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I started with the ][+ and had all that stuff. I think it got fp basic by adding a card. The main difference, so far as I ever new, was that accidentally bumping the reset key wouldn't reset you. A friend who bought before the + came out had a lot of problem with that.

Bzzzt! Thanks for playing! The main difference between the original Apple ][ and the ][+ was Applesoft (floating point) BASIC ON BOARD . That's what the "plus" was about. If you had a Floating Point card (with the little red plastic switch sticking out the back) you DIDN'T have a ][+. You had a ][ with a "Language Card".

Oh, and there was a little trick with an O-Ring under the Reset Key that would fix that annoying little habit, by making the Reset key hard-as-hell to push. I believe the "Control-Reset Mod" was actually applied BEFORE the ][+ came out (but I might be remembering when it was still a "hardware hack", like 7-color HIRES graphics). Both were later incorporated into the product.

Back to the original point, though: I am pretty sure that my Apple ][+ did NOT have the mini-assembler, FP routines, nor Sweet 16 in ROM.

WOW! Talk about Tech support!!! APPLE still lists the RELOCATED Mini-assembler (which ran in RAM) for the ][+ On their SUPPORT SITE!!! So, not only does that answer the question (no need for a RAM based mini-assembler if there was one in ROM, right?); but it also shows that APPLE SUPPORT ROCKS!!! Name ONE other company that archives support articles from 1979!!!

What makes you think there is a place anywhere that can do the repairs? Look carefully at the iPad "battery replacement" service, and it becomes clear you're not getting your unit repaired--it's being swapped for another one. It's questionable whether any units really are repaired there.

Since Apple has a history of not paying dividends

Apple has a *RECENT* history of not paying dividends.

http://investor.apple.com/dividends.cfm

QR Code containing VCard on the back. Tada, became relevant and useful again.

I prefer to have the QR code on the *front*. Ditch some of the fluffy artwork and put the QR code with vcard info on the front with the traditional text contact info. The resolution of somewhat recent cell phone cameras can handle a 1x1 inch vcard QR code. The 3MP camera in an old iPhone 3GS works just fine with this size. The iPhone 4 has a 5MP and the 4S an 8MP camera. I expect comparable cameras on older and more recent Android devices.

Use the back for other QR codes, for example links to product info or online store purchase pages. I find that a 3/4x3/4 inch QR code can offer a link to the iTunes store that is readable on the old iPhone 3GS. I do so on promotional versions of my business card where I know I will be focusing on a particular product.

Given the wide capabilities of QR codes I'm sure various individuals will find good uses for distinct QR codes on both sides of a card.

Also, the premise of the summary is mistaken. Business cards are not obsolete, they are just used differently. A stack in a shoe box is a waste. However a common modern practice by some is to accept the paper card, scan the QR code at that moment with a phone, and to hand back the paper card while saying thank you. I find doing so is sometimes faster than getting bump to work. Plus you have the extra capability of secondary QR codes.

Underage workers were also only rumors.

Apple's own audits show (PDF) the company has caught underage workers at a handful of its suppliers.

So Apple's bill of materials went up 6% expressed as a fraction of selling price. That translates to roughly $38 extra cost against Apple's gross margin of $319. That is 12% profit decrease. So Apple needs a 12% increase in volume just to stay flat. And with Apple's stratospheric stock price, breaking even is nowhere near good enough. See what I mean? This is already heading in the direction of Apple as a shrink stock, even faster than I expected.

Let's see:

3Q 2010 - 3.27 million sold.
4Q 2010 - 4.19 million sold. (28% increase)
1Q 2011 - 7.33 million sold. (75% increase)
2Q 2011 - 4.69 million sold. (64% decrease)
3Q 2011 - 9.25 million sold. (97% increase quarter over quarter, 182% year over year))
4Q 2011 - 11.12 million sold. (20% increase quarter over quarter, 165% year over year)
1Q 2012 - 15.43 million sold. (39% increase quarter over quarter, 111% year over year)

With 2Q 2011 widely attributed to supply chain issues (a problem they rarely have), I suspect they may cover your 12% increase. A casual glance at the 2-3 week backorder delay on new orders of iPads, it would seem the continuation of tens of millions of iPads being made, can't make them fast enough is continuing.

The iPod scaled similarly, with huge gains. Once it saturated the market, it began to decrease, but by then, replacement products were already on a meteoric rise, specifically the iPhone and iPad.

I think the market for tablets is neither saturated, nor is the iPad the last product Apple thinks it will ever have to produce. I'm sure their people are already working on concepts for future products. All throughout this, the Mac laptop business has been steadily increasing as well.

Will their stock ever dip? Probably. Is it imminent? No, of course not.

