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Perhaps someone somewhere in the system frameworks shifted from a timestamp (which is really a double internally in iOS)

Depends on what you mean by "internally". At the Mach layer, you have what mach_absolute_time() returns, which is a 64-bit unsigned integer in platform-dependent units. Above that in the Mach (osfmk) and BSD (bsd) layers, it's mainly seconds since the Epoch and microseconds since that second, i.e. either struct timeval or other pairings of those values. time_t is signed, but in some of the other pairings, the seconds is unsigned (e.g., clock_sec_t).

Perhaps in some layered-atop-UN*X userland frameworks it's a double, but not down in the engine room.

Praytell, when is the last time Apple admitted a security flaw? Windows is plagued by bad design decisions. Open source flaws usually tend to be dealt with fairly rapidly once discovered. I think you're going a little overboard calling people zealots there Chuck.

Can't say about Windows; but Apple does it regularly, and publicly, after an internal investigation and fix (which is the prudent thing to do, to protect users).

Praytell, when is the last time Apple admitted a security flaw? January 2016 http://lists.apple.com/archive...
Windows is plagued by bad design decisions. Such as? Taking granted that Windows foundation was based on running on a 16bit PC.
Open source flaws usually tend to be dealt with fairly rapidly once discovered. However what is the fallout for a quick patch update?
I think you're going a little overboard calling people zealots there Chuck. Zealots are not just fans of open source, but ignore the problems that do exist and point to the problems in others select cases to make your point.

There are a set of Large Open source project, but a lot of small ones where there is a few people who care about the source.

Or cue all the people who treat their chargers with some respect and yet still have these issues. I don't wrap my MacBook charger cables around the provided wrap tines because even those are too tight, with sharp 90 degree corners at the inner wrapping; I loop the cord slightly larger than the charger itself and use a proper velcro wrap to hold it together and have never had an issue with cable breakage. However, though I also always unplug the charger by the connector, and never by the cable, between my wife and I we've bought 5 chargers, just to have 4 for our 3 MacBooks (when you add in the ones that were included with the MacBooks themselves, you'll note that we've had 4 failures out of 8 chargers).

Of the 4 failed chargers, 3 were due to cable deterioration and one was due to the charger finally giving up the ghost due to the cable having been mangled in the workings of a recliner, then repaired, several times. Note that this charger is the only one that we had at the same time as the recliner, so the others were not possibly exposed to that abuse. Something tells me that charger, which predates the other by at least a year, was build with some quality, while the current crop are not. It's also worth noting that, of the 4 chargers we currently have, the one on my desk sits, unplugged, because the insulation near the connector is browning, the one I'm using currently is developing a crack near the connector, the one my wife is currently using has a flake of insulation that cracked right out next to the connector, and our other spare has several layers of shrink-wrap holding the insulation together at the connector.

I might be inclined to say that, perhaps, my wife is not as careful with the chargers as I am, if not for the fact that the failing one on my desk is MagSafe 2, which she can't use, the one I'm using now is the one that I, and only I, use for both my 17" MBP and my Retina (via Apple-supplied MS->MS2 adapter), and the one with the shrink wrap on it is the one that resided at my desk prior to getting the Retina and, thus, was only used by me. That rules out abuse by her that I am not aware of.

For reference, I also use a few PC laptops, which require significantly more force to unplug, some of which aren't as easy to grip and do get pulled out by the roots. I keep a spare charger for each, so one can stay at my desk and the other can be used elsewhere in the house, or when traveling, and have literally never (in 20 years of laptop ownership) had a cable failure except with Apple products. Likewise with USB cables; I think I might have had one fail when I used it as a tie-down when I couldn't find any rope, bot aside from that, I've had a handful of lightning (both Apple and 3rd-party) fail, though the 3rd party failures were due to abuse and being stepped on in the car I can't say the same about the Apple cable failures. I've also had a few 30-pin cables fail, all Apple cables, my aftermarket cables are still holding up for my 1st-gen iPad, iPod Classic, and 1st-gen Nano.

TL;DR: I hope you were being facetious when you implied that Apple got their cables and chargers right. Also, charger plug recall.

Modern app appers know that only apps can app apps, so these LUDDITES who play LUDDITE games like Hearthstone deserve to get pwned. Modern app appers play appy apps like Candy Crush Appy Saga!

Apps!

Hearthstone is an app.

WHERE IS YOUR GOD NOW?

"Filter error: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING."

Very perceptive, Slashcode. It IS yelling.

