Everyone moans about battery life when using the GPS, it's the backlight that kills the battery not the GPS. Leave the backlight on full blast on any phone and it will discharge fast.
Use the option to dim the display between instructions, it lasts for ages then.
I have a Tomtom one v3 as well as a 6110, the Tomtom has 2 hours battery life, so I don't see the point about battery life being poor on this?
It's good they're offering Linux pre-installed, but it is just another SFF PC.
In some ways they would have a more unique selling point if they produced something really compact like a Mac Mini. Obviously such compactness isn't for all, it limits expandability.
Ubuntu is more proven on the desktop. I would imagine as a server in a larger organisation it would need to be supported by Oracle.
It probably is possible to install Oracle on it with some fiddling about, but as soon as you hit a bug Oracle wouldn't help you if it's not in their list of supported platforms.
For print, web and file services it would be a fairly good platform. So long as you aquire your products and printers to suit the OS.
"I think if I spent money on the Eee PC I would feel a bit let down as if I allowed 8 years of advancements to go on top of the Easymate 800, I would expect more than what the Eee PC is now."
That's why it is £220 pounds, yes that's right, a fraction of most UMPCs. Even a second hand 12 inch Apple Powerbook is bigger than this laptop and will still cost more.
If you don't know the concept of ultramobile then you probably don't need an ultramobile device.
The reason for these patches is simple, Apple's OS uses open source components, command line tools and daemons much like Linux and commercial Unix does.
Flaws in these get identified from time to time and Apple adds these fixes to their patches.
These flaws weren't necessarily identified on OSX and proven to have been a problem.
"Animal rights terrorists have no such excuse, they just woke up one day and decided that cancer and Parkinson's were awesome things to have."
Complete and utter b******s, maybe some of us decide to eat properly, not smoke, not drink to excess and get some exercise.
Other people meanwhile drink to excess, smoke tobacco and drugs, eat rubbish and then expect scientists to experiment on animals to find a cure for their self made ills.
I don't need some selfish scientist making dogs smoke and then cutting them up to tell me smoking isn't good for you.
Lack of choice is the problem, O2 isn't the most popular network and people like to choose their phone package.
By bundling wifi access and unlimited data they've not given consumers the choice they require.
Add to this the fact that there's been a lot of press coverage since the US launch. Most people are fully aware of the limitations of the device by now.
It would have sold more on a 12 month contract at £20 a month.
If the products didn't deliver people wouldn't buy them, it's as simple as that.
What use are a million features if they are poorly implemented or don't work?
I personally don't see myself owning an iPhone (happy owner of a Nokia 6110 navigator) but I do appreciate the effort Apple put into designing a slick simple to use interface. They've also raised the standard to be expected for battery life, 8 hours talk time is a lot more than the 4-5 many devices have.
If it wasn't something new and innovative it wouldn't get so much press coverage.
If they make it small enough and robust enough to allow a TFT monitor to rest on top of it.
It will be hard to build a smaller unit than a Mac Mini. These already must hold the crown for the best size to power ratio? especially with the new Core2 duo versions.
I buy the original CD purely for the artwork and having full quality. There are some bands who have codes in the booklet that get you free mp3 track downloads on their site. You lose this buying the mp3 version.
It wouldn't be much to have wav file downloads, a CD is about 650MB and that would take someone on broadband about an hour max to download.
It is well known that Microsoft doesn't eat its own dog food. They used to produce all their own internal software for their day to day running, but found that it was cheaper and easier to buy software for these tasks (what does that tell you about their products?).
You seriously think for one minute that they store the Windows source code in SourceSafe? of course not, Perforce is the tool of choice here.
This would be like the government raising the speed limit in Central London in the rush hour to 100MPH.
Sure, the limit is higher but you can't possibly utilise it. The business model of cable and ADSL is all wrong, the pricing was dropped to get people off dial up.
To get this lower price the bandwidth allocations have be introduced. On some broadband packages you could hit the limit within one day, would only require you to download two DVD ISOs (Ubuntu DVDs for example).
When are they going to realise that people want the PS3 but don't want to pay a cost comparable to a low end PC.
Is this somehow supposed to make up for the removal of PS2 emulation?
They need to stop living in the past and sort out their current generation product. You don't see Nintendo revamping their previous generation product.
This is where their argument falls down, you pay a TV licence and you expect to be able to view the digital content. Freeview boxes aren't all made by one company, if they were there would be an monopoly investigation.