So Apple's bill of materials went up 6% expressed as a fraction of selling price. That translates to roughly $38 extra cost against Apple's gross margin of $319. That is 12% profit decrease. So Apple needs a 12% increase in volume just to stay flat. And with Apple's stratospheric stock price, breaking even is nowhere near good enough. See what I mean? This is already heading in the direction of Apple as a shrink stock, even faster than I expected.

Let's see:

3Q 2010 - 3.27 million sold.
4Q 2010 - 4.19 million sold. (28% increase)
1Q 2011 - 7.33 million sold. (75% increase)
2Q 2011 - 4.69 million sold. (64% decrease)
3Q 2011 - 9.25 million sold. (97% increase quarter over quarter, 182% year over year))
4Q 2011 - 11.12 million sold. (20% increase quarter over quarter, 165% year over year)
1Q 2012 - 15.43 million sold. (39% increase quarter over quarter, 111% year over year)

With 2Q 2011 widely attributed to supply chain issues (a problem they rarely have), I suspect they may cover your 12% increase. A casual glance at the 2-3 week backorder delay on new orders of iPads, it would seem the continuation of tens of millions of iPads being made, can't make them fast enough is continuing.

The iPod scaled similarly, with huge gains. Once it saturated the market, it began to decrease, but by then, replacement products were already on a meteoric rise, specifically the iPhone and iPad.

I think the market for tablets is neither saturated, nor is the iPad the last product Apple thinks it will ever have to produce. I'm sure their people are already working on concepts for future products. All throughout this, the Mac laptop business has been steadily increasing as well.

Will their stock ever dip? Probably. Is it imminent? No, of course not.

So Apple's bill of materials went up 6% expressed as a fraction of selling price. That translates to roughly $38 extra cost against Apple's gross margin of $319. That is 12% profit decrease. So Apple needs a 12% increase in volume just to stay flat. And with Apple's stratospheric stock price, breaking even is nowhere near good enough. See what I mean? This is already heading in the direction of Apple as a shrink stock, even faster than I expected.

Let's see:

3Q 2010 - 3.27 million sold.
4Q 2010 - 4.19 million sold. (28% increase)
1Q 2011 - 7.33 million sold. (75% increase)
2Q 2011 - 4.69 million sold. (64% decrease)
3Q 2011 - 9.25 million sold. (97% increase quarter over quarter, 182% year over year))
4Q 2011 - 11.12 million sold. (20% increase quarter over quarter, 165% year over year)
1Q 2012 - 15.43 million sold. (39% increase quarter over quarter, 111% year over year)

With 2Q 2011 widely attributed to supply chain issues (a problem they rarely have), I suspect they may cover your 12% increase. A casual glance at the 2-3 week backorder delay on new orders of iPads, it would seem the continuation of tens of millions of iPads being made, can't make them fast enough is continuing.

The iPod scaled similarly, with huge gains. Once it saturated the market, it began to decrease, but by then, replacement products were already on a meteoric rise, specifically the iPhone and iPad.

I think the market for tablets is neither saturated, nor is the iPad the last product Apple thinks it will ever have to produce. I'm sure their people are already working on concepts for future products. All throughout this, the Mac laptop business has been steadily increasing as well.

Will their stock ever dip? Probably. Is it imminent? No, of course not.

So Apple's bill of materials went up 6% expressed as a fraction of selling price. That translates to roughly $38 extra cost against Apple's gross margin of $319. That is 12% profit decrease. So Apple needs a 12% increase in volume just to stay flat. And with Apple's stratospheric stock price, breaking even is nowhere near good enough. See what I mean? This is already heading in the direction of Apple as a shrink stock, even faster than I expected.

Let's see:

3Q 2010 - 3.27 million sold.
4Q 2010 - 4.19 million sold. (28% increase)
1Q 2011 - 7.33 million sold. (75% increase)
2Q 2011 - 4.69 million sold. (64% decrease)
3Q 2011 - 9.25 million sold. (97% increase quarter over quarter, 182% year over year))
4Q 2011 - 11.12 million sold. (20% increase quarter over quarter, 165% year over year)
1Q 2012 - 15.43 million sold. (39% increase quarter over quarter, 111% year over year)

With 2Q 2011 widely attributed to supply chain issues (a problem they rarely have), I suspect they may cover your 12% increase. A casual glance at the 2-3 week backorder delay on new orders of iPads, it would seem the continuation of tens of millions of iPads being made, can't make them fast enough is continuing.

The iPod scaled similarly, with huge gains. Once it saturated the market, it began to decrease, but by then, replacement products were already on a meteoric rise, specifically the iPhone and iPad.

I think the market for tablets is neither saturated, nor is the iPad the last product Apple thinks it will ever have to produce. I'm sure their people are already working on concepts for future products. All throughout this, the Mac laptop business has been steadily increasing as well.

