McPhee
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Everything posted by McPhee
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Your not alone there Daft. Looks like a nice bit of kit! Best thing I've seen for portable computing since Sony's VAIO P in my opinion (I'm just hoping it doesn't carry the VAIO P's price tag!).
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For those of you that haven't seen it already; http://www.zavvi.com/games/platforms/pc/aliens-vs-predator/10051955.html AvP, £16.95 Enjoy
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Hang on... the iPad can't right click either?!?!!?
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Correction, you can whack any microSIM in it. You won't be able to use just any SIM card, it simply won't work. Likewise, you won't be able to use the SIM out of the iPad in anything else (until and unless other devices start using microSIMs).
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I HATE Apple as a company. They suck. They steal trademarks and patents from other companies, license tech without paying for it and have a general "Who cares, we'll deal with the court case later. It's just another fine." attitude. Don't confuse that with hating on their products though. They have some cracking products (iPhone, iPod Mini, Macbook Pro, Cinema Displays) and some stuff that's not so great (Apple TV up until last year, Macbook Air, iPad, current iPod Shuffle). The only reason why there's such a large backlash when Apple announce a bad product is because they don't go low-key, they still announce it with a song and a dance and tell everyone how wonderful and perfect it is. It's kind of unfair to use a $500+ device to beat on a market segment that starts at $200, don't you think? The iPad vs Netbook comparison isn't even vaguely relevant. They don't have the same uses and you don't use them the same way. It's also highly embarrassing when you consider what the average netbook can do that the iPad can't. Still, it's been an interesting 24-hours. If anything it's made me realise the potential of the tablet. If someone can get a cheap one (sub-£200) to market with a decent web browser (Google Chrome OS?) and eBook functionality (possibly using that clever screen from the Notion Ink Adam) then I could definitely see me using one as a complementary product to an ultraportable laptop and smartphone. As for the iPad? It does too much in a "not as good as other devices I own" kind of way to justify the price tag for the web browser and ebook reader alone.
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Eh? This is neither a new category of product or a new technology. Most of the backlash is because of the crappy implementation and lack of innovation, not because people think the concept was bad. The concept was great, Apple just needed to put more effort in. There's a few things that bug me. Firstly, the iPad doesn't seem to know what it is. The IPS panel is great for movies and for the web, but bad for eBooks. The 4:3 aspect ratio is great for eBooks and the web, but bad for movies (especially when combined with that bezel). The lack of flash will hamper the web experience and the lack of multi-tasking is the icing on the cake. Secondly, the product looks and feels like Apple have been a bit lazy. That huge bezel isn't the sort of thing I'd have expected from them. I understand why it's there, but I'd have expected some form of clever solution to the problem rather than adding a 1" border all the way round the device. The Home and Lock screens also look cheap. They're taken directly from the iPhone. It just looks plain wrong. And on a last note, they seem to be relying on the App Store to make this device a "must have" rather than doing the ground work themselves. I want to want the device because it's good, not because it has 100,000 apps. On the flip side though, Apple have basically made me want a 10" web tablet for browsing the internet in bed.
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http://dinopc.com/shop/pc/20-302-AMD-Dual-Core-PC-95p520.htm Upgrade the graphics card to a 4850 and add an OS and you'll be good to go Obviously you could go further, but it depends what your budget is.
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It ticks all of the boxes in terms of functionality, it just doesn't seem very slick. I was expecting at least a modified version of the iPhone OS that would make good use of the extra power and screen space. Instead it looks like a hack job. It looks like the result of a few months of R&D, not the years that I've heard mentioned. I'm also in the "The iPhone and it's OS are starting to look a bit stale" camp, so seeing Apple churn out another device on the same design was never going to please me. I guess it'll make a nice PMP (especially at $499 for the 16GB) but to dress it up as being anything ground breaking or revolutionary is silly. Steve Jobs himself said that the device has to be better at "browsing the web. Email. Photos. Videos. Music. Games. eBooks." “Or it has no reason for being.”. I'll reserve judgement until I've used one, but from the press conference I don't really see it achieving those goals. I can think of very few circumstances where I'd choose to pack one of these instead of a laptop, the laptop would likely come along as well, and if I have to pack the laptop anyway then were's the point?
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So far, if I had to have a tablet I'd buy a HP slate. At least that offers a full PC experience compared to this, which seems to be a smartphone experience in a much larger form. I'd still rather buy a notebook though
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I'd be impressed if they'd actually done anything impressive. So far it's been pretty much the bare minimum expectation, especially given both the OS and the hardware use the same tired old iPhone design. There were glimmers of better tablets at CES (although none were as far developed as Apple's).
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I lol'd. Sums up my thoughts so far. Battery life is impressive, but I think I'd rather grab a proper laptop.
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That is one ugly looking machine...