So why can't a system be devised that works for all platforms?
They beam the programming digitally around the country without DRM and at better quality (Freeview) yet on the web they add DRM and lower the quality?
Simple, shrink the battery, shrink the capacity. Sure the CPU is low power and lack of disk motor helps, but the ratio of capacity to watt use is probably no different to a normal laptop.
"when will the corporates learn to let people do what they want with their devices once they have bought them?"
When will people who are on a mobile phone contract realise that they don't own the *subsidised* phone until they have paid for it?
Also, games consoles are often subsidised as they are sold at loss on the hope of revenue generated by software purchases. If you are able to run homebrew o the PSP then you won't buy any games.
If you want freedom you buy a SIM free phone, open source games console (or a PC for games).
To answer your question, does the average PC user know what a compiler is?
Mac users are in no way less IT savvy than PC users. Just because they like to spend our time using computers and being creative instead of building computer and overclocking does not mean they don't know anything about them.
I installed Leopard last night and I've had no problems with it at all, I was playing back a music composition in Logic Studio without a glitch (even though Spotlight was indexing my hard disk). Timing and audio stability Windows users can only dream of.
Vista can't even play an mp3 without throttling the network traffic:
Apple makes machines for home users primarily, they're also good for design and media. While some developers like these machines, to say they're unusable just because they don't have the latest Java is stupid.
Anyone with half a brain who is doing commercial production work would do a test installation first anyway.
Quality Java apps are few and far between, they run slow and can't take advantage of native features (typically). Java is used for stuff like Apache Tomcat, but even then you're unlikely to use the latest greatest version of Java since you should probably hold back a version and ensure all the bugs and security holes are patched.
Someone purchased an item from me on ebay, I was suspicious of the purchase (looked like a stolen credit card), unconfimed address (deliberate spellling mistake?). I refunded the purchaser and relisted. Ebay warned me for doing this?
Basically you have to sell to anyone no matter how dodgy they look, you can't refuse or you may get suspended. No online retailer would send you an item if they thought you were using a stolen card, so why is it different on ebay?
When the SPV Windows Smartphone was released it had signing and wouldn't install unsigned apps. It resulted in a lot of negative PR and upset owners. Orange lifted the restricted eventually.
End users and freeware developers don't want signing, mobile operators and handset makers seem mad on it. Handset makers like it since the signing process earns them money, mobile operators are keen to stop the phones being unlocked.
I buy my phones SIM free as I don't like all the restrictions, it also means I can change the phone after a few months and get back most of the value. (try doing that after 18 months with your battered contract phone). Even a SIM free phone is subjected to this signing rubbish, it's bonkers.
Actually given Microsoft's reputation Windows Mobile is pretty reliable. There's bugs in it, some annoying ones, it's also slow. But compared to XP or Vista it does typically work and not require reboots.
It is however typical Microsoft, leaves temp files and rubbish in the filesystem which requires a clean up now and then.
Did you know that Apple provide workshops on things such as digital photography, music production, video editing?
This is why people queue up, they get good service and training on how to use their purchase.
I was like you, all dismissive of Apple, then I bought one and I've not looked back since. It's the ideal platform for creative pursuits, Windows is too distracting, unreliable and doesn't perform as well.
This is why we don't want media giants controlling any part of the Internet. It will be transformed into a huge money making tool if they have their way.
Too much emphasis is on money, music publishers should care more about the quality of the music they output and be proud of bringining genuine talent to the masses. But they're just bean counters obsessed with bleeding everyone dry.
I write music, I support those artists who aren't earning a fortune. When the labels can afford to shovel £85 million to one artist for a record deal then you do wonder if they need any more money?
Apple's success is largely about their design, why would they want to make their OS run on a billions of possible PC hardware configurations? it would be a nightmare to test the OS and it would crash.
Apple's hardware is often much better than branded PC junk. My Mac Pro is very quiet considering it has 4 CPU cores. Apple uses a modern BIOS too.
Register
2264 posts • joined Wednesday 13th December 2006 15:36 GMT
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XML
Have you not heard of eGif standards?
http://www.govtalk.gov.uk/schemasstandards/egif.asp
It mandates XML format.
@NHS Database
The NHS database has encryption and scrambling technology built in, you have to request clear text information and this is all audited.
The data is downloaded over an N3 connection, there's no shuffling data around using CDs.
Pointer?
This looks like it obscures the front of the Wiimote, this will stop the device being used for pointing?