Will their stock ever dip? Probably. Is it imminent? No, of course not.

So Apple's bill of materials went up 6% expressed as a fraction of selling price. That translates to roughly $38 extra cost against Apple's gross margin of $319. That is 12% profit decrease. So Apple needs a 12% increase in volume just to stay flat. And with Apple's stratospheric stock price, breaking even is nowhere near good enough. See what I mean? This is already heading in the direction of Apple as a shrink stock, even faster than I expected.

Let's see:

3Q 2010 - 3.27 million sold.
4Q 2010 - 4.19 million sold. (28% increase)
1Q 2011 - 7.33 million sold. (75% increase)
2Q 2011 - 4.69 million sold. (64% decrease)
3Q 2011 - 9.25 million sold. (97% increase quarter over quarter, 182% year over year))
4Q 2011 - 11.12 million sold. (20% increase quarter over quarter, 165% year over year)
1Q 2012 - 15.43 million sold. (39% increase quarter over quarter, 111% year over year)

With 2Q 2011 widely attributed to supply chain issues (a problem they rarely have), I suspect they may cover your 12% increase. A casual glance at the 2-3 week backorder delay on new orders of iPads, it would seem the continuation of tens of millions of iPads being made, can't make them fast enough is continuing.

The iPod scaled similarly, with huge gains. Once it saturated the market, it began to decrease, but by then, replacement products were already on a meteoric rise, specifically the iPhone and iPad.

I think the market for tablets is neither saturated, nor is the iPad the last product Apple thinks it will ever have to produce. I'm sure their people are already working on concepts for future products. All throughout this, the Mac laptop business has been steadily increasing as well.

Will their stock ever dip? Probably. Is it imminent? No, of course not.

So Apple's bill of materials went up 6% expressed as a fraction of selling price. That translates to roughly $38 extra cost against Apple's gross margin of $319. That is 12% profit decrease. So Apple needs a 12% increase in volume just to stay flat. And with Apple's stratospheric stock price, breaking even is nowhere near good enough. See what I mean? This is already heading in the direction of Apple as a shrink stock, even faster than I expected.

Let's see:

3Q 2010 - 3.27 million sold.
4Q 2010 - 4.19 million sold. (28% increase)
1Q 2011 - 7.33 million sold. (75% increase)
2Q 2011 - 4.69 million sold. (64% decrease)
3Q 2011 - 9.25 million sold. (97% increase quarter over quarter, 182% year over year))
4Q 2011 - 11.12 million sold. (20% increase quarter over quarter, 165% year over year)
1Q 2012 - 15.43 million sold. (39% increase quarter over quarter, 111% year over year)

With 2Q 2011 widely attributed to supply chain issues (a problem they rarely have), I suspect they may cover your 12% increase. A casual glance at the 2-3 week backorder delay on new orders of iPads, it would seem the continuation of tens of millions of iPads being made, can't make them fast enough is continuing.

The iPod scaled similarly, with huge gains. Once it saturated the market, it began to decrease, but by then, replacement products were already on a meteoric rise, specifically the iPhone and iPad.

I think the market for tablets is neither saturated, nor is the iPad the last product Apple thinks it will ever have to produce. I'm sure their people are already working on concepts for future products. All throughout this, the Mac laptop business has been steadily increasing as well.

Will their stock ever dip? Probably. Is it imminent? No, of course not.

So Apple's bill of materials went up 6% expressed as a fraction of selling price. That translates to roughly $38 extra cost against Apple's gross margin of $319. That is 12% profit decrease. So Apple needs a 12% increase in volume just to stay flat. And with Apple's stratospheric stock price, breaking even is nowhere near good enough. See what I mean? This is already heading in the direction of Apple as a shrink stock, even faster than I expected.

Let's see:

3Q 2010 - 3.27 million sold.
4Q 2010 - 4.19 million sold. (28% increase)
1Q 2011 - 7.33 million sold. (75% increase)
2Q 2011 - 4.69 million sold. (64% decrease)
3Q 2011 - 9.25 million sold. (97% increase quarter over quarter, 182% year over year))
4Q 2011 - 11.12 million sold. (20% increase quarter over quarter, 165% year over year)
1Q 2012 - 15.43 million sold. (39% increase quarter over quarter, 111% year over year)

With 2Q 2011 widely attributed to supply chain issues (a problem they rarely have), I suspect they may cover your 12% increase. A casual glance at the 2-3 week backorder delay on new orders of iPads, it would seem the continuation of tens of millions of iPads being made, can't make them fast enough is continuing.

The iPod scaled similarly, with huge gains. Once it saturated the market, it began to decrease, but by then, replacement products were already on a meteoric rise, specifically the iPhone and iPad.

