When I buy an electrical device, I assume it's passed all the relevant consumer safety checks and complies with the regulations, as otherwise the shop would be breaking the law selling it to me (in the UK at least). I assume I'm safe to plug it in unless there's an absolutely obvious flaw (damaged power cable, for example).
Most people will go and buy a security camera or other device that connects to the internet and assume there's nothing to worry about if they're buying it from a high street shop. These things are sold as consumer devices in major stores, targeted at non-technical people. That should be enough, in an ideal world, for buyers to be confident they can connect them to the internet in the same way they can connect the microwave they buy to the power without worrying about whether it's safe.
OK, I accept that these days you can buy no-name stuff on the internet that probably doesn't meet safety standard (electrically or otherwise). That's your lookout and you should absolutely be liable for problems that result. But if you buy it at Currys? Argos? Well, in the UK consumer law says anything sold must be fit for purpose.
I still prefer to see a phone in the flesh before I buy. A couple of mm here and there makes a big different to how it feels in the hand (no laughing at the back..), and I want to see how well made it feels.
I sometimes wonder whether these "green tax" measures (in the UK that tends to be higher tax on older, supposedly less efficient engines), take total environmental impact into account.
What about the manufacturing process? Surely replacing your car every couple of years is worse for the environment than keeping older cars running. The marginal gains in efficiency must be outweighed by the environmental cost of the manufacture.
So these green taxes are nothing to do with the environment, everything to do with boosting the car industry.
A late reply to an AC, so I doubt this will be seen, but Google Play often has lower prices for movies than Amazon. I paid £12.59 for the Force Awakens (albeit including a 10% discount for being a Play Music subscriber).
I get that, I use sync for contacts and let my phone back pictures up to the cloud. I just like being able to download music to the device so that I'm not burning through my data plan and battery life when I'm listening.
That said, I've currently got a 32GB phone with a 64GB SD card in it for media, so the 128GB model would be fine for me. But just not at the price point they're selling it for.
This could make searching for things related to it easier. The trouble with "apps" is that searching for "google apps" brings up stuff relating to Android apps and other irrelevant stuff. At least "suite", if it takes off as a name, will make searching for answers specific to the application suite easier than "apps", which is just too generic to be searchable.
Kindle unlimited would only work for me if the right books were on it, and I'm on the border when it comes to value. I might only read one book a month, sometimes two if I get more free time. I really ought to stop paying for Prime - it's the next day delivery that really encourages me to buy the shit I don't need, and before I had Prime I was perfectly happy to wait a few days for free delivery on the things I did actually want.
This sounds like it'll be the same as the Kindle lending library for Amazon Prime members (you can get a book for a month, one per month, one at a time). The problem is the selection. It's no good if you want to read something specific.
Same with the video for that matter. OK, you might, if you're lucky, find a film showing for free on Prime that you want to watch but most stuff still costs on top of the Prime membership and it isn't even any cheaper than getting it elsewhere.
Funnily enough, a £40K salary in London would be enough for me, as an older employee. I've paid off my mortgage and the commute costs would be about £3/4K.
I've got experience, I can add value and if the job was interesting I just need enough money coming in to pay the bills and leave a little over for the odd luxury.
My point is that sometimes us older workers are in situations where we can be good value if we're given the chance.
I'm glad I made several trips back in the 90s when it was still easy. On one road trip, we turned up without a single room booked - you could just put "touring" on the waiver form and it was accepted. Jumped in the hire car, found a motel. Spent five weeks touring with no fixed route, it was a great trip. More or less impossible now - I think you have to supply a complete itinerary.
Last time I went was 2003, so post 9/11 and the shoe thing had come in but - at least at the airport I went through - that was about it. The horror stories I hear now put me off ever going back.
I flew into Phoenix on that trip, straight form Heathrow. I wonder if the smaller international airports are a bit less hostile than the likes of JFK and LAX?
The 5X is the current budget model and the 6P is the premium one, which is fine. But not everyone wants a phablet. Some of us want a high end phone in a smaller form factor - high end in both design and features. I think there's room for a third model in the line up - a 5P - that has pretty much the same spec as the 6P but smaller.
Samsung got that right with the S6 and built on it with the S7 - offering choices in size without skimping on specs for the smaller models (and reintroducing the SD slot). Trouble is, Samsung are one of the worst offenders for bloatware and imposing a non-standard interface, as well as being hopelessly slow at issuing updates.
