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pasmith

pasmith

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Member since: February 2009

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Peter Smith writes about personal technology for ITworld.

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pasmith's Comments (103)

  • Commented on Samsung's Galaxy S III launches. Android phones are exciting again!

    Mark, thanks for the added details on the auto dial thing. That does make it seem more useful and 'accidental dialing' less likely. Sadly I just got my Nexus when they launched, so I'm a ways out from an upgrade...

    2 weeks ago

  • Commented on ReadItLater is dead. Long live Pocket!

    On the Android market the new app is called "Pocket - formerly Read It Later" which looks really odd but yes, I agree that it was really strange and unsettling that my ReadItLater icon had vanished from my home screen. Really sorry to hear you can't log into your old account though. I'd contact customer support on that one. My account did transfer over to the new service without any issues. Thanks for the comment and your thoughts, particularly re: branding. You make a great point about changing the brand. Weird decision on their part.

    4 weeks ago

  • Commented on Verizon to reward loyal customers by screwing them over

    I do have to cop to a certain amount of whiny entitlement in this post... but it's just so disappointing to go, over the course of a few years, from Verizon's "New every 2" program, that gave you a $100 credit as a reward for staying a Verizon customer, to getting this $30 fee. And then the added insult of saying it's to provide the same level of support... support that I personally have never used. Thanks for the info on the activation fee though. Definitely a blind spot in my argument...

    1 month ago

  • Commented on Xbox 360 Netflix updated, users disappointed

    Yeah, you know I should've been more clear that WITH Kinect the app works pretty well. In fact in general I'm really impressed by Kinect's voice command recognition. Less so with the hand-waving stuff but I'm not 100% sure my Kinect is 'tuned' to the room very well.

    1 month ago

  • Commented on Kickstarting the future of gaming

    I guess "flop" is a flexible term that maybe needs an adjective ahead of it. How about "critical flop" then? Basically, if the game is a bug-ridden mess, or just no fun to play. If the people who funded it come to regret their decision. As I said, I don't really expect that to happen, though.

    1 month ago

  • Commented on How the new iPad's Retina display has ruined Android for me

    I actually got 247.52something when I did my calculations (based on the Wikipedia formula) and rounded up. After I wrote this post I found this site: http://pixeldensitycalculator.com/ which gave me the same figure.

    2 months ago

  • Commented on Is the Sony Tablet S the perfect Android gaming machine?

    Actually, it looks there's no HDMI out on either the Tablet S or the optional cradle; Sony has gone with DNLA for sharing video but I doubt that would be snappy enough to move your games onto the TV. Hmm, that really knocks it down a few pegs as a gaming device.

    4 months ago

  • Commented on Asus Transformer Prime still mostly MIA, but still getting an Android update

    You were lucky then. Google "asus transformer launch shortages April 2011" (or use this link http://bit.ly/zK4P0j ) and you'll find a bunch of posts about the launch shortages.

    4 months ago

  • Commented on Asus Transformer Prime still mostly MIA, but still getting an Android update

    How long have you been waiting?

    4 months ago

  • Commented on Google Currents vs the skepticism of the Internet

    Huh, I didn't have that problem... though I must confess I quickly deleted my Google Reader feeds since most of them are 'stubs' of articles instead of full text, whereas if I got the "Edition" of the same source I'd get full text in Currents (at least in some cases). Wait, Google Reader under trending... you mean under Library, right? And I just checked and it still works for me. I'm on Android. Maybe I should check it out on the iPad.

    5 months ago

  • Commented on Thoughts on the new Xbox 360 Dashboard and the new My Xbox Live iOS app

    @Nathan - Yeah, I'm looking forward to that YouTube app as well. I'm always adding videos to my 'watch later' queue and never get around to watching them. Maybe I will once I can do it from the comfort of my couch. Oddly there's no YouTube app on the Roke (my go-to streaming box). When Microsoft talks about Kinect for Windows they mention a shorter USB as an improvement (!) so maybe Kinect functionality degrades with the length of the cable?

    5 months ago

  • Commented on Thoughts on the new Xbox 360 Dashboard and the new My Xbox Live iOS app

    I'm not familiar with the zoom-in, zoom-out feature of the old Netflix interface. What did that do?