I think the market for tablets is neither saturated, nor is the iPad the last product Apple thinks it will ever have to produce. I'm sure their people are already working on concepts for future products. All throughout this, the Mac laptop business has been steadily increasing as well.

Will their stock ever dip? Probably. Is it imminent? No, of course not.

Go ahead, try and write a thesis on your iPad.

There's an app for that (at least if you're in math).

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tex-touch/id377627321?mt=8

Myst in on some phones:

Myst on iOS

Cyan has another title on Android, so maybe they're gearing up for that too.

I just surf to my collection of 720p DVD handbrake rips and play.

And that's another example of why you still need a computer, you can't create handbrake rips on your ipad.

My Infrant NAS shoots the video_TS data to my mac running VLC, the mac figures out how to play it and VLC streamer pulls the transcoded video from VLC.)

Well that involves having a Mac.

2. What do you have to sync with itunes to run VLC exactly? I don't know or understand exactly what you are meaning and am curious. Please explain if you have the time.

With apps in itunes you can add files to apps that support it, in the 'Apps' tab of your device, at the bottom there is a 'File Sharing' option which will show you all the apps that support adding files to them, you can then choose the app and select a bunch of files to add to it.

Firstly, how many movies does one need to take on a trip? And can't you stream something? There is so much media to stream using the iPad. Most of my handbrake movies only take a gig and if I want to carry a few movies with me I would load them strait on the iPad and not lug around an extra drive. But I digress....

I do a lot of international business trips, which means lots of hotels and flights and plenty of downtime. I take my macbook air instead of my ipad because i can just plug a USB drive with all my movies in, i don't have to pick and choose which ones i want before i leave, i can take them all.

Once again I don't have experience as far as movies and documents on USB. I would agree a person should be able to load a disk with movies and whatever else they might need. It is a pain that this can't be done without jailbreaking.

Fair enough.

It wasn't my point to say that there aren't limitations, but rather that I haven't really found much that for me personally is hard to navigate in my day to day use of the iPad. My personal use to this point has not been impinged upon much by the limitations of the iPad, and I suspect that most of the average users don't have much of a problem in their day to day use either.

A lot of people run into annoyances such as these, of course it's not that they can't be overcome, it's just that the limitations make an otherwise trivial task a real pain. But then again I gave my mum an ipad and for her uses it's fine, she uses the camera connection kit to get photos on there and aside from the net and reading she doesn't have that much use for a computer so an ipad suits her fine.

I also believe that all such limiting issues as you laid out so well, will eventually be non-issues in the near future and are mostly non-issues currently if you are willing to jailbreak.

Hopefully, because the ios5 untethered jailbreak took a few months to come out, which is annoying if you have to choose between new OS features and having the jailbreak.

For me and my experience so far, the iPad does work well for what I have needed it for. Once I bump into more issues I may become more perturbed, but I haven't yet.

Each to their own, it all depends on your uses i suppose.

6. Here are a couple things I found on deleting all of the camera roll photos. Yep you are definitely right to be annoyed.... they really need a "Delete All" option or an easy way to select large chunks of photos and videos for deletion.

It's a simple thing, something that would be a non-issue without the limitations placed on the device. You're right, it's a tedious task that can't be easily accomplished without a PC.

7. Here is a way to delete videos (video app) without iTunes: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2393960?start=0&tstart=0

Sorry i probably wasn't very clear

I suspect this problem will go away with successive generations and with more jailbroken apps that add the functionality folks desire. I was pleased to be able to stream my video_TS DVD's from my Infrant ReadyNAS.

Whether it's a PC or a NAS that has the capability to do the heavy lifting doesn't really matter, it's another device to do the transcoding. I use a netgear readynas and that supports transcoding.

I have to use VLC streamer, but it does work. It is only a matter of time before VLC runs natively on Jailbroken iOS devices and then I won't need VLC Streamer.

There was (is?) VLC on iOS devices, but you still had to sync through itunes.

iFile from Cydia App Store allows you to upload and download files... no need for itunes. I'm sure there are others apps for most everything you want to do.

Before you were saying you didn't need to hack anything, now you're talking about jailbreaking, which is a far cry from 'just works'.

I don't really spend much time plugging drives and such into my machines anymore. Almost everything I do is now over the network on Wireless-N devices. My photos and videos can be piped to my iPad using my EyeFi SD Card.

That's great until you're not at your home network, or any trusted network for that matter.

You don't need a PC if you have the camera connection kit for $29 bucks. USB adapter and SD card adapter. http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC531ZM/A

Yes you do, because that's only to sync photos and videos (of a narrow set of specific formats) with your ipad, if you don't have enough internal storage to copy them over then you're boned and it doesn't work for other kinds of data. If i have a bunch of HD movies on a usb drive - because they don't fit on the device - that i want to take with me to say watch on the plane or in the hotel or whatever i can't do that with an ipad. Or if someone has given me documents on a usb stick? Again no go.