S7 level of hardware with stock Nexus software would have me changing my phone, otherwise I'll probably sit this one out.
One of the upsides to smart TVs is that the remotes have play/pause/stop buttons that *should* be recognised by the Chromecast. My Panasonic TV works like that - I assume the pause command from the remote is transmitted down the HDMI to the Chromecast, which then pauses the playback.
It's getting increasingly difficult to find a decent TV that doesn't have smart features - mine is two years old, and all the decent TVs available at the time had apps. Of course, there's nothing forcing you to actually connect it to the internet - just use it as a dumb TV and plug in the external player of choice.
Which people currently seem to do by writing a longer message in an editor or word processor and posting a screenshot. Words fail me when I see those - which is just as well really, I don't think I could do justice to just how stupid that is in 140 characters
Caps are still pretty common in the UK, and many ISPs offer several tiers of capping, up to unlimited. Most "uncapped" services also have "reasonable use" restrictions - you might find there is a hidden cap if you're using your full bandwidth 24x7
Uncapped works when most people only use the internet for a few hours here and there. What will be interesting is how ISPs handle peak requirements as more and more people switch to streaming TV - there'll be virtually no bandwidth needed most of the day and then it'll be hammered in the evening. I'd guess the vast majority still watch TV over the air or via satellite
Whatsapp seems to have the "real people use it" momentum. Yeah, IT friends might use other things but there's a critical mass of non technical people using Whatsapp. Many seem to be former iMessage users who've either moved to Android or want to communicate with people who have.
I only caved in when one particular friend got it, and then found that most of my friends were already actively using it. As soon as I was on there, they switched from SMS to Whatsapp when messaging me.
Slashdot Mirror
When I buy an electrical device, I assume it's passed all the relevant consumer safety checks and complies with the regulations, as otherwise the shop would be breaking the law selling it to me (in the UK at least). I assume I'm safe to plug it in unless there's an absolutely obvious flaw (damaged power cable, for example).
Most people will go and buy a security camera or other device that connects to the internet and assume there's nothing to worry about if they're buying it from a high street shop. These things are sold as consumer devices in major stores, targeted at non-technical people. That should be enough, in an ideal world, for buyers to be confident they can connect them to the internet in the same way they can connect the microwave they buy to the power without worrying about whether it's safe.
OK, I accept that these days you can buy no-name stuff on the internet that probably doesn't meet safety standard (electrically or otherwise). That's your lookout and you should absolutely be liable for problems that result. But if you buy it at Currys? Argos? Well, in the UK consumer law says anything sold must be fit for purpose.
I still prefer to see a phone in the flesh before I buy. A couple of mm here and there makes a big different to how it feels in the hand (no laughing at the back..), and I want to see how well made it feels.
I sometimes wonder whether these "green tax" measures (in the UK that tends to be higher tax on older, supposedly less efficient engines), take total environmental impact into account.
What about the manufacturing process? Surely replacing your car every couple of years is worse for the environment than keeping older cars running. The marginal gains in efficiency must be outweighed by the environmental cost of the manufacture.
So these green taxes are nothing to do with the environment, everything to do with boosting the car industry.
A late reply to an AC, so I doubt this will be seen, but Google Play often has lower prices for movies than Amazon. I paid £12.59 for the Force Awakens (albeit including a 10% discount for being a Play Music subscriber).
I get that, I use sync for contacts and let my phone back pictures up to the cloud. I just like being able to download music to the device so that I'm not burning through my data plan and battery life when I'm listening.
That said, I've currently got a 32GB phone with a 64GB SD card in it for media, so the 128GB model would be fine for me. But just not at the price point they're selling it for.
This could make searching for things related to it easier. The trouble with "apps" is that searching for "google apps" brings up stuff relating to Android apps and other irrelevant stuff. At least "suite", if it takes off as a name, will make searching for answers specific to the application suite easier than "apps", which is just too generic to be searchable.
I tried. Maybe I just needed to give it more time, but I'm pretty comfortable with my Gmail workflow.
One for the old timers that!
Yeah, but Google launched that a couple of years ago so they're probably due to discontinue it through lack of interest...
... which may be fair in the case of Inbox. Does anyone actually think it's better than normal mail?
