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Thanks for all the sage advice from everyone in this thread.

Re haswell yes would be waiting for this.

Re stable browser experience…is chrome happier in win8 than osx then? My whole workload takes place in chrome one way or another so stability is really key. I rarely get crashes in win8 and often need up to 40 tabs over 4 instances running all at once

about 1 hour ago on Should I move from Windows 8 to OSX? 1 reply

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In your opinion.,

It’s going to take you a while to add that to every single post ever made on these forums. :)

Given he made a non-provable statement…I think most intelligent people can take it as read that it’s an opinion and not a fact…

about 3 hours ago on If iOS 7 disappoints will you jump over to Android?

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I wasn’t expecting this consider I kept reading about how much of a best the S4 is software-wise.

Well then you haven’t read much about the S4, it’s lag problems have been well-documented.

This is such a tired old argument, taking one phone with a bloated software experience, and not even one with a stock experience, and using that to discuss Android as a whole. So you’re either disingenuous or just haven’t followed much tech news, which if it’s the latter is fair enough I suppose.

My knackered two-year-old GS2 is lag free on JB. It’s not rooted or anything, just has a launcher on it because I hate touchwiz.

about 3 hours ago on If iOS 7 disappoints will you jump over to Android?

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Really? Crazy?

If I was in a position of choosing an iPhone 5 or an S4 at the same price then yes I would chose an S4. :)

The fact that it’s plastic is slightly irrelevant to me. I barely know anyone with an iPhone 5 that hasn’t got little scratches/and or dents all over it, which is partly why I’m holding off my S4/HTC One decision to see how the One fairs in that respect. Build quality and build material are two different things. I don’t “like” the build material of the S4, but I wouldn’t spend $1250 on a phone that scratches so easily either.

about 10 hours ago on If iOS 7 disappoints will you jump over to Android? 1 recommend

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For people uninformed about tax and the Apple case it certainly ‘seems’ informative and well written. I’d say it’s very one-sided and full of quite a lot of irrelevant info though.

E.g.:

At 30.5%, Apple is paying…probably double of what most US citizens pay in their taxes.

I pay more tax than my cat, it’s not really relevant to my tax practices is it? Just seems like another “Apple pay so much tax that you shouldn’t investigate their tax practices” argument?

Even the source you link from Forbes contains the following:

“Apple’s certainly been doing some fairly funky things in Ireland (as I’ve pointed out before)”

Not to say some of the stuff in the OP is not true, just that it doesn’t paint the full picture of what is a particularly grey area (just look at the amount of conflicting articles on Forbes alone).

Apple is being picked out here for sure, but it’s not doing what everyone doesn’t already do. Not that that makes it right or wrong of course.

about 11 hours ago on Why Senator Levin's is Bent Out of Shape Over Apple's Taxes 1 reply

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ANDROID FORUM
Apple doesn’t pay taxes – “Oh this is really bad, Apple are just a terrible company!”
Microsoft doesn’t pay taxes – “Oh this is really bad, Microsoft are just a terrible company!”
Google doesn’t pay taxes – “Oh but look how much tax they DO pay!!! (and please quietly ignore the fact that logically this is the worst. argument. ever.)

APPLE FORUM
Google doesn’t pay taxes – “Oh this is really bad, Google are just a terrible company!”
Microsoft doesn’t pay taxes – “Oh this is really bad, Microsoft are just a terrible company!”
Apple doesn’t pay taxes – “Oh but look how much tax they DO pay!!! (and please quietly ignore the fact that logically this is the worst. argument. ever.)

MICROSOFT FORUM
Apple doesn’t pay taxes – “Oh this is really bad, Apple are just a terrible company!”
Google doesn’t pay taxes – “Oh this is really bad, Google are just a terrible company!”
Microsoft doesn’t pay taxes – “Oh but look how much tax they DO pay!!! (and please quietly ignore the fact that logically this is the worst. argument. ever.)

about 12 hours ago on Apple and Taxes, real stand up guys they make me proud to be an American 1 recommend

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No, I’m not crazy.

And there was me thinking I was at least relatively sane. Oh well…

about 12 hours ago on If iOS 7 disappoints will you jump over to Android? 1 reply 1 recommend

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It’s fine that you like Android. I’m very happy for you. But your experience isn’t representative.

But then neither is yours, just because you own both Android and iOS phones doesn’t make your experience ‘representative’. You’ve just simply listed what makes iOS better for you. And I’m happy for you too, but your experience isn’t representative. Indeed you even point out that a set of built in Apple services are essential to the way you work…

Really don’t know why people get bogged down in these ’what’s better’ wars. Both have loads of things going for them, and it’s impossible to declare one better than the other apart from a personal use scenario.

On mobile, Android is far superior for my experience. While iOS has better apps (though all the things people trot out such as music creation etc are not relevant to me), this is outweighed by everything I like about Android such as look, feel, customisation, choice and range of handsets. To me iOS is just outdated and frankly horrible to look at.