Yes... the iPad in its current form has some limitations which is why certain people need to jailbreak.

Which is what the GGP meant about hacking.

I think you may find jailbreaking your machine useful and then perhaps you could do more of the kinds of things you want right now. But if you don't want to there are lots of current options and more arriving all the time to help with the kinds of things you are describing.

Well i still haven't found a way to delete all of the camera roll photos or filter and delete videos or open files directly from USB, pretty sure that last one isn't even doable with a jailbreak.

You might check around though for each of the issues you seem to be having, you may be surprised by what you find.

That's what i've done, no-go.

I would say the extra GPU power is required just to maintain the same level of performance. When you have 4x the amount of pixels you naturally look to 4x the power to drive them.

Perhaps although I think the graphics on the iPad 2 seem rather snappy. Rather snappy at 4x the resolution would be phenomenal. I suspect that the new iPad will seem to play 3-D games better than my current mac mini does and that would be rather nice. The resolution is already bigger than my current monitor and I suspect that the frame rates will be not bad. I definitely don't expect them to be bleeding edge in any spec, but it is likely that it will make for a rather nice gaming device with airplay and a bluetooth controller. Just pipe the source to an HDTV or something and game away in HD. Could be very nice and for the kids it would make a really nice console game machine. And with each yearly generation the specs will improve too. How many upgrades has the PS3 had in the past 4 or so years?

Well i own one and the problem is that it is limited by content formats and size, i can't just plug in external storage and use it, i have to access non-local content through itunes running on another computer, and even then sometimes i need to run another media server to transcode content because the ipad can't play it.

I suspect this problem will go away with successive generations and with more jailbroken apps that add the functionality folks desire. I was pleased to be able to stream my video_TS DVD's from my Infrant ReadyNAS. I have to use VLC streamer, but it does work. It is only a matter of time before VLC runs natively on Jailbroken iOS devices and then I won't need VLC Streamer.

I hear the Netportal app will let you access network drives directly without need for any other computer. It will also allow you to stream music and such directly from the drive without iTunes or a computer.

iFile from Cydia App Store allows you to upload and download files... no need for itunes. I'm sure there are others apps for most everything you want to do.

I don't really spend much time plugging drives and such into my machines anymore. Almost everything I do is now over the network on Wireless-N devices. My photos and videos can be piped to my iPad using my EyeFi SD Card.
I don't see much of a wired world in the near future. (I know it is not as fast as wired currently is, but it is getting there rather quickly)

if i have data on a USB stick, say a video i've been given or a bunch of photos or a document, how do i get that on the ipad? Not exactly easy, i need a PC to do it.

You don't need a PC if you have the camera connection kit for $29 bucks. USB adapter and SD card adapter.
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC531ZM/A

There's also a bunch of niggling annoyances that would be trivial to overcome if not for the locked-down nature of the device, for example deleting all photos in the camera roll, you either need to sync it to a PC and then deselect them and sync it back or delete them one-by-one...which is annoying when you have hundreds. Or how do you delete the videos you've taken? You can't filter the camera roll by video/photo so you have to scroll through the whole roll looking for the video icons.

Yes... the iPad in its current form has some limitations which is why certain people need to jailbreak. Shouldn't have to, but I think perhaps most of this will iron itself out over time. I'm wondering if the camera/photo/video management will be different with the coming of iPhoto for the iPad. It seems as though the more big apps that make it to the device, the more capabilities it seems to be inheriting.

There are perhaps a lot of photo management apps available which can do the kinds of things you would want to do. Just poke around a bit.

I think you may find jailbreaking your machine useful and the

The second half of that wish has already been fulfilled: http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/remote/id284417350?mt=8

Now we're just waiting for the Apps. Not like I can't Airplay from Plex on my iPod, but native Plex on my Apple TV would be nice too.

Here

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-Galaxy-10-1-WiFi-Black/dp/B005FFQ5X6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1331419863&sr=8-1 http://store.apple.com/uk/browse/home/shop_ipad/family/ipad Looks like anyone who can afford a Galaxy Tab can afford an iPad to me.

I'm little sad they have no real engineering/development in Austin, but they seem to like keeping all of their people working on the same product in the same offices. Spreading an engineering force globally can cause communication issues, so they seem to avoid it.

You don't seem to be searching right... The team working on ARM-based ASICs going into iPads and iPhones is in Austin. Here's an example posting.