Did you notice why all Apple products connects to Apple Inc.. servers 24/7 ?

Yes, this is how push notifications work and is openly documented here: https://developer.apple.com/li... Relevant section:

Each device establishes an accredited and encrypted IP connection with APNs and receives notifications over this persistent connection.

(Emphasis added)

You want log files? F-U, Apple fanboys don't need no stinkin log files so they don't exist despite Unix being one of the pioneers of this concept. You want an error code? Nope, can't help you there, they don't exist; you're lucky if you're told that a problem occurred at all.

Huh? What are you talking about?

The accusation that I never paid an electricity bill. I do, every month.

And Golddess's math assumes the full cost of running the wireless router while my argument was about the extra cost of having the secondary part of the router enabled. And his/her router takes an awful lot of power, to be honest. The Apple Airport Express (PDF) requires a maximum of 2.2 watts, which is 7.27 times less power, or about 0.23 cents per month for the whole router running at maximum capacity.

When steve jobs was alive, I am *sure* that apple stuff was cheaper. No, it never competed with the low end stuff, and maybe you paid a premium for Apple gear / OSX, fair enough.... BUT, now its just a rip off. http://www.apple.com/shop/buy-... $1,199 for 2.5 ghz, 8gb ram, 750gb HDD.... http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-... $459.99 for Intel Core i5, 8 GB, 1TB HDD Now, I accept the apple premium should be like 50% more..... BUT, we're talking over twice as much for a similar hardware. For info, I just bought an apple from EBAY. I like apple. I just think they're way overpriced today.

iOS runs UNIX and you have absolutely no control over it.

OS X is officially a UNIX but as of the latest version you can't even use root to replace some of Apple's software with newer versions.

If you're referring to System Integrity Protection, then, if you want to replace some of Apple's software, feel free to disable System Integrity Protection. A bit of a painful process, but the setting persists, so you only have to do it once, unless you want to turn it back on once you're done and then turn it off again when you want to change one of the protected files.

(Pro tip for people running OS X under VMware Fusion: if you're going to be doing this, you'll probably want to increase the boot delay on your VM so that you have enough time to do the "boot to Recovery OS" dance. The Parallels folk don't require anything like that, apparently, but I haven't tried it with Parallels.)

iOS runs UNIX and you have absolutely no control over it.

OS X is officially a UNIX but as of the latest version you can't even use root to replace some of Apple's software with newer versions.

If you're referring to System Integrity Protection, then, if you want to replace some of Apple's software, feel free to disable System Integrity Protection. A bit of a painful process, but the setting persists, so you only have to do it once, unless you want to turn it back on once you're done and then turn it off again when you want to change one of the protected files.

(Pro tip for people running OS X under VMware Fusion: if you're going to be doing this, you'll probably want to increase the boot delay on your VM so that you have enough time to do the "boot to Recovery OS" dance. The Parallels folk don't require anything like that, apparently, but I haven't tried it with Parallels.)

Why should the app developer care about where on the screen the window is?

Probably because only the app knows definitively what belongs in the window. The desktop can only guess. Simple enough if you have a single window, but what if you have two windows? Which one goes in which position? What if you start with one window, and open a second window later?

Libraries like qt have roughly one-line functions for saving/restoring window positions, but it's up to the application developer to use it and handle the more complex cases. I haven't done much OSX application programming, but my understanding of the docs suggests that the app is what handles restoring window positions, not the window manager.

She should have been a con artist. I figured you'd be interested and would like to know that, in her professional opinion, they're suitable for use in such environments assuming they're not being kept in complete, sterile, isolation. I expect to know if they can be brought in and put on the network by the end of next week.

Ya know, for someone who isn't an Apple fan, you have probably purchased more Apple gear than the next TEN fanbois, LOL!!!

Your daughter may very well have a promising second-career as a con-artist; but in this particular case, she is right-on.

When the iPad first came out, I was looking into developing a disposable "bag" for just this sort of application. That idea went the way of all my good ideas, and was eventually replaced with another idea of mine for an iPad/tablet "sterilizer" chamber, that would use UV to disinfect one or more iPads/tablets. And of course, charging facilities would be provided, too for charging-while-disinfecting.

iPads are used in thousands of hospitals everyday. Even without the disinfection. In sterile environments, like an Operating Room, they tend to put them in plastic bags (a gallon-ziploc works fine), and yes, the touchscreen does work through the plastic bag. But on the regular "floors", they just treat iPads like a clipboard. No sterilization, no protective sheath/pouch, nothing.