    5 months ago

  • Commented on Thoughts on the new Xbox 360 Dashboard and the new My Xbox Live iOS app

    @mike81092 I bought a Zoom, but I have the Kinect mounted on a Tri-Mount that holds it above and behind the TV. There's plenty of clearance for the 'sight line' of the Kinect...until I put the Zoom on it. Then it says it can't see the floor. I think because of the 'fisheye' effect of the Zoom it's seeing the back of the TV. I need to find a new mount for it and try that again. Thanks for the idea, though.

    5 months ago

  • Commented on The new Xbox 360 dashboard arrives: Will it change the way families use the Xbox?

    Did you ever get it sorted out? I had to manually restart my 360 a few times before the update sorted itself out. It was doing all kinds of weird things, like telling me I had to log in, but when I did the first message I got was that it was logging me out. Eventually it all came together though. And yeah, I think they were so desperate to get the update out that they hit the button a little too soon.

    5 months ago

  • Commented on Kindle Fire: My turn to weigh-in with an opinion

    Hey, thanks for the link! A lot of the short-comings of the Fire seem to be fixable via a bit of research and side-loading, but I didn't realize Dropbox had their apk so easily accessible. Very much appreciated!

    6 months ago

  • Commented on Hulu Plus comes to an Android tablet you probably haven't heard of

    That's good to know. I've had mixed success with Flash-based video on my Acer A500. I'm honestly not sure if I've ever tried Amazon on it. Thanks!

    9 months ago

  • Commented on I'm not buying these Nintendo 3DS rumors we've been hearing

    Yeah, but even they say they're not sure how reliable their source is (for the new system rumor). On the analog stick they seem more confident. Maybe it's going to be an adhesive style stick like the one Logitech is making for the iPad? If they hadn't said it was going to cost $10 I'd be more prone to believing the analog stick attachment rumor.

    9 months ago

  • Commented on I'm not buying these Nintendo 3DS rumors we've been hearing

    Thanks Steven, I wasn't aware of that. So even less reason for a 3D-less 3DS, then.

    9 months ago

  • Commented on Spotify isn't anything special

    Rdio has a 7-day free trial. Teach a man to fish....

    10 months ago

  • Commented on Spotify isn't anything special

    Sure, if I was in Europe I'd be agreeing that Spotify is awesome since, at least as far as I understand it, there aren't many, if any, good alternatives over there. I don't know if other US based tech bloggers have just gotten swept up in their own hype, or if they're just not aware of all the alternatives, or what...

    10 months ago

  • Commented on Spotify isn't anything special

    Thanks for reminding me of this bizarre feature. You share things via URL that then triggers the client to open. How cumbersome is that?! Why not just provide a nice web client? Other services let you share stuff, yes. Rdio seems to have the strongest social ties, of the ones I've tried.

    10 months ago

  • Commented on Spotify isn't anything special

    @mikemuch - That's what I have you for. :) Seriously, there are so many alternates to Spotify that it gets cumbersome to list them all, so I stuck to the ones I have personal experience with.

    10 months ago

  • Commented on Defending Facebook's excitement over its new (obsolete) video-chat service

    Hmm, your points are good ones. I stand corrected. One thing though... Facebook said it was ok for me to store my credit card and social security numbers in my profile. They told me it was very very private!

    10 months ago

  • Commented on One reason Android tablets struggle to compete with iPads

    My inner conspiracist found it interesting that there was a new Xoom display up right when Samsung's tablet shipped, but the Samsung display wasn't up. Although even the Xoom display isn't optimally positioned. I expect there to be an aisle in the computer section with all the tablets lined up, but (at least at this Best Buy) there isn't. The one exception I should have noted was the 3G tablets on display in the cellphone area. I'm guessing that's Verizon's influence at work.

    11 months ago

  • Commented on Verizon Wireless dropping unlimited data plans in two weeks

    @MikeOpager Sure they wear out, but they don't wear out faster from more data running through them. Here's my analogy. Your ISP delivers data to a router in your house, right? From there, it's all up to you to get that data from the router to a device. Does it cost you more to move a large file than it does a small file? No. Verizon isn't dumping cardboard packing crates full of bytes into their system, after all. They don't generate the data that's flowing. They just provide the pipes. No one said this is a surprise; after all Verizon has been saying this day would come for months. I was just surprised that the caps were so low, personally. Anyway, do take note of the update at the end of the post; it seems like existing customers will be grandfathered, even across hardware upgrades, at least for the time being.

    11 months ago

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