Are Google’s new devices worth getting excited about?

@katebevan, thanks Kate! I’ll explain bowls rules if the opportunity ever arises. 🙂

Duncan – thanks for the link. I see that blog also includes Google’s criticisms of Duck-Duck-Go’s study methodology and I think there are some valid points there.

My main desktop PC is currently running LXLE linux, where Duck-Duck-Go is the default search engine. Every time I use that, I cringe at how useless it is, then I open my book-marked Google page and do a decent search from there. So whatever Google is doing, it does a better job of helping me find what I need on the net.

Derek-I no longer use DDG its only on a very small browser I temporarily installed to try to access MY BT , I also wasn’t happy with the search “results ” .

After a long talk with an intelligent UK based call-centre operator which I get from the BT Plus contract and him checking out my inability to access BT he also came to the conclusion it was my blockers especially as the Jscript was blocked in the login part ( just removed it ).
I carried on testing and noticed that bt.com wasn’t shown in green or neutral as they deduced it was leaking info to third parties (which is true ) but I forced myself to modify it to allow BT to send data on me .
“Amazingly ” I was then able to access BT , I still dont think its right but at least I could run down my list of calls made to check if I was being billed right , which turned out to be right ( billed -£1.45 ) on a 0844 company my wife wanted goods from , no other choice of number was available .

Duncan’s reference to “Google is “god”” got me to thinking. It’s fashionable to think of Google in exactly the opposite sense, in fact; Google is often thought of as the Devil Incarnate, the ultimate trickster, the epitome of Mephistophelian abomination, the cacodemonic manifestation of all things evil.

But if we pursue that line of conjecture, isn’t it true that those are the very qualities with which the Puritans imbued any mechanism that made life easy? It’s very true that Google – like Facebook – doesn’t believe in privacy (except for its own executives) and it shamelessly attempts to monetise its customers. But it does make the fastest and arguably most comprehensive search engine around.

If we class Google as evil, then we must surely extend that label to anything which works very well, monetises its customers, tracks everyone and anything and – in short – behaves exactly like the ultimate capitalist.

One reason why I stick with Apple was presented very nicely in the Register the other day. I know I’ll pay a little more for my things but they do last and Apple doesn’t flog off my data (as far as I know).

And we always have the choice. We can choose not to use the sperm of the devil (Google) and enjoy less efficient search returns, or we can follow Dante’s suggestion “Lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch’entrate” and choose to throw in our lot with Satan. Which, after all, is simply an anagram of a well-loved figure at this time of year. Happy undoings.

If the Register thinks second hand iPhone SE’s are good value at only £150, I tend to agree, but that’s still £125 more than I paid for my new but heavily discounted Android phone.

Duncan – that’s interesting.

Would I be right in thinking that Yandex is also based on Chrome – or at least the Chromium internet source project?

In my recent “computer buddy” voluntary work, colleagues and I have been seeing printing problems with the Chrome version on our W7 PC’s. This is that, from time to time, images like event tickets fail to print properly if printed from Chrome but print OK from Internet Explorer. I’ve also seen the same – or a related problem – with downloaded PDFs (perhaps as “printed” to PDF from Chrome on Android). So our network printers don’t always seem to work OK with Chrome.

If any one else is encountering similar problems, two quick fixes that may help are:

1) download and print your tickets (or other misbehaving items) from a different browser, e.g. one not based on Chrome/Chromium

2) screen shot the document images and then print them using the Windows photo printing utility (or equivalent)

Your right Derek , it wasn’t at first but is now
as an American pointed out one of the “benefits ” is that the NSA dont access the data automatically and it does have a better virus control ( Dr Web ) .
I cant see any “red necks ” using it though or the IFS – and the addition of tax payers money on another propaganda “secret ” organisation in the same building not too far from me.