Noscope is a bi-weekly journal serving up snacksized portions of pointless stuff since 2001.
I also do freelance design and usability via dejligt.com

Why The iPad Doesn’t Have Multi-Tasking

    12:39 on January 30th, 2010 , , , , , ,

One of the things discussed about the new Apple tablet, other than its lack of Flash, is its apparent lack of multi-tasking. Multi-tasking, of course, being the ability to listen to music or radio while playing Flight Control. I’d like to talk about that, because I’m pretty sure I know why there’s no multi-tasking, and [...]

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Games On The iPad: Here’s A Thought

    10:43 on January 28th, 2010 ,

Yesterday, Apple revealed a much hyped tablet PC, which apparently runs all current iPhone apps right out of the box. With a pixel doubler, if you want it, even.
Unimpressive as that may sound, this holds the potential to alleviate pixel shaders to great effect. Think 3D iPad games which run in hi-res, full detail [...]

Android: On Context Buttons

    10:38 on January 20th, 2010 , , , ,

David Barnard complains about the capacitative buttons below the Nexus One screen. As I have done in my Motorola Milestone review. But it gets both more interesting and, unfortunately, worse, in the story of these buttons.
There are four buttons1:

Back
Context menu
Home
Search

While programmable, the back button mostly works as you’d expect. When in the browser, “back” goes [...]

2 Comments

Motorola Milestone (European Droid) Mini-Review

    20:58 on December 30th, 2009 , , , ,

A few weeks prior to the holidays, I splurged on a Motorola Milestone, which is the european version of the US superphone called the “Droid”. I’ve now had the device for day to day use for a couple of weeks, and I’m now ready to tell you that while it’s certainly a great device, it’s [...]

5 Comments

LG X110 Netbook Mini-Review

    15:51 on April 29th, 2009 ,

I recently acquired an LG X110 netbook. It’s basically a 10” mini notebook with everything1 that entails; full keyboard, trackpad, the lot. Because of the small form factor, the price is as low as it gets for a full-featured portable.
At 10” we’re really talking a small computer. If you cover it in a fine film, [...]

Through The Looking Glass, Or How My Great Macbook Adventure Was All Too Brief

    13:17 on March 12th, 2009 , , ,

I had heard of it before. I had even seen the wonder for myself. The 15” unibody Macbook Pro. Cut from a single piece of aluminum, ornamented with unicorn horn and cooled only by dodo tears. It was a one of a kind machine, and no other laptop in the world could compare. If I [...]

Running Windows On The Mac: Did It Ever Work? [Update 3: Returning It]

    20:06 on February 16th, 2009 , , , , , , , ,

Just last week, I bought myself a brand new unibody Macbook Pro 15, a rather expensive piece of hardware. I bought it, expecting it to run Windows natively via multi-boot; Apple advertises that their Boot Camp feature will do just this:
[Mac OSX] Leopard is the world’s most advanced operating system. So advanced, it even lets [...]

Unibody Macbook Pro 15 Mini-Review

    09:30 on February 11th, 2009 , , ,

Peeps who follow me on Twitter may have picked up the fact that my 6 month laptop hunt ended with me purchasing a 15 inch Macbook Pro. Sure, it’s the price of two used Toyotas duct-taped together, but it’s also carved from a single piece of aluminum, and the keyboard is chiseled from unicorn horn.
The [...]

The Quest For A Sturdy Laptop

    11:07 on January 24th, 2009 , ,

A coworker and myself are looking for laptops in the “desktop replacement” class. That means fairly fast computers sporting plenty of RAM and dedicated graphics cards. That means prices in the 1500 ranges. These are all Fisherprice plastic concoctions, however, and therein lies the problem. Can it really be true, that only Apple makes truly [...]

Synology DS 107+ (Network Attached Storage) Mini-Review

    11:33 on January 06th, 2009 ,

A network attached storage, or NAS, is a micro-computer that sits somewhere you’re not. You access it as you would any other network drive, and as such, it’s simply a storage solution. Plug it into your wireless router, and you have wireless access.
I bought myself a 107+ and a 1TB SATA drive. Connection of the [...]