The car in question (G-Wiz) will reach a top speed of around 40mph. They say that "you will rarely hit such speeds around town". Sure, you're doing 30mph, car coming towards you is doing 30mph, closing speed of 60? You're almost guaranteed to die in a G-Wiz accident, but the other vehicle will hardly notice the bump.
Would you prefer to be in a vehicle that, in the event of an accident (head on at least) will keep you trapped, with crushed legs and chest, that can take an eternity to get out of, or a moped? Its a tough choice, but I'd go for the moped. Wouldn't look like so much of an idiot either.
I was just going through exactly the same checks, a bunch of "different" companies all at the same residential location.
And the blatant ripping of apples privacy pages is hilarious.
Absolute complete and utter scam.
Hell, I've got some free time on Sunday, its only about an hour or so drive from me..... tempting to knock on the door and ask "ave you got a laptop for sale mate?"
The fact that MD kept on going for a very long time (its been around since 92, and has only recently been virtually unavailable) shows that theres been a surprising amount of support for the product.
Sony did their typical screw up though. Kept it closed, didn't allow it to be used as a data device.
Sound quality was good - 132kbps ATRAC3 was generally pleasant to listen to (easily equal to 192kbps MP3), Sony still have a better idea of what makes a decent sounding headphone amplifier, and battery life is amongst the best in portable audio.
As for minidisk, at least with the majority of Sony players, they're significant addition was in battery life. My MZ-N510 could go for about 50 hours on 1xAA battery. Comprehensively beats all the competition on longevity.
I just wish they wouldn't continually keep on reducing the size of memory sticks. The move to duo pro was reasonable, but the M2 format is just plain stupid.
One of the first devices to use the M2 format was the SE K800i camera phone. It had to be a marketing decision to go M2 on that. It was much larger than the prior devices (K850, W810, etc.), so it wasn't a real estate issue that caused the move to the smaller format.
Catch is that only T-Mobile has any decent data plans in the UK though.
Vodafone pricing is generally just to be laughed at, call charges, data, whatever, they're just way overpriced. O2 aren't that different.
And as for "no edge in the UK", check your facts first. Orange have definitely rolled out an EDGE network, my N73 drops back to that when I'm on ropy 3G coverage.
I've been wondering about the power consumption of 3G, and reckon it to be an almost total red herring.
I've got a Nokia N73, and have sometimes switched to EDGE/GPRS in order to see if I get much more standby time. I do get a little more standby time, but only in the order of a few more hours. Typically 3 days on edge, maybe 2 3/4 days on 3G. Not a deal breaker there.
I'm under the impression that one of the UK networks main worries is customer churn - changing provider every time their contract is up in order to get a better deal on their next phone.
It'll also be intriguing to see if O2 keep their "normal" practice of supplying unlocked contract phones. Its normally only been the O2 branded devices (XDA, other windows mobile devices) that are locked to O2. Others are practically SIM free offerings.
1) go into a toys'r'us 2) buy any old transformers toy thats been around for years 3) copy.
or in a slant on good old Slashdot speak : 1) tell your manager at ILM you're working on methods of building the new transformers 2) but the old thing from Toys'r'us (or dig it out from your attic), copy it, bill manager for the endless hours of "research". 3) PROFIT!
Still one of the best cameras on a phone is a 2mp - SEs K750/W800/W810. 2 mp autofocus, with a fully fledged flash add-on available (the only decent one available for a phone, if that matters). In the UK at least, these things are incredibly cheap (£99, no contract, comes with a 512meg memory stick).
For me the W810 has a very natural reproduction - colour balance is natural, focusing is reasonably fast.
My Nokia N73 maybe takes slightly sharper pictures, but they still don't quite look as good unless you do a load of post processing (mainly for colour balance, which Nokia don't seem to be able to quite get right).