I would say that iPads are probably fairly easy to keep relatively clean (cleaner than a computer keyboard and mouse!!!), simply because there really aren't many cracks and crevices for caked blood, etc, to congregate. The main issue is the Home button, because it gets pressed a zillion times a day, followed by the Sleep/Wake button. But a simple silicone-rubber "boot"-type case would probably work...

She should have been a con artist. I figured you'd be interested and would like to know that, in her professional opinion, they're suitable for use in such environments assuming they're not being kept in complete, sterile, isolation. I expect to know if they can be brought in and put on the network by the end of next week.

Ya know, for someone who isn't an Apple fan, you have probably purchased more Apple gear than the next TEN fanbois, LOL!!!

Your daughter may very well have a promising second-career as a con-artist; but in this particular case, she is right-on.

When the iPad first came out, I was looking into developing a disposable "bag" for just this sort of application. That idea went the way of all my good ideas, and was eventually replaced with another idea of mine for an iPad/tablet "sterilizer" chamber, that would use UV to disinfect one or more iPads/tablets. And of course, charging facilities would be provided, too for charging-while-disinfecting.

iPads are used in thousands of hospitals everyday. Even without the disinfection. In sterile environments, like an Operating Room, they tend to put them in plastic bags (a gallon-ziploc works fine), and yes, the touchscreen does work through the plastic bag. But on the regular "floors", they just treat iPads like a clipboard. No sterilization, no protective sheath/pouch, nothing.

I would say that iPads are probably fairly easy to keep relatively clean (cleaner than a computer keyboard and mouse!!!), simply because there really aren't many cracks and crevices for caked blood, etc, to congregate. The main issue is the Home button, because it gets pressed a zillion times a day, followed by the Sleep/Wake button. But a simple silicone-rubber "boot"-type case would probably work...

The app, if you haven't seen it, is an interactive "book" that covers the basics of the video system for the Atari 2600. It uses a mix of prose and a basic simulator to introduce and demonstrate different techniques:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/ap...

Sure, programming the 2600 is a world removed from Victorian England, but interactive content done right can be very engaging, as David's app demonstrates.

I'm sure there are countless other examples of interactive content people have developed for mobile devices, and those might be the reason we don't see more of them...

-Chris

iPhone offers VPN capabilities https://support.apple.com/en-u...

Depends on the OS version and what "phone home" is.
https://support.apple.com/kb/P... has some info on what and how search terms are used. The ability to stop search queries and Spotlight Suggestions usage data been sent back to Apple is also mentioned.
Each OS and version has its own settings as users of Window$ 10 are finding out more and more.
Just use privacy sucking Windows for games and learn to privacy set Mac OS X if needed. Linux for everything interesting.

Could have had it all back in the day with HyperCard https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Although I pine for the days of HyperCard myself, Apple's own iBooks Author pretty much gets you there at this point. It's Free (as in beer) and can be used to create ePub3 books, as well as Apple's (more robust) iBooks format.

Well guess what? There is no e-book format that allows that. That isn't what e-books were designed for. There are non e-book formats designed to do that (HTML, etc). Use those, THAT is what progress is.

Maybe not for the lame-ass Kindle; but if you want to publish your e-Book for the iPad instead (or also), Apple makes a truly wonderful (and free!) Textbook-Authoring Tool that will allow you to do all that you have asked for, and much more.

Jus' sayin'...

Oh, and WAIT! The newer versions of iBooks Author will create ePub3-format books; so I guess they maybe COULD be used with that lame-ass Kindle... :-) The only catch is you have to Author with a Mac...

Can iOS do multiple users yet? On Android you can create a kids account that can't spend money.

iOS, per se, it still Single-User (although I wonder if the iPad Pro will change that); but that has nothing to do with the App Store, which requires a Login with an Apple ID. And Apple allows you (the Parent) to control that Account in several ways. See "Manage your Child's Account", and links therein.

Oh, and APPLE is the one with the rules allowing one to enter the password once for one purchase and then allowing 15 minutes of continuing purchases without reauthorization.

That timeout is User-Settable.

Or, even more easily, they could just email you a receipt every time a purchase is made.

They do. But the internal batch-jobs that try to consolidate charges to the banks introduce a usually several-hour delay in that process.

But Apple has made it even easier, allowing the Parent to Require PERMISSION for EVERY In-App Purchase, with the "Ask To Buy" Setting. This catches the Purchase BEFORE it happens.

Now what?

Which is exactly what Apple (and others) want. They could trivially add a config UI element to set purchase limits.

