Andrew Orlowski
The Register
United Kingdom
Contact Andrew
Discover and connect with journalists and influencers around the world, save time on email research, monitor the news, and more.
| Recent: |
|
| Past: |
|
Past articles by Andrew:
Veteran vulture Andrew Orlowski is offski after 19 years at
Bill Clinton was president of the United States when I first started at The Register, mobile phones (and anything else "mobile") were low-rez monochrome chunks of plastic, and politicians were slack-jawed children when it came to technology. Some things don't change, but today one thing does. After 19 years – the first seven in San Francisco and the rest in London – and over 6,000 stories, I'm… → Read More
Mods I have known, Mods I have loved, Mods I have hated: Motorola's failed experiment is now a savvy techie's dream
Smartphone makers are touting cameras with 5x and even 10x lossless zoom on some very expensive new gadgets. Huawei's lossless 5x costs around £900. However, on a recent weekend family escape, I grabbed a smartphone and took some wonderful, truly lossless 10x photos on a rig that set up that will cost you, dear reader, less than £300. It's a proper LTE flagship phone, and has a (real) Xenon… → Read More
Huawei P30: New No-Pro's cameras are flash ... but there are some curious bits
Review Perhaps it's an English thing about being fair to the underdog, but I quite warmed to Huawei's "ordinary" P series model last year, while its attention-seeking big brother P20 Pro hoovered up all the attention. Despite missing some tickbox flagship features, the plain ol' P20 offered much of the low light capability of its more expensive sibling, it was compact, reliable, it and… → Read More
Turn on, tune in, cash out: Hipster chat plat Slack whacks beardie millennials with features
But is it enough to combat the Microsoft juggernaut? → Read More
Microsoft's Edge on Apple's macOS? It's more likely than you think for new browser
Chromium base should ease porting pains substantially → Read More
ood new, fanbys. Apple spds up n-str McBook latop kyboad rpairs, ccrding t hs leakd mmo
Apple is speeding up repairs of defective laptop keyboards that have left MacBook users angry, frustrated, and firing off lawsuits. The iGiant has ordered its posh shops to turn around in-store laptop keyboard repairs faster, according to a memo seen by MacRumors. Repairs have, in the past, been largely done off-site and take three to five days, but now Apple wants its in-store geniuses to fix… → Read More
5G is Chinese firms' foot in the door to Europe as Oppo launches flagship Reno mobe in Zurich
While some governments obsess about Huawei, the impending launch of 5G is giving lesser-known Chinese upstarts a hope of cracking elusive Western smartphone markets – as Oppo demonstrated today in Zurich. Last week Swisscom turned on the first commercial 5G network in Europe, and newcomer Oppo used the Swiss capital to show off its latest Reno flagship smartphone series. It also used the… → Read More
Behold, the insides of Samsung's Galaxy Fold: The phone that tears down all on its own
You'd think a forensic teardown of the first commercially available foldable smartphone – the Samsung Galaxy Fold – may be less challenging than most, given the device's propensity to do it itself. But that isn't the case. iFixit's disassembly turns out to be a fascinating account of the mechanical engineering challenges Samsung has overcome, and still faces, in turning a promising lab… → Read More
The peelable, foldable phone has become the great white whale of tech
Analysis So. Gartner was right to be cautious about the foldable phone after all. Samsung has postponed the 3 May launch of the Galaxy Fold handset, and now Reuters reports that the Korean giant wants all the samples back. You're welcome, reviewers will think, as the units were peeling to bits anyway. For Samsung, it's ominously reminiscent of the Note 7 recall. However, this one has started to… → Read More
'Fake 5G' feud falters as Sprint, AT&T settle suit over 'misleading' label
US network operators Sprint and AT&T remain coy about the details of a 5G ceasefire they have just agreed. According to a report, the two have settled their feud over labelling faster LTE as "5G E", but the terms of the settlement have not been made public. We requested corroboration and details, but did not hear back. Sprint confirmed the settlement to the Dallas Business Journal – but it… → Read More
Cheapskate Brits appear to love their Poundland MVNOs as UK's big four snubbed in survey again
Giffgaff tops satisfaction ratings, Vodafone brings up the rear → Read More
UK comms watchdog mulls 5G tweaks: Operators want moooooar power
Oh and remove the guard bands, would you Ofcom? → Read More
BBM is dead, long live BBMe: Encrypted chat plat opened up to all as consumer version burns
BlackBerry has said it will open up its BBM Enterprise encrypted chat service to all-comers as the consumer version nears death. The pioneering OTT (over-the-top) chat service was first introduced in 2005 and after BlackBerry's refusal to unbundle it from its phones became widely imitated, allegedly most successfully by WhatsApp. BlackBerry is belatedly suing WhatsApp owner Facebook (and others)… → Read More
Why Qualcomm won – and why Tim Cook had to eat humble Apple pie
Comment The dramatic peace treaty between Apple and Qualcomm is good news for iPhone buyers, but raises questions about the market's ability to produce a viable competitor to the 5G leader – at least in the short term. Simply put, Apple blinked first. Other customers have balked at Qualcomm's royalty structure, and even its own shareholders have filed suit complaining that Qualcomm is too… → Read More
Google readies Pixel for the masses, but are the masses ready for Pixel?
Scaling buggy hardware is easier than scaling software → Read More
iOS 13 leaks suggest Apple is finally about to unleash the iPad as a computer for grownups
Once you've wiped the progeny's paw prints from it → Read More
'LTE with new shoes': Industry bod points a judgy finger at the US and Korea's 5G fakery
A leading industry figure has dismissed 5G "launches" in Korea and the United States as "LTE with new shoes". Colin Willcock, Nokia's head of Radio Network Standardization and chair of the 5G Infrastructure Association (IA), made the remarks last week in London. The 5G IA represents the supply side and liaises with the European Commission to promote 5G in Europe. Willcock explained that "real"… → Read More
As Alexa's secret human army is revealed, we ask: Who else has been listening in on you?
The Lives of Others: Siri, Google and Cortana edition → Read More
Samsung's tricksy midrange teasers want your flagship catch
Analysis Samsung has shown a muscular response to the mortal threat of cheap Chinese rivals and long phone replacement cycles by packing its mid-tier phones with the exotic novelties of much pricier flagships. The seventh model of its range was unveiled yesterday, embodying the aggressive new move – and it's certainly the most eye-catching (click here for Sammy's slow-motion gif). The A80 is a… → Read More
Gartner squints into its crystal ball: A pholdable phuture is very far away
And they won't save the tanking device market in 2019 → Read More