2mp on its own is useless, unless you get an autofocus mechanism in there. The lack of video recording and no autofocus may not be an issue to some, but over here in the UK, mobiles are moving towards being the main camera for a lot of people (especially the younger generations), and the lack of video recording is a bizarre oversight. Having said that, its only a software/firmware issue, no doubt a future revision (iPhone 2?) will add it on.
Cover art is a lost cause (well, lost art really) nowadays.
The mainstay of my collection is Pink Floyds Pulse on Vinyl. The silly little booklet that was shipped with the CD release was opened into a large hard back book for vinyl. Each disc (and there's 4 of them) had slightly differing art on its sleeve, and the whole thing was presented in a beautiful box.
I've seen similar attempts for CDs, but it just seems somehow wrong.
Lots of fond memories of gently lowering the tonearm on whatever new disc I'd bought, sitting back on the sofa and reading through the cover notes.
I've finally bitten the bullet and gotten an iPod, but its a much more clinical experience, its taken half the fun out of the music.
Hybrids are more efficient. Non hybrids have no way of recapturing the kinetic energy of the vehicle
Well thats a load of rubbish from the outset.
The latest BMWs use regenerative braking to charge the battery. With the use of engine cut out, the latest 118 and 120 can get 45+mpg. Thats on a relatively high performance vehicle as well.
I've had 4 phones that I've been totally happy with.
Nokia N73 - huge array of features, reasonable battery life, a camera that is actually usable (apart from in low light conditions). A web browser that could correctly view most web pages. SE W550 - perfect for running, excellent battery life, and good for gaming Moto V3 - perfect for nights out and basic call/texting.
My current phone, an SEW810 is close on perfection overall. The camera has an excellent colour balance, and with the little MXE-60 flash add on, its a true digicam replacement. Call quality is excellent, 4+ days battery life is useable.
I had a Zen Microphoto for a while (just given it to the girlfriend).
Had bought the ex-wife a Zen V+.
Step daughter bought herself a Nano, and I just got one for the ex step son, and i've got a 30gig Video for myself.
At least on the latest firmwares, the Microphoto has a much quicker menu than any of the iPods. The screens on the Nanos are pretty lousy, the Microphoto screen is a lot nicer (which was a surprise). The Zens also feel much better built as well.
But none of them have sound quality anywhere near to that of my ancient Sony Net MD player. Which whups the lot of them for battery life as well.
My current experience of a 5.5G iPod is pretty similar. I've got an average spec laptop (1gig ram, 1.7 gig celeron m). On older machines, I'd always found iTunes to be a chronic processor and bandwidth hog, and its still the same.
My PC is close on unusable when iTunes is downloading, although thankfully the transfer process is pretty darned quick.
The killer feature on the iPod for me though is in-car integration. Its got seamless connection and use to my Alpine head unit (and obviously many others). My biggest surprise is that Sony hasn't attempted to go down that route - they manufacture both ends, but have yet to offer any of their own brand MP3 player connections. In fact, they've practically given up, as I'm pretty sure that there are plenty of Sony units that offer iPod connections.
Well, at least one of those can happen already. I transfered a bunch of (non DRM'd) songs from one phone to another via bluetooth.
However, being serious for a moment, there's been a lot of talk on the PSP forums about voip functionality being hidden somewhere in the PSP firmware for a good while.
But having to add a microphone onto the PSP seems a tad bit awkward. If it connects up like the camera addon, then it'll no doubt look pretty stupid, heck, even worse than the dreaded sidetalkin' N-Gage days of yore.
I bought a laptop a few months back; relatively basic spec - 1.7gig celeron M, 1gig ram, 80gig drive. The only peripherals connected are a 320gig usb drive and a Freecom DVD recorder. Both connected without any problems.
My main caveats are overall performance (explorer is painfully slow, copying, even just browsing - what does that status bar actually represent???), Media Center deciding that the cursor has to stay on the one screen (stopping you from working), and the stupid occasional screen blanking playing XVids via media player.
