This experience taught me: 1) Cell phone makers simply don't care about software. They have almost zero incentive to put effort into it and often have incentive NOT to invest in software. 2) Never run the stock install from the phone maker. Root it and install a custom mod that is much closer to vanilla Android as possible.
3) Buy a handset with vanilla Android on it to start with.
There, fixed that for ya.
Seconded.
One plain vanilla phone on every carrier with every radio.
For all other phones: On starting the phone for the first time pop a dialog box:
Would you like to use plain vanilla android (with no enhancements for this particular device)?
OR
Would you like to use TouchWizSenseBlur a beautiful-finger-paint-like-buble-gum-super-duper-extras-which-will-love-you-all-night-long-and-cook-you-breakfast-in-the-morning-full-of-win-enhancements-for-your-personal-phone-and-life?
At the start of 2010 it looked like Google was going to try to go down this road with google.com/phone but then Verizon came calling and said "we don;t think so". Google got into bed with VZW on the issue of net neutrality for wireless networks and one of the victims was their project to change the way phones are bought and sold in the US. Perhaps Larry Page will revisit this in the future, but it's difficult to see how it fits into his "focusing" strategy. I'm not holding my breath that all this changes in the US any time soon.
And yes, I vote with my money. I bought an unlocked Nexus One through Google.com/phone on the very first day it went live and replaced it last month with an imported unlocked Galaxy Nexus GSM. And yes, it is a fine phone. When I showed it to the folks at the local Verizon store they were salivating. And then they offered to sell me cases and sleeves for it. They had those in stock, even if they still don't have a release date for the Verizon Galaxy Nexus phone itself.
As an American, I feel sure these speeds must be mis-types by an order of magnitude. Right?
This. Many times over. It's just soooo frustrating sitting here in USA seeing the UK complain about speed and caps and prices. I'd *love* to have that problem. Of course Brits probably look at our US discussions of petrol/gas prices or taxes and have much the same reaction! Swings and roundabouts, I guess.
I would love a MythTV plugin for this... I've been slowly amassing hi-res images to put on our livingroom TV as a slow slideshow for when we have people over... I'd been looking for a trove of good resolution fine 'art'
http://www.haltadefinizione.com/home.jsp?lingua=en from http://tech.slashdot.org/story/10/10/02/1415229/Masterpieces-Online-mdash-High-Culture-At-High-Resolution but I dunno how easily you'll be able to grab the images. Or, indeed, remove the watermarking
Nope, according to the paper, even if you don't USE Facebook, even if you have never visited Facebook, the like button appearing on other sites can gather data about your visit.
I may not be much of a grammarian, but shouldn't the title read "PC Era Forecast To End In 18 Months"? "Forecasted" just looks and sounds ugly to me. It's an irregular verb and thus disobeys some rules.
Cite: Forecast or forecasted? (itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com)
Cite: English Verb - To Forecast (writingenglish.com)
Apart from that pedantic observation, I concur with those suspicious of the source and methodology. Market researchers are interested in selling reports to those interested only in high margin expanding markets.
Anecdote: My father finally decided to upgrade his computing experience and after much thought and consultation we decided replace his ancient desktop PC with a 15 inch laptop. This combined the speed he wanted with a screen size which meant that he and my mother would not have to squint at the new screen.
BTW, as part of the consultation process, my father asked me "What's the difference between a program on my computer and an app?" Good question.
Another direct link: http://www.haltadefinizione.com/magnifier.jsp?idopera=3
Fans of the Baroque will be aware that Andrea Pozzo is best known for his use of "quadratura", the technique intermixing paintings of architectural details with elements of fancy. What is less well known is that Pozzo was an early admirer of Spongebob Squarepants. One of these amazingly highly detailed pictures shows that his "Gloria di Sant'Ignazio", painted in 1685 for the nave of the church of St. Ignazio in Rome, include a sly tribute to our favourite right-angled undersea dweller. Hit the link and zoom in to the bottom right
Perhaps as the WSJ continues its wrong-headed, sensationalistic and, indeed disingenuous* "What Do They Know" series they might just consider telling their frightened readers how to deal with this supposed danger.
But no, the only reference to browsing tools comes in the rather anemic comments section.
Note to WSJ: Next time you scream "won't they think of the kids..." please tell your readers to:
Use Firefox with the following plugins:
And use a host file with known tracking company addresses nulled
If my technophobic boss could do all this after one short training session, then WSJ readers can do it too.
*WSJ uses their own and outside scripting, places cookies and places partner tracking cookies, no? Also, if a reader has access behind the paywall, then the WSJ even knows the reader's credit card details.
Unfortunately not available for Windows XP 64k pro
Repel them. Repel them. Induce them to relinquish the spheroid. - Indiana University fans' chant for their perennially bad football team