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What Mobile are reporting that the tablet will go on sale in the US as soon as the press conference ends, with UK Apple stores selling it from tomorrow. Whether it's true or not I've no idea, but an interesting rumour anyway.
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A Tale of drowned puppies and the coming of Armageddon
McPhee replied to Pancake's topic in Other Consoles
tl;dr Yes. Some PS3 games are more expensive than their 360 counterparts. One recent example being DiRT 2; cheapest price on 360, £14.99. Cheapest price on PS3, £30. There's been a few titles like that over the years since launch (mostly games that have launched later on PS3) but not enough for it to be worth putting you off the console. It's probably already been said; get whichever one your mates play on. -
Sleep Cycle doesn't quite work. You set your alarm and it'll wake you up any time up to half an hour before. Problem is, if you don't happen to be in a light sleep during that half hour window it just wakes you up anyway. A single sleep cycle is, in theory, roughly half an hour. Some times they can be longer, and under those circumstances Sleep Cycle is worse than useless. I noticed looking at reviews that I'm not alone in this, quite a few people have noticed it. Surely it can't be too difficult for them to just up the sleep window to 40 minutes or something?
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I actually think it's two devices, ala iPhone and iPod Touch. It's the only way to get around the pricing problem that Apple have given themselves. They can't release a 3G-connected 7" tablet at the same price point as the iPhone, it'd cannibalise that market. It needs to be more expensive. At the same time though, how can they compete with Amazon's Kindle if their device costs £600? They need two devices, the first likely being a large-screen iPod Touch at the £300 mark (just right vs. the Kindle, it'd allow Apple to focus their marketing on everything extra that their device does for £100 more). For the second device I'd hope for something more powerful. If it's literally a large-screen iPhone sans the 'phone' part then they're on to a loser, most people would naturally choose one or the other. More powerful hardware along with a touch-screen version of iLife sounds about right to me. I've also heard rumours that iPhone OS 4.0 is due to be unveiled (maybe even released) on the 27th.
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Nexus One - The Google Phone - Finally Announced
McPhee replied to david.dakota's topic in General Chit Chat
In Android it's called 'Rooting' and there's a name for Symbian hacking too (I just can't remember it right now). Are WinMo users the only ones who aren't smug? -
Had my iPhone for a day now and I'm quite liking it. Everyone already knows the plus points, they're quite apparent. On the negative side though I'm finding signal strength and battery life to be very shoddy (worst I've ever had on a mobile sort of bad) and the screen is pretty 'meh' (used better, used worse). I'll stick with it for a bit, but I can see me moving to something else by the summer.
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It's on a few other sites too. There's been rumours about an early launch for months off the back of something someone at Apple said about new strategies to avoid the sales dip before big product launches. It's also backed up by Vodafone, Tesco and Orange taking on 3G and 3GS stock and O2 being seemingly desperate to shift stock (they've taken to giving away the 16GB model for free on a very good £35/month tariff to existing customers). I know there's more signs suggesting it could be an earlier launch than normal, but I'm not a particularly avid Apple follower and can't really remember what else I've read and where I've seen it.
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http://www.hotukdeals.com/item/581138/transformers-entire-g1-12-dvd-colle For anyone that's interested. Really hope this game is good Trailer was kinda meh for me.
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Heh, it's Apple. Who says they have to make sense? It could just be an excuse to release more models of everything to try and get people to upgrade more often...
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It's part of Apple's new strategy, they're no longer sticking to set times for product launches because they've been seeing massive dips in sales on the months leading up to them. They're going to launch at random times now to combat this. As a result the 4th iPhone pretty much had to come out less than a year after the 3GS, otherwise they'd see the annual dip in sales in April and May again. Pretty glad I've only spent £250 on a 3G now, should be able to get most of that back (maybe £200?) come April.
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Just grabbed myself a 16GB 3G iPhone off AVForums. Bit of a change of plan, I was looking at either the 16GB 3GS, the Motorola Milestone or Nexus One. In the end all three had major reasons not to buy. Gonna use this to tide me over until the new iPhone/HTC Bravo/Motorola Sholes Tablet are released. Should hopefully be here by the weekend. Can't wait!
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I've stopped pre-ordering. Every game I bought on the run up to Christmas was on some sort of special deal at £20-£25 within 2 weeks of release. I wasted something like £60 in total just to get games on release day! Tis madness and I've decided to stop doing it, I'm waiting for this and Bayonetta to drop in price before I pick them up.
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Nexus One - The Google Phone - Finally Announced
McPhee replied to david.dakota's topic in General Chit Chat
Yup, I can agree on that. Then again I'll probably wind up buying a WinMo 7 handset towards the end of the year. Office Mobile was awesome as was the Live integration, email and myphone service. Pop that all in to a better OS and I'll be in the queue.