Well, Apple allows you to set Restrictions on whether to allow in-App (game) Purchases.

The default could easily be something sane like $10.

Which is why Apple also allows you (the Parent) to set up a separate Account, in which you (the Parent) can deposit money that will form a hard-limit on the user's (the Child) In-App purchases. See "Managing your Child's Account". Heck, they even provide an "Ask to Buy" feature, in case you want to individually approve Purchases at the time.

But that's not going to happen while Apple (and others) get to take advantage of unwary parents, and smart kids with no money sense.

It's about time the law stopped this shit.

It looks to me like Apple has done a pretty responsible job of managing the two edges of the sword: Draconian Helicopter-ism, vs. Unfettered Capitalism; and, considering the tools already in-place, Apple would be perfectly within their rights to point to the above article and say "We gave you the tools to manage this, sorry!" But obviously, the PR backlash from such an attitude would be horrible.

Case in point: Just look at the number of people on the normally "Well, the User Asked For It" Slashdot that are ranting that Apple "Should have prevented this", EVEN THOUGH THEY REFUNDED THE MONEY.

But, Haters Gotta Hate, I guess.

Which is exactly what Apple (and others) want. They could trivially add a config UI element to set purchase limits.

Well, Apple allows you to set Restrictions on whether to allow in-App (game) Purchases.

The default could easily be something sane like $10.

Which is why Apple also allows you (the Parent) to set up a separate Account, in which you (the Parent) can deposit money that will form a hard-limit on the user's (the Child) In-App purchases. See "Managing your Child's Account". Heck, they even provide an "Ask to Buy" feature, in case you want to individually approve Purchases at the time.

But that's not going to happen while Apple (and others) get to take advantage of unwary parents, and smart kids with no money sense.

It's about time the law stopped this shit.

It looks to me like Apple has done a pretty responsible job of managing the two edges of the sword: Draconian Helicopter-ism, vs. Unfettered Capitalism; and, considering the tools already in-place, Apple would be perfectly within their rights to point to the above article and say "We gave you the tools to manage this, sorry!" But obviously, the PR backlash from such an attitude would be horrible.

Case in point: Just look at the number of people on the normally "Well, the User Asked For It" Slashdot that are ranting that Apple "Should have prevented this", EVEN THOUGH THEY REFUNDED THE MONEY.

But, Haters Gotta Hate, I guess.

Nope, not on my ipad [sic] it doesn't. My wife's ipad [sic] also doesn't ask for a password.

Depends on how your setting is. Also, what version of iPad and what iOS version? The current one -- https://support.apple.com/en-u... -- has the setting to either always ask for password or within 15 minutes after entered.

If the kid of the person in TFA could go through app purchase in 6 days and the iOS version is up-to-date, it meant that either the kid knew the password or the person set up the device to NOT REQUIRE PASSWORD! That's why Apple declined his refund...

Quite right according to http://www.apple.com/ibooks-au...
Only available for iOS & Mac at the moment.
Sorry to have assumed that, like iTunes, Apple would open the platform.

Contract terms are worth a close look. I've heard vague suggestions that both Apple and Amazon want exclusive access to your work; also that they want to dictate prices on their platform and elsewhere. (You can't sell elsewhere at a lower price...) But again, that is rumor and I can't find time to dig in for actual facts. OTOH, an open textbook such as the OP proposes might be free so price is not a concern.

Other concerns involve updates. There are indications that newer versions of iOS and Mac OS are not working well with iBooks and iBooks Author. The book Yellow Submarine (from 2010) is no longer listed at the iBook store. Another concern, if you are using a 16GB iDevice, is that something fancy like Yellow Submarine can take 370MB of space.

iBooks seem to be the best example of what is becoming possible with living, interactive books. They are in the same 'bleeding edge' category with wearable VR devices and 3D 4K video. If you can't afford the equipment (the Apple tax), you're out of luck.

In the end however, if you want your book to have magical properties, to be able to sing and dance in 17 dimensions, your only choice is iBooks. The Yellow Submarine book was an example of what is possible when creative people care about the user experience.

They do not. You don't need a credit card. They even provide instructions on how to do this:

https://support.apple.com/en-c...

Did you read the summary and notice it is about a kid? Did you read the web page you linked?

A credit card is required to set up accounts for children. Learn more about Apple IDs for kids.

Unless you're suggesting he violate the apple TOS?

They do not require a credit card on file to play, BUT they require you to input a credit card in order to do the initial creation of the first apple id account. (See: https://support.apple.com/en-u...). Once it's created you can then remove the credit card again.