However, whilst setting up a friends wireless a few days back on a laptop of almost identical spec (1.6gig processor being the main difference), the machine was running XP, and pretty much everything actually ran a fair bit slower, more than you'd expect from the differing processor specs.
So I'm not so gutted now about the performance of Vista.
One things for sure, the sensors and kit cannot be that expensive now.
I mean, I had all those gizmos on my mid 80s Volvo 480ES. Surely with 20+ years of experience the technology should have matured?
And as long as I can remember (which is a similar time frame), BMWs have had their "economy" gauge on the dash. Whilst having a continual MPG reading doesn't help you calculate average MPG, having something there showing that your slight touch of the throttle has dropped you from 40mpg to sub 30mpg makes a major difference in your driving style.
There is a massive drive, at the very least in the UK, around CO2 emissions (which is the main focus atm).
The biggest surprise is the the Prius is not at the top of the list. There are only two zero rated cars in the UK - the Honda Insight (which isn't available) and the Smart Diesel (90g/km).
The Prius is 3rd on the list, at 104g/km. Then its closely followed by the Citroen C2 diesel (108) and the base petrol smart (113g).
I'm willing to put money on both the Smart and Citroen diesels being considerably better on fuel usage compared to the Prius in the real world (at least in english driving). So, similar emissions, considerably lower fuel usage, initial purchase price, etc. The advantages of the Prius over here have pretty much disappeared.
Slashdot Mirror
You forgot sideways.
The car in question (G-Wiz) will reach a top speed of around 40mph. They say that "you will rarely hit such speeds around town". Sure, you're doing 30mph, car coming towards you is doing 30mph, closing speed of 60? You're almost guaranteed to die in a G-Wiz accident, but the other vehicle will hardly notice the bump.
Would you prefer to be in a vehicle that, in the event of an accident (head on at least) will keep you trapped, with crushed legs and chest, that can take an eternity to get out of, or a moped? Its a tough choice, but I'd go for the moped. Wouldn't look like so much of an idiot either.
I was just going through exactly the same checks, a bunch of "different" companies all at the same residential location.
..... tempting to knock on the door and ask "ave you got a laptop for sale mate?"
And the blatant ripping of apples privacy pages is hilarious.
Absolute complete and utter scam.
Hell, I've got some free time on Sunday, its only about an hour or so drive from me
DCC totally and utterly failed. Minidisc didn't.
The fact that MD kept on going for a very long time (its been around since 92, and has only recently been virtually unavailable) shows that theres been a surprising amount of support for the product.
Sony did their typical screw up though. Kept it closed, didn't allow it to be used as a data device.
Sound quality was good - 132kbps ATRAC3 was generally pleasant to listen to (easily equal to 192kbps MP3), Sony still have a better idea of what makes a decent sounding headphone amplifier, and battery life is amongst the best in portable audio.
Can't comment for other manufacturers, but both Nokia and Sony Ericsson have been doing user/PC based firmware updates for a few years now.
Eh? You mean Madden doesn't actually write those games with his name on?
....
I am *so* disillusioned
Only one person truly knows what is going to happen with the iPhone.
God.
Or as some people like to call him, "Steve".
As for minidisk, at least with the majority of Sony players, they're significant addition was in battery life. My MZ-N510 could go for about 50 hours on 1xAA battery. Comprehensively beats all the competition on longevity.
I just wish they wouldn't continually keep on reducing the size of memory sticks. The move to duo pro was reasonable, but the M2 format is just plain stupid.
One of the first devices to use the M2 format was the SE K800i camera phone. It had to be a marketing decision to go M2 on that. It was much larger than the prior devices (K850, W810, etc.), so it wasn't a real estate issue that caused the move to the smaller format.
Catch is that only T-Mobile has any decent data plans in the UK though.
Vodafone pricing is generally just to be laughed at, call charges, data, whatever, they're just way overpriced. O2 aren't that different.
