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Comment Re:That doesn't sound like a "leak". (Score 1) 110

by recoiledsnake (#46325169) Attached to: Lumia Phones Leaking Private Data To Microsoft

I wonder whether it's FUD around the option (probably defaulted to opt-in) to participate in Microsoft's "feedback" program.

I don't think there is anything that is overblown.

If you associate your Windows phone with an account (Required to load software from the only source permissible the windows app store) the phone also periodically and on demand of Microsoft uploads your location to a Microsoft server and there is **NOTHING** you can do about it and no way you can turn it off short of wiping the device and never associating an account which means not using the app store paying a hefty premium to use what is then essentially a "feature phone"

Microsoft's WP does not respect your privacy by default and there is no lever you can pull that changes this.

And how is that different from iOS or Android? Don't they do exactly the same if not worse? Also, you can turn off location services in Windows Phone.
Atleast they don't seem to be spying on which physical stores you visit unlike Google is. http://digiday.com/platforms/g...

Comment Re:Amazon forked it just fine. (Score 1) 241

by recoiledsnake (#46300057) Attached to: With 'Virgin' Developers, Microsoft Could Fork Android

Now, if they want access to Google Play Store they will probably have to go through the same process as any other Android phone vendor and sign and agreement and go through testing and certification. Virgin developers or not, if you want to access Play Store you need an agreement.

Not so easy.
http://www.theverge.com/2011/0...

It comes with a lot of restrictions, including shipping all Google apps like maps as default apps,say goodbye to Bing at the very least, not to mention it may not be "free" since Google is known to charge for GMS. So what's the point of forking again?
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets...

Comment Re:NetworkWorld junk spam on Slashdot again.... (Score 1) 241

by recoiledsnake (#46295731) Attached to: With 'Virgin' Developers, Microsoft Could Fork Android

Please see the relevant part that I quoted again:

However, Google’s verification is not needed for an individual consumer to download and install a Google-signed version of the Google Play app store and then download the full inventory of Google proprietary apps to an unverified Android version.

So what you say, although true, is a distinction without a difference since the article isn't talking about phones that shipped with Google's authorization. Not to mention that whoever is providing the Google App store download to even authorized users is committing copyright infringement and thus subject to DMCA takedown/legal action.

Comment NetworkWorld junk spam on Slashdot again.... (Score 3, Interesting) 241

by recoiledsnake (#46295173) Attached to: With 'Virgin' Developers, Microsoft Could Fork Android

From the article

. However, Google’s verification is not needed for an individual consumer to download and install a Google-signed version of the Google Play app store and then download the full inventory of Google proprietary apps to an unverified Android version.

That's quite wrong. The Play app is copyrighted, proprietary and is tightly coupled to Google's cloud. They even sent a Cease and Desist to CyanogenMod a few years ago and stopped them from distributing it. They don't go after individual users, but those users are still infringing Google's copyright and are essentially pirating the software. So this advice is like suggesting that Ubuntu make VM software that makes it really easy to pirate Windows to run Windows apps since MS does not go after individual personal home users for pirating their software.

Not to mention that even if all this manages to happen, Google can just tweak their servers and store app to reject connections from Android forks(see iTunes).

If you want read a better article about why forking Android does not make any sense, this article is way better:
http://arstechnica.com/informa...

Even if MS wants to do something like that, it makes a bit more sense to make Windows Phone able to load Android Apps, which they were/are supposedly exploring.

http://www.theverge.com/2014/2...

Comment Really? (Score 3, Insightful) 125

by recoiledsnake (#46153815) Attached to: Asus Announces Small Form Factor 'Chromebox' PCs

Just as Google has been evangelizing with its Chromebook notebook initiative, the pitch for these Chromebox systems is that they're capable of doing everything you need to do in today's connected world. While not everyone will totally agree with that marketing pitch — gaming, 3D modeling, and a host of specialized tasks are better suited for a PC with higher specs — there's certainly a market for these types of devices.

Wasn't one launched by Samsung a few years ago and utterly flopped?
http://www.engadget.com/2012/0...