Apple is based in North Austin (see satellite map of the campus). It's currently 4 buildings and they have room to add more building right in that area. They currently employ around 3500 people in their Austin corporate office (at least from the press releases I saw). If you poke around Apple's jobs website you'll find around 64 open positions in the Austin office, mainly around support and sales. Their only engineering type roles have to do working with their suppliers in Austin (Samsung, Intel, AMD, FreeScale, and IBM all have offices down here).

I'm little sad they have no real engineering/development in Austin, but they seem to like keeping all of their people working on the same product in the same offices. Spreading an engineering force globally can cause communication issues, so they seem to avoid it.

well, you don't "have" to use the included remote.. if you have an iphone/ipad/ipod touch. the remote app (free from apple) gives you a touch screen and keyboard for ATV (via WiFi)... you can even control itunes on the desktop with the same app. all your devices need to be logged in to itunes. when you launch the app, it asks what you want to control and finds all the ATV's and Macs (w/ itunes running) on the network. http://www.apple.com/itunes/remote/

and this summer with Mountain Lion, you will be able to airplay from your desktop/laptop which of course have keyboards and mice/trackpads.

On the Apple Website, a contract-free (although not carrier- unlocked) 8GB iPhone 3GS is priced at $375. [apple.com]

Indeed, it is carrier-unlocked. My mistake!

On the Apple Website, a contract-free (although not carrier- unlocked) 8GB iPhone 3GS is priced at $375.

A 8GB iPod Touch 4G is priced at $199.

The entire iPhone 3GS carries a Bill of Materials and manufacturing costestimated at $178.96.

The iPod touch 4g has a better screen (960x640 px at 326 PPI vs 480x320 at 163 ppi) and and a faster processor (1GHz A8 vs 600MHz A8) than the iPhone 3GS. There is research online indicating that Apple generally prices its iDevices at double the cost of the BOM and manufacturing cost. That seems fair to me. They have an ungodly amount of R&D costs for that great iOS software, hundred of millions in marketing, the cost of the iStores with the 50 blue-shirted employees -- it's expensive. But...is it realistic to suggest that the iPod Touch 4G that has a better screen, faster processor, and more RAM than the 3GS has a BOM and assembly cost of $78.96 less?

I find it hard to believe that the cost of a cellular modem, ear piece, microphone, and larger battery accounts for that $78.96? I don't think so...

On the Apple Website, a contract-free (although not carrier- unlocked) 8GB iPhone 3GS is priced at $375.

A 8GB iPod Touch 4G is priced at $199.

The entire iPhone 3GS carries a Bill of Materials and manufacturing costestimated at $178.96.

The iPod touch 4g has a better screen (960x640 px at 326 PPI vs 480x320 at 163 ppi) and and a faster processor (1GHz A8 vs 600MHz A8) than the iPhone 3GS. There is research online indicating that Apple generally prices its iDevices at double the cost of the BOM and manufacturing cost. That seems fair to me. They have an ungodly amount of R&D costs for that great iOS software, hundred of millions in marketing, the cost of the iStores with the 50 blue-shirted employees -- it's expensive. But...is it realistic to suggest that the iPod Touch 4G that has a better screen, faster processor, and more RAM than the 3GS has a BOM and assembly cost of $78.96 less?

I find it hard to believe that the cost of a cellular modem, ear piece, microphone, and larger battery accounts for that $78.96? I don't think so...

This would probably get you more exposure, for a LOT less money, than any publisher.

http://www.apple.com/itunes/content-providers/book-faq.html
http://www.apple.com/ibooks-author/

This would probably get you more exposure, for a LOT less money, than any publisher.

http://www.apple.com/itunes/content-providers/book-faq.html
http://www.apple.com/ibooks-author/

it would not be a total surprise to learn that they are planning on using their comparatively pervasive handsets in order to produce their own traffic data..

Apple has been transparent about this.

See question 8 here: https://www.apple.com/pr/library/2011/04/27Apple-Q-A-on-Location-Data.html

Apple is now collecting anonymous traffic data to build a crowd-sourced traffic database with the goal of providing iPhone users an improved traffic service in the next couple of years.

My iPhone also has a setting to enable or disable collection of this traffic data. I have it disabled :)

If you look at http://www.apple.com/ipad/specs/ there's a photo of the back. It's just called, "iPad".

It is NOT the iPad 3. It is simply "The new iPad" I guess, eventually, it'll be just "the iPad", which is still weird: iPad, iPad 2... iPad again. So, what will the next be--"iPad 2" again? 2^2? 3? 4?

To all appearances, it's being called The New iPad.

And people thought a software version that had the year embedded in the title was a bad idea...

This is exactly what everyone predicted, and I'm fine with that. I'm just a hair disappointed that the front camera is still VGA. Even if FaceTime is bandwidth-limited or someting, it'd be nice to take pictures of, say, yourself and your kids in greater than 0.3MP.