And as for "no edge in the UK", check your facts first. Orange have definitely rolled out an EDGE network, my N73 drops back to that when I'm on ropy 3G coverage.
I've been wondering about the power consumption of 3G, and reckon it to be an almost total red herring.
I've got a Nokia N73, and have sometimes switched to EDGE/GPRS in order to see if I get much more standby time. I do get a little more standby time, but only in the order of a few more hours. Typically 3 days on edge, maybe 2 3/4 days on 3G. Not a deal breaker there.
I think you are wrong ....
I'm under the impression that one of the UK networks main worries is customer churn - changing provider every time their contract is up in order to get a better deal on their next phone.
It'll also be intriguing to see if O2 keep their "normal" practice of supplying unlocked contract phones. Its normally only been the O2 branded devices (XDA, other windows mobile devices) that are locked to O2. Others are practically SIM free offerings.
All they needed to do was to :
1) go into a toys'r'us
2) buy any old transformers toy thats been around for years
3) copy.
or in a slant on good old Slashdot speak :
1) tell your manager at ILM you're working on methods of building the new transformers
2) but the old thing from Toys'r'us (or dig it out from your attic), copy it, bill manager for the endless hours of "research".
3) PROFIT!
Jobs a good un.
You totally forgot the "But I don't like iPhones, have you got anything a little less i-Phoney (sic)"
Still one of the best cameras on a phone is a 2mp - SEs K750/W800/W810. 2 mp autofocus, with a fully fledged flash add-on available (the only decent one available for a phone, if that matters). In the UK at least, these things are incredibly cheap (£99, no contract, comes with a 512meg memory stick).
For me the W810 has a very natural reproduction - colour balance is natural, focusing is reasonably fast.
My Nokia N73 maybe takes slightly sharper pictures, but they still don't quite look as good unless you do a load of post processing (mainly for colour balance, which Nokia don't seem to be able to quite get right).
2mp on its own is useless, unless you get an autofocus mechanism in there. The lack of video recording and no autofocus may not be an issue to some, but over here in the UK, mobiles are moving towards being the main camera for a lot of people (especially the younger generations), and the lack of video recording is a bizarre oversight. Having said that, its only a software/firmware issue, no doubt a future revision (iPhone 2?) will add it on.
Cover art is a lost cause (well, lost art really) nowadays.
The mainstay of my collection is Pink Floyds Pulse on Vinyl. The silly little booklet that was shipped with the CD release was opened into a large hard back book for vinyl. Each disc (and there's 4 of them) had slightly differing art on its sleeve, and the whole thing was presented in a beautiful box.
I've seen similar attempts for CDs, but it just seems somehow wrong.
Lots of fond memories of gently lowering the tonearm on whatever new disc I'd bought, sitting back on the sofa and reading through the cover notes.
I've finally bitten the bullet and gotten an iPod, but its a much more clinical experience, its taken half the fun out of the music.
Hybrids are more efficient. Non hybrids have no way of recapturing the kinetic energy of the vehicle
Well thats a load of rubbish from the outset.
The latest BMWs use regenerative braking to charge the battery. With the use of engine cut out, the latest 118 and 120 can get 45+mpg. Thats on a relatively high performance vehicle as well.
I've had 4 phones that I've been totally happy with.
Nokia N73 - huge array of features, reasonable battery life, a camera that is actually usable (apart from in low light conditions). A web browser that could correctly view most web pages.
SE W550 - perfect for running, excellent battery life, and good for gaming
Moto V3 - perfect for nights out and basic call/texting.
My current phone, an SEW810 is close on perfection overall. The camera has an excellent colour balance, and with the little MXE-60 flash add on, its a true digicam replacement. Call quality is excellent, 4+ days battery life is useable.
Well, maybe it didn't on PCs, but the Acorn Archimedes had scalable anti aliased fonts, 8 bit colour depth.