Comment And Slashdot goes to zero (Score 4, Insightful) 390

by recoiledsnake (#46113391) Attached to: IE Drops To Single-Digit Market Share

W3Schools is a site for web developers and does not represent the web despite the three W's in the name.

Net Applications(which measures visitors instead of page views like Statcounter) has it at ~50%.

Story brought to you by the same geniuses that brought you the following stories:

"Draconian DRM Revealed in Windows 7"
http://tech.slashdot.org/story...

"Microsoft to abandon Windows Phone"
http://mobile.slashdot.org/sto...
(As an aside, the above story was submitted by the zealot megalomaniac symbolset).

Milking views by trolling only works for so long.

Thanks to zealot posters like bmo, symbolset, Zero__Kelvin, LordLimeCat, Jeremiah Cornelius, UnknowingFool, rtfa-troll, binarylarry, MightyMartian, drinkypoo, pieroxy for karmawhoring the groupthink and slowly ruining the site by spewing lame shill accusations. Oh and thanks to moderators for marking them insightful and modding down any posts that go against the groupthink.

When the beta lands and is the default without a way to go back to the old layout is the day I remove Slashdot from my bookmarks and unfollow on twitter.

Last one out turn off the lights.
Technology

Video CES 2014: Building Self-Guiding Lego Robots for Fun and (Maybe) Profit (Video) 8

Posted by Roblimo from the first-comes-a-robot-then-comes-a-driverless-car-then-comes-an-android-to-replace-you-and-me dept.
Lauro Ojeda is a researcher at the University of Michigan who also works with a Korean company, Microinfinity, that says it works with everything "from basic sensors to full navigation systems, and is becoming the world leading navigation system company." Prof. Ojeda also has a personal website, robotnav.com, where he posts his navigation and control code (under an open source license, of course) that you are welcome to download, play with, install on any suitable device you have handy, and modify at will. A lot of his work is with Lego-based robots because they're both inexpensive and readily available almost anywhere. If you already have a good-sized Lego collection, you probably only need a few pieces to follow or even surpass Prof. Ojeda's work. And who knows? If you manage to make an autonomous Lego robot, your next stage may be a car that drives itself so you can watch SyFy reruns on your way to work instead of worrying about the truck in the left lane that looks like it's about to make a right turn.

Submission + - Xbox One sales top 3 million in 2013

Submitted by recoiledsnake
recoiledsnake writes: Microsoft Corp. said on Monday that sales of its new Xbox One game console topped three million at the end of last year after launching in November and selling one million consoles in less than a day. The third generation of the Xbox is competing head-to-head with Sony Corp's PlayStation 4, also launched in November. Sony said it had sold 2.1 million PS4s by the first week of December. It will not be clear which company is leading the console battle until Sony updates that figure. However, the Xbox One seems to be selling quite well despite numerous obstacles including being over 25% more expensive than the PS4, the always-on Internet requirement that was controversial and was rolled back, and being sold in only 13 countries compared to the 48 countries that the PS4 is selling in.

Comment Re:Windows XP still at 28.98% (Score 3, Interesting) 470

Now it's a matter of people getting jacked out of what they paid for sooner than a reasonable expectation, on hardware that won't even run the upgrade. Completely screws up your flow. Now it's not their fault. Sorry for ruining your party.

It's certainly their fault. MS publishes the EOL dates for OSes and has been extending XP's EOL from many many years even though they didn't have to. People expecting updates till the end of time is not Microsoft's fault, everyone likes free stuff. The EOL dates are here. http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/default.aspx?LN=en-us&x=15&y=15&c2=14019 If you buy Windows 7 or 8 expecting support till 2050, it's certainly your fault if MS fails to meet your expectation.

Not to mention, a huge chunk of XP users are using pirated installs, especially in places like China. Which other company supports OSes for so long? Buy an Apple computer for 4 times the price in 2001 and it would've gone out of support in a few years. How many years does an Android phone get supported with updates? 2?

Not to mention that XP users are holding back web and application development. It's time to move on.

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