Battery life
Everyone moans about battery life when using the GPS, it's the backlight that kills the battery not the GPS. Leave the backlight on full blast on any phone and it will discharge fast.
Use the option to dim the display between instructions, it lasts for ages then.
I have a Tomtom one v3 as well as a 6110, the Tomtom has 2 hours battery life, so I don't see the point about battery life being poor on this?
Size comparison
I think this should demonstrate the size:
http://www.redtarget.net/eeepcsize2.html
Bought one of these myself, cracking little unit. I own a Macbook and wanted something more portable and less valuable for daily use.
Got them all already
Do keep up guys, there's ports of all three for pretty much every smartphone platform.
What they could do however is sort out the control mechanism. A nice bluetooth controller would be good. Maybe use the Wiimote as others have done.
Patents only work for small companies
They're fine for allowing small inventors to protect their breakthrough idea and stop it being poached by a larger company.
However when a large company does the same, they sue anyone who makes anything remotely similar.
Ultimately it's better to have the freedom to create pretty much whatever you like, so long as you aren't blatently cloning someone's product.
The irony of patents is that by having to make your design different to get around a patent you can often end up with a superior product.
PC world finally catches up
Apple have been doing all in one machines for ages.
But all their machines not have decent 3D graphics, not integrated graphics like this does.
I have 5 Leopard licences
I have two Macs and three spare licences. Apple don't make such a small laptop and I might consider this hack.
I don't like carrying an expensive laptop around all the time, £220 on the other hand is much less of a problem.
Nothing that new
It's good they're offering Linux pre-installed, but it is just another SFF PC.
In some ways they would have a more unique selling point if they produced something really compact like a Mac Mini. Obviously such compactness isn't for all, it limits expandability.
Ideal for small office server
Ubuntu is more proven on the desktop. I would imagine as a server in a larger organisation it would need to be supported by Oracle.
It probably is possible to install Oracle on it with some fiddling about, but as soon as you hit a bug Oracle wouldn't help you if it's not in their list of supported platforms.
For print, web and file services it would be a fairly good platform. So long as you aquire your products and printers to suit the OS.
Letdown?
"I think if I spent money on the Eee PC I would feel a bit let down as if I allowed 8 years of advancements to go on top of the Easymate 800, I would expect more than what the Eee PC is now."
That's why it is £220 pounds, yes that's right, a fraction of most UMPCs. Even a second hand 12 inch Apple Powerbook is bigger than this laptop and will still cost more.
If you don't know the concept of ultramobile then you probably don't need an ultramobile device.
The reason for these patches..
The reason for these patches is simple, Apple's OS uses open source components, command line tools and daemons much like Linux and commercial Unix does.
Flaws in these get identified from time to time and Apple adds these fixes to their patches.
These flaws weren't necessarily identified on OSX and proven to have been a problem.
Some illnesses are self made
"Animal rights terrorists have no such excuse, they just woke up one day and decided that cancer and Parkinson's were awesome things to have."
Complete and utter b******s, maybe some of us decide to eat properly, not smoke, not drink to excess and get some exercise.
Other people meanwhile drink to excess, smoke tobacco and drugs, eat rubbish and then expect scientists to experiment on animals to find a cure for their self made ills.
I don't need some selfish scientist making dogs smoke and then cutting them up to tell me smoking isn't good for you.
Road pricing
If the UK plans for road pricing are initiated they will require a positioning system that can be relied upon, even during times of war.
If we rely solely on the US system then we can't really be sure road pricing would last for long.
@Paul Isaac
VGA is available on other PDA phones, it's HTC who are dragging their feet.
Look at the Eten PDA phones if you want VGA.
As for the CPU MHz, you can't compare the MHz on ARM CPUs. Some are dual core, some are faster at lower clock speeds.
Plus you have to take into the account the speed of the embedded graphics controller.
The XDA Exec is pretty damn slow, it looses to pretty much anything when benchmarked.
Lack of choice
Lack of choice is the problem, O2 isn't the most popular network and people like to choose their phone package.
By bundling wifi access and unlimited data they've not given consumers the choice they require.
Add to this the fact that there's been a lot of press coverage since the US launch. Most people are fully aware of the limitations of the device by now.
It would have sold more on a 12 month contract at £20 a month.
Ahh
I wanted one of these when collecting computers a while ago, couldn't find an affordable one.
I remember seeing Fraggle Rock and the lighthouse keeper had one.