On tablet, iOS is far superior for my experience. I’m less bothered about much of the stuff that I look for on a phone, and either way iOS works nicely on tablets and Android still doesn’t really. I still don’t like the outdated interface, but it’s outweighed by the plus points.

about 13 hours ago on If iOS 7 disappoints will you jump over to Android? 1 reply 1 recommend

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When I had a 3.7in phone, it seemed massive. I said I’d never go above that, it just wouldn’t be usable.

Well then I got a 4.5in phone. It seemed massive at first. When I go back to my 3.7in phone now, I find it almost unusable! I’m just too used to reading everything and seeing everything on a big display. The ergonomics just became second nature, to the point I never even think about them. But still I said…there’s no way I’ll go above 4.5in, this really IS the limit of usability.

Anyway skip forward to today and here I am considering moving to a 5in screen. Of course this is the problem with Android, you’re forced to keep increasing the size of your phone if you want a flagship. But to some degree I no longer mind. Big beautiful screens have become what I love about my phones.

It really depends on your usage however. Primarily as a phone and smaller will always be better. Primarily for consuming media/films and video/writing emails/tweeting etc etc then for me I could never go down in size again.

Although I guess if there’s one thing I should have learnt to say, it’s never say never again!

*BTW my prediction for what it’s worth…5in will become standard Android flagship size and won’t increase much further if at all. I say that hopefully. iPhone will eventually differentiate into two sizes, however they do that. Or they’ll sacrifice the current size and move to a sweet spot higher up. I just can’t see iphones 10yrs down the line being 4in.

3 days ago on If Apple made a 4.5 inch iPhone... 2 replies 1 recommend

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I don’t see the point of this beyond making existing Samsung users smug about their choice of device and making Apple users feel insecure. I’d find it difficult to take you seriously if you let yourself be swayed in such a way by an ad

Agree with a lot of your post, but the point of this to me would seem to be pretty clear from a marketing perspective.

Samsung are targeting a segment (whether this segment exists is irrelevant) of iphone users who are non-techy, don’t know what else is on the market, are brand/trend/cool concious, and will upgrade to the new iphone year after year repeatedly without knowing what else is happening in the smartphone world.

They’re saying to this segment (again whether what they’re saying is true is irrelevant) hey look at this new phone, it does all these things that yours can’t, it’s got a bigger screen la la la…

…oh and by the way you know your iphone that you thought was cool!? Well your mum and dad probably have one don’t they, just like the mum and dad in line, and that means it isn’t cool any more! But the GS3 is!

Would be interesting to see the metrics off these adverts. Because I actually think they’re quite effective and light-hearted. They are attacking the customer they’re trying to attract of course…but it could be argued that actually they’re targeting a tiny hardcore of fans and not your average user given most apple users don’t cue up on launch day.

• Full Disclosure…as a Samsung owner these adds don’t make me feel smug! I think they’re pretty disingenuous and actually don’t show particularly good features/reasons to change from iphone (apart from the screen which is obviously subjective).

3 days ago on Samsung Galaxy ads a perfect Mac vs PC response? 1 reply

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And it turns out I can get my fill of glib, supercilious comments ALL DAY here at the verge.

To clarify, I think these sites should carry on experimenting, it’s all progress of some sort, and even if I don’t like it plenty of people do…plus the alternative versions will always be available.

If you read what I actually said, I was talking about readability…so your reference to bland/lifeless layouts is not really that relevant to my point.

Lots of people think the humble book is the most readable form factor. Most books tend to have bland/lifeless layouts…

8 days ago on The story behind Daft Punk's 'Random Access Memories'

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The same Russell Holly who recently wrote a straight up story that the HTC First was being discontinued due to poor sales and ATT were packing up all the unsold handsets and sending them back to HTC!

Yes he then updated the story to say this wasn’t true. But really…duh.

8 days ago on Galaxy S4 Google Edition at I/O ?

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I’m sure I’m probably in a minority here…but the layout of that article is just horrible.

It ‘works’ fine, but as a reading experience for me anyway the traditional version is far superior. Just not digging these complex layouts that some sites are experimenting with.

8 days ago on The story behind Daft Punk's 'Random Access Memories' 2 replies 1 recommend

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HTC Desire…old school.

9 days ago on Twitter buys another analytical startup to help its advertisers spot trends in real time 1 reply 2 recommends

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Nice username.

You were saying?

15 days ago on Spotify patches Chrome exploit that allowed MP3 downloads of any song 1 reply 25 recommends

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Spotify’s nightmare realized: Chrome extension allows MP3 download of any song

Phew. Just really glad that terrifying nightmare was so short-lived. I’ve been on edge all day worrying about those guys over at Spotify.

Hyperbole much?

By the way for the record yes it did the trick. It got me to read a highly boring article that I wouldn’t have read in the first place had it had a rational headline. But it also made me kick a puppy and like the verge just a tiny bit less.

15 days ago on Spotify patches Chrome exploit that allowed MP3 downloads of any song 1 reply 8 recommends