Kindle unlimited would only work for me if the right books were on it, and I'm on the border when it comes to value. I might only read one book a month, sometimes two if I get more free time. I really ought to stop paying for Prime - it's the next day delivery that really encourages me to buy the shit I don't need, and before I had Prime I was perfectly happy to wait a few days for free delivery on the things I did actually want.
This sounds like it'll be the same as the Kindle lending library for Amazon Prime members (you can get a book for a month, one per month, one at a time). The problem is the selection. It's no good if you want to read something specific.
Same with the video for that matter. OK, you might, if you're lucky, find a film showing for free on Prime that you want to watch but most stuff still costs on top of the Prime membership and it isn't even any cheaper than getting it elsewhere.
Funnily enough, a £40K salary in London would be enough for me, as an older employee. I've paid off my mortgage and the commute costs would be about £3/4K.
I've got experience, I can add value and if the job was interesting I just need enough money coming in to pay the bills and leave a little over for the odd luxury.
My point is that sometimes us older workers are in situations where we can be good value if we're given the chance.
Yeah, that was my last trip. Flew into Phoenix and drove up to the canyon (both rims) and did the Utah parks - Arches, Bryce. Incredible.
I'm glad I made several trips back in the 90s when it was still easy. On one road trip, we turned up without a single room booked - you could just put "touring" on the waiver form and it was accepted. Jumped in the hire car, found a motel. Spent five weeks touring with no fixed route, it was a great trip. More or less impossible now - I think you have to supply a complete itinerary.
Last time I went was 2003, so post 9/11 and the shoe thing had come in but - at least at the airport I went through - that was about it. The horror stories I hear now put me off ever going back.
I flew into Phoenix on that trip, straight form Heathrow. I wonder if the smaller international airports are a bit less hostile than the likes of JFK and LAX?
To rent this flat you must own an Amazon Echo and grant us access to everything you've said to Alexa?
The apps are huge battery hogs - Facebook on Android is one of the worst offenders. Removing it virtually doubled my battery life.
The 5X is the current budget model and the 6P is the premium one, which is fine. But not everyone wants a phablet. Some of us want a high end phone in a smaller form factor - high end in both design and features. I think there's room for a third model in the line up - a 5P - that has pretty much the same spec as the 6P but smaller.
Samsung got that right with the S6 and built on it with the S7 - offering choices in size without skimping on specs for the smaller models (and reintroducing the SD slot). Trouble is, Samsung are one of the worst offenders for bloatware and imposing a non-standard interface, as well as being hopelessly slow at issuing updates.
S7 level of hardware with stock Nexus software would have me changing my phone, otherwise I'll probably sit this one out.
One of the upsides to smart TVs is that the remotes have play/pause/stop buttons that *should* be recognised by the Chromecast. My Panasonic TV works like that - I assume the pause command from the remote is transmitted down the HDMI to the Chromecast, which then pauses the playback.
It's getting increasingly difficult to find a decent TV that doesn't have smart features - mine is two years old, and all the decent TVs available at the time had apps. Of course, there's nothing forcing you to actually connect it to the internet - just use it as a dumb TV and plug in the external player of choice.
In a small enough font :)
Which people currently seem to do by writing a longer message in an editor or word processor and posting a screenshot. Words fail me when I see those - which is just as well really, I don't think I could do justice to just how stupid that is in 140 characters
Caps are still pretty common in the UK, and many ISPs offer several tiers of capping, up to unlimited. Most "uncapped" services also have "reasonable use" restrictions - you might find there is a hidden cap if you're using your full bandwidth 24x7
Uncapped works when most people only use the internet for a few hours here and there. What will be interesting is how ISPs handle peak requirements as more and more people switch to streaming TV - there'll be virtually no bandwidth needed most of the day and then it'll be hammered in the evening. I'd guess the vast majority still watch TV over the air or via satellite
Whatsapp seems to have the "real people use it" momentum. Yeah, IT friends might use other things but there's a critical mass of non technical people using Whatsapp. Many seem to be former iMessage users who've either moved to Android or want to communicate with people who have.
I only caved in when one particular friend got it, and then found that most of my friends were already actively using it. As soon as I was on there, they switched from SMS to Whatsapp when messaging me.
The web version has been around a while though. I'm not sure what a desktop app would give over a web interface
Big in the UK as well, as they're promoted heavily in WH Smiths, which is on most high streets.
I'm curious. I rarely see really low UIDs on here. Do you guys just hang around lurking and waiting to post on threads about low UIDs!?