're not. The Lisbon Treaty, apart from being controversial in its own right, doesn't make the EU a "United States of Europe". Each country still has its own laws, government and healthcare.
Just because the position of "European President" has been created, which is apparently a rather figurehead position, does not mean that we're all now one country. The UK still has its NHS, the French have their compulsory insurance system and they're all self contained. So no, you can't just bundle all EU countries together to suit your statistics.
The PS3 has several software titles you can install, including VidZone, an on demand music video application.
To be honest, i use this feature all the time to share media with my mates.
Your account can be on 5 machines at once (and deactivated at will), so my account, my brother's and a couple of mates have done this with our consoles. Any time i purchase from the online store, they get it too. Sony probably know this thing happens, but yet it's one of the many reasons i happily use their download service, it's pretty damned open as online market places go.
Infact, they've got a lot of purchases because their online store is actually good. I purchase in my local currency (not MS Points), the minimum amount they charge my card at a time is £5 (fair enough, it costs them money to do this), but if the game is more than that, they only charge me that and not in increments of £5. This means i don't have strange quantities of "Points" left over because they sell them in quantities you can't use like MS!
How are they meant to regulate online downloads like this? I think Sony have actually been pretty fair with their policy. I mean, who actually has 5 PS3s they need to have their content on?
Whereas here in the UK we're not getting a price drop, but apparently the standard bundle is going to come with an extra game!
Fuck you console makers, you keep screwing over the UK market and i'm sick of it!
The NewScientist i was reading a few days ago was talking about planes going wireless (that's right, WIRELESS) to save weight on copper wiring. They call it fly-by-wireless.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20327245.300-flybywireless-set-for-takeoff.html
They also claim it has other benefits, such as not having to worry about wires snapping and redundancy. I'd still feel a bit weird flying in a plane with no physical connection to the engines/wings/other.
You realise this has nothing to do with the BBC being a government organisation (which it isn't)? It's because the BBC has massive problems getting content providers (mostly US ones) to allow them to broadcast their content, especially in HD.
I believe this is one of the several reasons used to stop the BBC getting the rights to 24 after the first season, they didn't want it aired on the BBC in the UK as it affected their ability to sell it to Europe (as BBC signals can be picked up quite easily over there). Instead they managed to launch their show on the BBC and get a huge following, then move it to Sky. Fox and Sky TV are owned by the same guy...
Channel 4 is not a "public service" broadcaster in the same way the BBC is, you seem to imply that it's a Govt. controlled channel with commercial advertising.
Infact, all terrestrial broadcasters have a "public service remit" which requires them to have certain amounts of public service content such as religious programming, regional programming (such as Welsh language TV) and a variety of culture and arts.
All channels but the BBC are commercial channels, the main 5 also have this public service remit.
Or is there some way to shut off whatever part of the TV is devoted to picking up broadcast signals, so that you can legally have a TV without paying this "optional" fee?
Yes, you can. If you use your TV for watching pre-recorded videos, games consoles, CCTV etc. but do not watch broadcast TV, you don't need a TV Licence. In a strange loophole (because the licence covers live broadcasts etc.) you don't need a licence to watch any BBC iPlayer content, except for items being streamed live (like BBC News).
Technically you're meant to disable the tuner, but as far as i'm aware if they do check your house an untuned telly and no aerial is enough proof.
To check your TV they need to gain a warrant allowing them entry to your house. To get the warrant they need to have a reasonable suspision of your household watching broadcast TV, usually they aren't able to do that. So typically, no warrant and no checks.
I've managed to erase all my apps on iTunes by accident. I re-installed my machine, fresh copy of iTunes with my podcasts set up, plug in, sync.
In that bar up the top "Erasing application xyz...". All my apps, gone, because i didn't re-auth the computer first. Problem is i can't find any form of "Download all my apps from my account again" option. I think i'm going to have to go through my iTunes purchase history, then try to find all my apps individually!
My biggest problem with iTunes is how laggy it's UI is on Windows. Click on it, does nothing, click again and it responds. Did it do nothing because i was selecting the iTunes window from another one, then clicking again on the actual iTunes UI button? Or, if it does work first time, i've double clicked and it's launched another window! Argh!
How about multi-tasking? I'm afraid to do anything else with iTunes if it's syncing, it'll lag / crash / i don't know what but i have to kill it. It's been syncing, i've clicked to browse podcasts, whole thing freezes.
Final gripe, when using an iPod / iPhone you get a drop-down of Photos, Music, Podcasts below the iPod item on the left hand menu. If i select these i get a list of the stuff on my iPod, great. If i click on the iPod link itself i also get the same items as tabs on the top of the main view. Named the same, appear in the same order and seem like they should be the same items, but yet they have different functionality. Why?!
I'd also say Apple has no idea how a File or Right-click menu works. Why do they have both "Authorise" and "Deauthorise" on the same menu? Can a machine be in some unknown middle ground?
I've had an iPod Touch for quite a while, i really do love it and it made me want the iPhone. However, working with iTunes has made me realise i don't want an iPhone, it's going to be such a horrible thing to manage and it's so locked down. I might have a look at the HTC Hero instead now.
Nothing is finished until the paperwork is done.