Advice to the costume department
Keep the costume department locked!!
Cult
If the products didn't deliver people wouldn't buy them, it's as simple as that.
What use are a million features if they are poorly implemented or don't work?
I personally don't see myself owning an iPhone (happy owner of a Nokia 6110 navigator) but I do appreciate the effort Apple put into designing a slick simple to use interface. They've also raised the standard to be expected for battery life, 8 hours talk time is a lot more than the 4-5 many devices have.
If it wasn't something new and innovative it wouldn't get so much press coverage.
Rubbish
While it's true you have to use iTunes to manage what you put on the iPod, you can download mp3s or create them yourself then import them into iTunes.
You do not, repeat not need to buy anything from iTunes.
Onto a winner if....
If they make it small enough and robust enough to allow a TFT monitor to rest on top of it.
It will be hard to build a smaller unit than a Mac Mini. These already must hold the crown for the best size to power ratio? especially with the new Core2 duo versions.
Cancel the cheque?
Banks can cancel a cheque, so what is this story about?
Artwork
I buy the original CD purely for the artwork and having full quality. There are some bands who have codes in the booklet that get you free mp3 track downloads on their site. You lose this buying the mp3 version.
It wouldn't be much to have wav file downloads, a CD is about 650MB and that would take someone on broadband about an hour max to download.
Internal systems
It is well known that Microsoft doesn't eat its own dog food. They used to produce all their own internal software for their day to day running, but found that it was cheaper and easier to buy software for these tasks (what does that tell you about their products?).
You seriously think for one minute that they store the Windows source code in SourceSafe? of course not, Perforce is the tool of choice here.
Faster speeds but nowhere to go
This would be like the government raising the speed limit in Central London in the rush hour to 100MPH.
Sure, the limit is higher but you can't possibly utilise it. The business model of cable and ADSL is all wrong, the pricing was dropped to get people off dial up.
To get this lower price the bandwidth allocations have be introduced. On some broadband packages you could hit the limit within one day, would only require you to download two DVD ISOs (Ubuntu DVDs for example).
@Webster Phreaky
If there's anything worse than a Mac fan boy it's a Windows fan boy.
Your argument falls down seriously when you see that most electronic musicians use Apple on stage, this is proof of the reliability of their software.
Stupid
When are they going to realise that people want the PS3 but don't want to pay a cost comparable to a low end PC.
Is this somehow supposed to make up for the removal of PS2 emulation?
They need to stop living in the past and sort out their current generation product. You don't see Nintendo revamping their previous generation product.
Bonkers
Take an already stealable item, make it worth even more to thieves.
Good stuff.
BBC should use standards
This is where their argument falls down, you pay a TV licence and you expect to be able to view the digital content. Freeview boxes aren't all made by one company, if they were there would be an monopoly investigation.
So why can't a system be devised that works for all platforms?
They beam the programming digitally around the country without DRM and at better quality (Freeview) yet on the web they add DRM and lower the quality?
Zimbabwe next?
Only in Zimbabwe could the price of Windows increase faster than it does in the UK.
Flawed
All the enemy needs is thermal imaging or radar and the game is up.
Battery life
Simple, shrink the battery, shrink the capacity. Sure the CPU is low power and lack of disk motor helps, but the ratio of capacity to watt use is probably no different to a normal laptop.
Hold on?
"when will the corporates learn to let people do what they want with their devices once they have bought them?"
When will people who are on a mobile phone contract realise that they don't own the *subsidised* phone until they have paid for it?
Also, games consoles are often subsidised as they are sold at loss on the hope of revenue generated by software purchases. If you are able to run homebrew o the PSP then you won't buy any games.
If you want freedom you buy a SIM free phone, open source games console (or a PC for games).
@Anonymous Coward - Compilers
To answer your question, does the average PC user know what a compiler is?
Mac users are in no way less IT savvy than PC users. Just because they like to spend our time using computers and being creative instead of building computer and overclocking does not mean they don't know anything about them.
I installed Leopard last night and I've had no problems with it at all, I was playing back a music composition in Logic Studio without a glitch (even though Spotlight was indexing my hard disk). Timing and audio stability Windows users can only dream of.
Vista can't even play an mp3 without throttling the network traffic:
http://blogs.technet.com/markrussinovich/archive/2007/08/27/1833290.aspx
Overblown nonsense
Apple makes machines for home users primarily, they're also good for design and media. While some developers like these machines, to say they're unusable just because they don't have the latest Java is stupid.