Oh, and the name--iPad, iPad 2, The new iPad. :-( Reminds me of my file versioning system: index.html, index-old.html, index-new.html, index-newer.html, index-newest.html, index-final.html, index-absolutely-final.html, index-final-i-swear-to-god-i-mean-it-this-time.html...

The mouse hovering over a tab means the tab is likely to be the next one activated.

Decoding images for a tab can easily take hundreds of milliseconds.

And there's a way to work around that: store a screenshot of the last view for each tab, and have that screenshot fade to the actual view once the relevant images have been loaded to be rendered.

Or in inactive tabs, you keep the images that are currently scrolled onto the view and purge the rest.

Some browsers do that; it leads to flicker when scrolling.

Then decode any images that overlap the area one screen above and below the current scroll position. That'll handle most scrolling (mouse wheel and PageUp/PageDown). If the mouse pointer stops over the middle of the scroll bar, decode even more images.

at the cost of worse responsiveness and performance

Which is why a GUI program can employ tricks to fake responsiveness. I've read that a lot of iOS applications, for example, save a screenshot of the last view when they are closed and display this static screen during loading the next time they are started.

And of course they _can_ be applied when you think you might be swapping. If you can detect that reliably; that's _hard_ to do, actually.

Yes, it's a deficiency in some operating systems that they don't allow applications to mark blocks of memory as purgeable. Mac OS 1 through 9 had "purgeable handles", or memory that the operating system could deallocate at any time should the system become memory pressured. This appears to have been missing from Mac OS X 10.0 through 10.5, but Mac OS X 10.6 and later once again provide NSCache and NSPurgeableData. Decompressed images in least recently used tabs would thus be marked as purgeable.

Firstly, it's cool and all that you built your own boxes... that's a great way to go if you can (ie you have the time and expertise to support the group when things go wrong) but it isn't really relevant to the discussion about the price of OEM workstations (that come with warranties and support, etc). Your group might not need that stuff, but for people that do, building it yourself isn't an option. Not to dog on you or anything... just that different groups have different needs.

Ok... with that out of the way... I'm _not_ off base on the price.

Go here:

http://boxxtech.com/products/3DBOXX/8550.asp?prodid=8550

Click "Configure a Boxx System"... put in your email.

Select the "WS DUAL XEON X5650 2.66GHz, 12MB cache, 1333 MHz, 6.4 GT/s QPI (Six-Core) " processor (because that's what the starting Dual-core Mac Pro has in it).

Click Update Total: $6,659.00

Now go here: http://store.apple.com/us/configure/Z0M4?

Select 12GB of RAM. Total: $5,449.00

Now. There are some inequities (graphics cards aren't the same, better HD in the Boxx workstation, etc).... but it's pretty clear that Apple isn't "Overpriced".

Why do we have to keep discussing this every single damn time Mac Pros are brought up???

If you don't want to assemble your own workstations and you really do need WORKSTATION class components... a Mac Pro is a great workstation and falls in line with all the other high-end workstations on the market in terms of price.

there's an app for that - several apps actually, here's one
http://itunes.apple.com/app/iamaman/id298727312?mt=8

Don't forget animated and/or interactive "books" like this ones to the list of better-in-tablet books.

Being meant for a media so easy to distract you will call for a do-not-disturb background app/mode, in fact, wonder if some of the book reading apps don't have a setting to disable all distractions... trying to watch a movie and getting a notification will do similar harm as reading books.

except Darwin

Oops.

KHTML^H^H^H^H^H^Hsafari

Pretty funny considering Apple has done all the webkit performance improvements KHTML is riding on. And of course, webkit is totally open source...

I will let you have the last response since ignorant people always feel the need to prove ignorance further...

Read up:
http://images.apple.com/itunes/mastered-for-itunes/docs/mastered_for_itunes.pdf

You sound like an idiot to people who understand the issue.

I only halfway understand the issue, and he sounds like an idiot to me, FWIW.

Using RHCP records as a basis for comparison is a terrible example; everything they've brought out since One Hot Minute has been overcompressed to death at multiple stages in production (Californication is even cited as a specific example of a crappily mastered record in the Wiki article).

Shortly after reading this article on ars I went to check it out for myself. Yes, technically they are still "just" 256k VBR AAC files just like other stuff in the iTunes Store. But if the engineer doing the mastering has busted his/her ass to play the cat & mouse cycle of re-tweaking the dynamics after listening to the encoded result a few times, the results are extremely surprising.

If you've got a good stereo or a nice pair of headphones, go listen to a normal CD version of Jimmy Smith's "The Cat" ripped at 256k VBR AAC, and then listen to the "mastered for iTunes" version. I had no idea lossily compressed audio from 40+ year old analog master tapes could sound that good.