They do the same thing for sd cards. You need a sd card in order to boot the phone for the first time, but once it's booted you can remove the sd card. And I still don't understand why.

Here is the legal document you agree to when using or upgrading your iOS 9.0 device (iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch). It is 410 pages long.

Apple released iOS 9.0 on September 16, 2015. One week later, on September 23, 2015, Apple released iOS 9.0.1. One week after that, on September 30, 2015, Apple released iOS 9.0.2. Then, less than one month later, on October 21, 2015, Apple released iOS 9.1. The legal document you agree to when upgrading to iOS 9.1 is 418 pages.

Prior to running the update on any iOS device, Apple presents you with this license agreement and requires that you accept to be bound by its terms. Since you don't know in advance whether the terms have changed, you must read all 410-418 pages to be confident that you are agreeing to what you think you are agreeing to. This means that from September 16, 2015 to October 21, 2015, you would have read approximately 1648 pages worth of legalese. You may argue that updating is voluntary but each release fixed several significant problems, so performing the update is necessary for the continued proper functioning of your device.

Here is the legal document you agree to when using or upgrading your iOS 9.0 device (iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch). It is 410 pages long.

Apple released iOS 9.0 on September 16, 2015. One week later, on September 23, 2015, Apple released iOS 9.0.1. One week after that, on September 30, 2015, Apple released iOS 9.0.2. Then, less than one month later, on October 21, 2015, Apple released iOS 9.1. The legal document you agree to when upgrading to iOS 9.1 is 418 pages.

Prior to running the update on any iOS device, Apple presents you with this license agreement and requires that you accept to be bound by its terms. Since you don't know in advance whether the terms have changed, you must read all 410-418 pages to be confident that you are agreeing to what you think you are agreeing to. This means that from September 16, 2015 to October 21, 2015, you would have read approximately 1648 pages worth of legalese. You may argue that updating is voluntary but each release fixed several significant problems, so performing the update is necessary for the continued proper functioning of your device.

https://support.apple.com/en-u... You have two password options to choose from with paid and in-app purchases: Always Require: When you make a purchase, you'll always be asked to enter your password, even if you're signed in with your Apple ID. Require After 15 Minutes: When you make a purchase, you'll be asked to enter your password only every 15 minutes. You can turn off password protection for free items on your iOS device or computer if you don't want to enter your password when downloading free songs or apps, but you can't completely turn off password protection for paid items.

This is maybe the shittiest article I've seen posted to Slashdot in a long time, and that's saying something.

First, why does the blame fall to Tim Cook of all people instead of the developers of the game?

Second, Apple has already set up a Family Sharing system to prevent just this sort of thing. Never mind the fact that your have to give your kid your password to the account tied to a credit card for this to happen in the first place.

http://www.apple.com/icloud/fa...

To say nothing of the fact that in the article itself they said Apple refunded him the money. But yeah, they're assholes because he doesn't know not to give your kid access to your credit card.

Finally throw in a dash of globalization scare tactics and remind developers that they *only* get 70% of the IAP revenue, which they know about already, and you've got the Slashdot Shithead Trifecta.

They do not. You don't need a credit card. They even provide instructions on how to do this:

https://support.apple.com/en-c...

Common App Rejections: "Misleading Users. Your app must perform as advertised and should not give users the impression the app is something it is not." Guess charging 7-year-olds $6 grand for in-app 'Dino Bucks' purchases doesn't constitute 'misleading users'. :-)

This is incorrect. If you look at any release notes for any Apple security update you will see numerous CVE that were discovered internally by Apple.

It's possible to create an AppleID without a credit card.
https://support.apple.com/en-u...

Here it is:

http://www.apple.com/shop/prod...

All Android and iPhones that I'm aware of will charge just fine on most USB chargers - you simply need to supply the correct cable.

Is this really an issue that warrants government intervention?

Except that's the whole point of standardizing on a single charger - to prevent the bloat of phone chargers you'd otherwise get.

Apple expects Apptards to upgrade their Appdevice once a year. We're coming up on the 11th generation of iPhone (1, 2, 3, 3GS, 4, 4S, 5, 5S, 6, 6s - yes, 6s is suddenly lowercase because Apple), which means an Apptard who's upgraded every year like Apple tells them to will be getting their 11th charger and 5th Lightning cable.

The entire point is that you should only need one cable and one charger. Replace the phone as much as you want, you shouldn't need a new charger.

(like it is also common amongst camera manufacturers).