My bad, I think that was 87 to 88, but not far short, and still darned old, and way ahead of its time.
I had a Zen Microphoto for a while (just given it to the girlfriend).
Had bought the ex-wife a Zen V+.
Step daughter bought herself a Nano, and I just got one for the ex step son, and i've got a 30gig Video for myself.
At least on the latest firmwares, the Microphoto has a much quicker menu than any of the iPods. The screens on the Nanos are pretty lousy, the Microphoto screen is a lot nicer (which was a surprise). The Zens also feel much better built as well.
But none of them have sound quality anywhere near to that of my ancient Sony Net MD player. Which whups the lot of them for battery life as well.
My current experience of a 5.5G iPod is pretty similar. I've got an average spec laptop (1gig ram, 1.7 gig celeron m). On older machines, I'd always found iTunes to be a chronic processor and bandwidth hog, and its still the same.
My PC is close on unusable when iTunes is downloading, although thankfully the transfer process is pretty darned quick.
The killer feature on the iPod for me though is in-car integration. Its got seamless connection and use to my Alpine head unit (and obviously many others). My biggest surprise is that Sony hasn't attempted to go down that route - they manufacture both ends, but have yet to offer any of their own brand MP3 player connections. In fact, they've practically given up, as I'm pretty sure that there are plenty of Sony units that offer iPod connections.
Well, at least one of those can happen already. I transfered a bunch of (non DRM'd) songs from one phone to another via bluetooth.
However, being serious for a moment, there's been a lot of talk on the PSP forums about voip functionality being hidden somewhere in the PSP firmware for a good while.
But having to add a microphone onto the PSP seems a tad bit awkward. If it connects up like the camera addon, then it'll no doubt look pretty stupid, heck, even worse than the dreaded sidetalkin' N-Gage days of yore.
I bought a laptop a few months back; relatively basic spec - 1.7gig celeron M, 1gig ram, 80gig drive. The only peripherals connected are a 320gig usb drive and a Freecom DVD recorder. Both connected without any problems.
My main caveats are overall performance (explorer is painfully slow, copying, even just browsing - what does that status bar actually represent???), Media Center deciding that the cursor has to stay on the one screen (stopping you from working), and the stupid occasional screen blanking playing XVids via media player.
However, whilst setting up a friends wireless a few days back on a laptop of almost identical spec (1.6gig processor being the main difference), the machine was running XP, and pretty much everything actually ran a fair bit slower, more than you'd expect from the differing processor specs.
So I'm not so gutted now about the performance of Vista.
Could be even better with the latest generation of direct injection/multivalve/extra clever diesels.
Some of the current VW and Audi diesels can return considerably better fuel figures.
Although in the same driving patterns, a VW Lupo TDi gives much better economy over here than a Prius. And is apparently more fun to drive.
One things for sure, the sensors and kit cannot be that expensive now.
I mean, I had all those gizmos on my mid 80s Volvo 480ES. Surely with 20+ years of experience the technology should have matured?
And as long as I can remember (which is a similar time frame), BMWs have had their "economy" gauge on the dash. Whilst having a continual MPG reading doesn't help you calculate average MPG, having something there showing that your slight touch of the throttle has dropped you from 40mpg to sub 30mpg makes a major difference in your driving style.
There is a massive drive, at the very least in the UK, around CO2 emissions (which is the main focus atm).
The biggest surprise is the the Prius is not at the top of the list. There are only two zero rated cars in the UK - the Honda Insight (which isn't available) and the Smart Diesel (90g/km).
The Prius is 3rd on the list, at 104g/km. Then its closely followed by the Citroen C2 diesel (108) and the base petrol smart (113g).
I'm willing to put money on both the Smart and Citroen diesels being considerably better on fuel usage compared to the Prius in the real world (at least in english driving). So, similar emissions, considerably lower fuel usage, initial purchase price, etc. The advantages of the Prius over here have pretty much disappeared.