Read up:
http://images.apple.com/itunes/mastered-for-itunes/docs/mastered_for_itunes.pdf

You sound like an idiot to people who understand the issue.

It's interesting that this sudden focus on compressed music as opposed to uncompressed (iTunes Plus) has cropped up so soon after Steve's demise. IIRC, Steve was a music nut and was always pushing for DRM-free, higher fidelity digital downloads through iTunes. My foil-hat says that this might be an attempt to sell shitty quality music at a higher price. However, it could also ease network burden when streaming audio on the go. That said, one should still have access to high quality, uncompressed music for when you want to pump up the volume on your home system.

Why yes, you can. http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_iphone/family/iphone/iphone4s Look below the carriers to "Or get iPhone unlocked and contract-free" They would only work on GSM networks, but still. Before saying something like that you might wanna go to Apple's store and search "unlocked iphone," it is right there.

You are allowed to compete with Apple's own apps on functionality. What you're not allowed to do is to copy the UI of one of Apple's Apps. That's the reason Evi have been asked to change. Because the UI is too much of a Siri copy.

Yes because only Apple is allowed to shamelessly copy other's work

The app in question is in the Mac App Store, so the developer has explicitly accepted the same agreement as I have stating that Apple is free to do these things.

and apple will have a hard time selling itv in the uk. If they where to name there apple tv Itv.

So it's a good job that Apple haven't even confirmed that they are making a TV, let alone what it will be called.

Also, the newspaper claim that ITV had contacted Apple to warn them off has been disputed - although I believe it was briefly an issue some years ago when the Apple TV STB was first announced.

Disregarding all that, yes, iTV would be a spectacularly bad name to use in the UK - even legally - because its a household name that has been associated with the second largest TV channel since the 1950s even though the current company is fairly recent. They have already ventured into IPTV with their "ITV Player" service (there's an App for that). Also, if you read the Wikipedia article on ITV you'll see that the "ownership" of the name ITV is far from simple, and acquiring it would be a can of worms (quite probably involving the UK government).

Oh, and since ITV Studios sell shows worldwide, its a fair bet that the trademark is registered in other countries, too.

All that is rather a far cry from buying the trademark rights to the name of a specific, obscure (or possibly discontinued) product.

Plus, most people could eat a can of Alphabetti Spaghetti and puke a better name for a premium-priced television set.

I haven't read TFA, but if the summary is anything like right, then they are dead wrong. From very recently,

http://www.apple.com/education/ibooks-textbooks/
http://www.pottermore.com/

And more people are reading more than ever before using hypertext - fiction, fact, opinion - every kind of literature you can think of. I think it's called the web, or something.

Sure, there's a market for such things, but it's not going to be in the board room, sensitive as business is regarding Harrassment claims.

It's better that they be upfront about it, so that this stuff can be properly filtered out, than to do like Apple and still allow soft porn/adult content without labeling it as such.

In response to the underhanded update, users take to the ratings system with a vengeance and downmod the developer into oblivion. Thus, the app ecosystem sees shady behavior as 'damage' and 'routes' around it.

Citation please?

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/touch-racing/id363548886?mt=8
Ratings on left side, comments are at the bottom.

Here are the last two comments:

Paid money and now have to spend more:(
by Bob1274

Was on offroad tournament for free with no adds and could get supertrax for free. Now I have to pay more money
===
You call this update??
by menRfromMars

Seriously very disappointing after this update... Ads and have to pay for what was free in first edition.....Sadly saying goodbye!!!!

600 MB CD-ROM then, 45 GB BluRay now (only two orders)

Not a fair comparison. CD-ROM was just breaking the ground back then. BlueRay is on the way out today. I am probably being a little subjective, but look at the highest high end consumer desktop. Do you see BlueRay? It was first shipped in mid-June 2006 and still has very limited adoption due to being laden with DRM so badly, even Apple refused to install them, and for Linux devices it is simply not an option. This is what marketing would call a "flopped" product.

Also, there is a rapidly decreasing need to purchase software/entertainment on a physical media, as online streaming is so much faster and cheaper. Just put a 32 Gb flash drive in your comparison and call it a day.

Apps are written in Python. There are currently about 250 now. I was shocked when I saw a friend's AppleTV... there was no web browser - stay in the garden children.

True, if you use the simple -out-of-the-box- minimal remote that comes with the device.
But if you use your iPhone/iPad/iPad Touch as a WiFi remote (with the free Remote app from Apple), you have a really sweet remote that also does mirroring via Airplay. Anything visible on the screen of the i-Device shows up on the TV.

I'm always surprised at how many I-Device owners had no idea that they could use their device as a remote control and display content on their TVs.
At family gatherings we just turn on the TV, fire up the AppleTV and then everyone pulls out their iPhones and shares photos.