I'm well aware of proprietary batteries, but I don't think I've ever come across a camera with a fixed battery. No photographer would accept that. Check out a professional photographer's bag and they'll not only have multiple cameras, they'll have multiple batteries and multiple flash cards. The ability to change batteries for a fresh one in a camera is absolutely vital, you'd never be able to sell one without that ability.

Of course, Apple has their own overpriced solution for dealing with their phone's hilariously short battery life, except not even Apptards are falling for that.

Uh.... no. The NES only had 64K of addressable memory. Only a fraction of that was available for games. Super Mario Bros used a 32KB cartridge.

More than 64K of effective memory on a cartridge was possible with bank switching (up to 1MB, switched in at 32K at a time), but Super Mario Bros did not use that.

Hardware limitations will tame bloat like nothing else. However, given some memory and CPU coupled with a drop-in framework for just about anything imaginable and the growth quickly becomes exponential. My Mario-comparable iOS "masterpiece" Cletus Land tallies in at 35MB. It's easy to get there and beyond when you start adding-in things like a physics engine, many times the screen resolution, quadruple the bits for color, support for several different screen layouts, etc. As I've earned about as much as the SuperTux developers, I'm thankful it didn't take me a decade to get to release.

It would be nice to see the smartphone gaming market move away from Candy Crush like stuff back to games that are actually playable without having to buy large amounts of some in game currency. I would pay for levels and expansions... real content. Having to pay just for a chance at moving on... sorry, got better things to do.

For what it's worth, Apple is trying to do just this. They have an entire curated collection called Pay Once & Play, which promotes games with no IAPs,

However there's only so much they can do, since taking away IAPs entirely would be suicidal. Any transition needs to be undertaken willingly by game publishers.

Apple has extensive Metal documentation and code samples here https://developer.apple.com/me...

I am pretty happy with Airmail on Mac and Gmail on Android. Clean UI, OS-integrated notifications, fast search, no issues with huge mailboxes.

But if you are looking for Linux/open source, Evolution and Kmail seems to be the only serious alternative to Thunderbird. People are moving away from e-mail to other channels of communication like chat and social, and most are satisfied with webmail for remaining use. So, without commercial incentives, only major desktop environments maintain an e-mail client for completeness sake.

Is it possible to test on Safari without buying a $499 Safari license? And if you're testing on Safari, is it also possible to test on Edge without paying another $199.99 for an Edge license?

Maybe not completely relevant,but pretty ridiculous: https://discussions.apple.com/... and it does involve apple kind of but not quite following a standard.

Ian

Macs

Dell Ubuntu

I imagine more options will start appearing soon enough, at least for Linux/BSD given the nonsense MS is pulling with Win10.

Sure why not (fyi: that's simply the first 3 Google hits).

Yes, there's a lot that's not "open" in iSomething land. But at least they understand open source, and work with a variety of open source projects (well okay... as long as it helps their business ;-).

Sure why not (fyi: that's simply the first 3 Google hits).

Yes, there's a lot that's not "open" in iSomething land. But at least they understand open source, and work with a variety of open source projects (well okay... as long as it helps their business ;-).

Sure why not (fyi: that's simply the first 3 Google hits).

Yes, there's a lot that's not "open" in iSomething land. But at least they understand open source, and work with a variety of open source projects (well okay... as long as it helps their business ;-).

It's not. That's why you don't run consumer-grade Apple or Microsoft for mission-critical applications where "surprises" are not in the plan. And if you don't run it on the real stuff, why does your personal box need to be subjected to the same nonsense?

Or, like with Windows, you simply turn OFF the Auto Updates in OS X in App Store Preferences. In fact, the control is somewhat more fine-grained than in Windows.

Dude "Built-in 27.3-watt-hour rechargeable lithium-polymer battery" http://www.apple.com/au/ipad-a... [apple.com], the only way they will last five years is if you do not use them, the more you use them the quicker they will die.

You're so full of it it isn't even funny.

I have had an iPad 2 for at least 3 years. It gets used HEAVILY every single day. In fact, there probably isn't a day in which it gets LESS than 8 to 10 hours of use.

I have seen absolutely NO degradation in battery life, nor increase in charging time, during all that time, period. I am sure that it MIGHT have lost maybe, MAYBE 10% of its capacity; but honestly, I'd pretty much have to take a stopwatch to it to tell. On the weekends, when it gets used morning to night, it easily makes it all the way through a day/evening/night cycle, and still has about 25% left.

Honestly, it has exhibited the best "retention of battery-life" of any rechargeable device I have ever owned, hands-down.