Anyone with half a brain who is doing commercial production work would do a test installation first anyway.
Quality Java apps are few and far between, they run slow and can't take advantage of native features (typically). Java is used for stuff like Apache Tomcat, but even then you're unlikely to use the latest greatest version of Java since you should probably hold back a version and ensure all the bugs and security holes are patched.
Radar guns are flawed
Using radar for this purpose is flawed, you have to point the gun at the right section of the car, the guns need calibration regularly.
Some guns are that bad that they register a speed of 10mph on a stationary object.
Ebay have stupid practices
Someone purchased an item from me on ebay, I was suspicious of the purchase (looked like a stolen credit card), unconfimed address (deliberate spellling mistake?). I refunded the purchaser and relisted. Ebay warned me for doing this?
Basically you have to sell to anyone no matter how dodgy they look, you can't refuse or you may get suspended. No online retailer would send you an item if they thought you were using a stolen card, so why is it different on ebay?
Signing hurts the freeware developer
When the SPV Windows Smartphone was released it had signing and wouldn't install unsigned apps. It resulted in a lot of negative PR and upset owners. Orange lifted the restricted eventually.
End users and freeware developers don't want signing, mobile operators and handset makers seem mad on it. Handset makers like it since the signing process earns them money, mobile operators are keen to stop the phones being unlocked.
I buy my phones SIM free as I don't like all the restrictions, it also means I can change the phone after a few months and get back most of the value. (try doing that after 18 months with your battered contract phone). Even a SIM free phone is subjected to this signing rubbish, it's bonkers.
What they mean is...
If HD DVD dies then you'd be stuck with a drive for a dead format. Having external means you can then release a blu-ray external drive.
WM
Actually given Microsoft's reputation Windows Mobile is pretty reliable. There's bugs in it, some annoying ones, it's also slow. But compared to XP or Vista it does typically work and not require reboots.
It is however typical Microsoft, leaves temp files and rubbish in the filesystem which requires a clean up now and then.
How you gonna move the oil for the planes?
Do away with shipping and you get no oil to refine into fuel. So planes are reliant on ships.
Fanboys?
Have you ever asked people why they are there?
Did you know that Apple provide workshops on things such as digital photography, music production, video editing?
This is why people queue up, they get good service and training on how to use their purchase.
I was like you, all dismissive of Apple, then I bought one and I've not looked back since. It's the ideal platform for creative pursuits, Windows is too distracting, unreliable and doesn't perform as well.
WAV or Mp3?
If it's mp3 then this is the end of decent audio quality.
SACD won't take off neither will DVD-audio. We're now stuck with mp3 and it's crummy quality.
They'll ruin the net in the process
This is why we don't want media giants controlling any part of the Internet. It will be transformed into a huge money making tool if they have their way.
Too much emphasis is on money, music publishers should care more about the quality of the music they output and be proud of bringining genuine talent to the masses. But they're just bean counters obsessed with bleeding everyone dry.
I write music, I support those artists who aren't earning a fortune. When the labels can afford to shovel £85 million to one artist for a record deal then you do wonder if they need any more money?
8-Bit encodings
Most news servers do handle 8-bit encodings. Yenc allows for smaller downloads as it uses 8-bit.
As for the RIAA action, they'd be happy if the Internet simply didn't exist. Media caveman who act like the mafia.
People will always copy things, it's better someone downloads an mp3 than steals the CD from the shop.
Why would Apple abandon hardware?
Apple's success is largely about their design, why would they want to make their OS run on a billions of possible PC hardware configurations? it would be a nightmare to test the OS and it would crash.
Apple's hardware is often much better than branded PC junk. My Mac Pro is very quiet considering it has 4 CPU cores. Apple uses a modern BIOS too.
Clove pre-order
In reply to the guy asking where to buy, you can pre-order one here:
http://www.clove.co.uk/viewProduct.aspx?product=9136E4FD-2F3C-4289-84A9-4B96ED813B9D&category=GROUP4
Forget speed limits
How about keeping kids off the roads?
How about teaching people road safety again?
Making roads safer by having railings and proper crossings.
Cars drive along roads, drivers don't deliberately hit people, pedestrians are the ones who often make mistakes.
Why just Wii
I dont see why (when they cost 20 quid) that the XBox or PS3 can't have a wiimote style controller for this game.
It sucks that you have to choose between wiimote or network play.
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