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can you do photoshop on an iPhone

Yes....
Admittedly it's not fully featured, however it's also worth bearing in mind that the iPhone/iPad are more powerful devices than the SGI machines I used in the late 90's to create CG animation. It is a matter of time until your phone is 'good enough' to do everything you need. For a large section of the population, I imagine that time has already arrived. For the rest of us, we'll just have to wait another 5 years or so...

iFart, fart phone, Pull My Finger, Pro Edition, and many more.

'Nuff said?

iFart, fart phone, Pull My Finger, Pro Edition, and many more.

'Nuff said?

iFart, fart phone, Pull My Finger, Pro Edition, and many more.

'Nuff said?

The difference is that the IPhone/iPad/PS3 user made his own choice based on his own interests and considers his life improved.

So that's the only one that matters eh? Well I can say I've made my own choice based on my interest but that doesn't make painting with a broad brush accurate. Do you see businesses switching enmass to the superior ecosystem you've proposed? Example: Kohath shows up at work and needs to print on the office network. Kohath also needs to access files on the network. The office network is not wifi. Kohath is asked to create a report on the monthly sales figures (no google docs, no wifi remember!) and needs to enter in some of the contracts into the CRM. How are you doing data entry? (You need a docking station, extra cables, a keyboard and wifi!? Guess you can try and type it in via your phone, since you can type faster with two fingers than 10 right? Why are the other people done with theirs his boss wonders.)

The 3 devices aren't just a substitute for a PC, they're superior

Superior to whom though, and by what metrics? Certainly not cost and not to anyone who creates anything, only to those who consume. I'm not against these devices, however, claiming that they do what a "PC" does (and better!) is laughable, each of those devices are low resolution and functionally crippled by comparison. I'll spell it out for you: How do you compile anything for those devices using those devices? If you're making games for them how does the modelling, full motion video renders and editing, word processing work on the "superior" platform? You're attempting to convince me that having LESS superior? The only perk you have with two of those options is portability, hello, this is "solved" with laptops which are more entirely more functional than the keyboardless portable "solutions".

Kohath's Solution:
iPad2 ($499 US/ €479 DE)
iPhone 4 ($199-399 (US carrier subsidized rate, non-subsidized (see here under unlocked): iPhone 4: $599 for the 16GB, $699 for the 32GB iPhone 3GS: $499 for the 8GB.) €799 DE)
PS3 ($299 US, €239 DE) (unfairly priced as it is subsidized by game price
-------
$997+ tax (low end subsidized), $1397+tax on the lower end non subsidized (€1517 + VAT).
Factor in phone service fees (lets say $50/month with a limited dataplan).

Why list the unsubsidized rates? Because computers are not subsidized. Makers don't expect you to buy 10 games with your computer purchase. If you want to compare oranges to oranges you need to also factor this in.

Now you can almost do what you can with a laptop, except slower with less options and no ability to create or install your own software (you can't develop for any of these platforms using these platforms and are required to use the walled garden sources). You're also not factoring in how reliable these devices are and they have zero "upgrades" save for storage.
None of the devices you've listed realistically display higher than 720p. PS3 CAN do it, but shouldn't.

Seems like a hell of a deal!

And who gets them, and at what price? I refer you to the days of yore, when getting a development machine for a video game console cost a prohibitive amount of money.

Apple is making a killing on the thousands of small indie apps in the App Store. They would be unbelievably stupid if they raised the bar on that.

Here's an example: Apple killed Lexcycle's "Stanza" e-reader, which had USB syncing abilities and other features that had become very popular. Why? Because they have sweetheart deals with Barnes & Noble and Amazon to feature the Nook and Kindle apps instead.

I just checked, and the App Store page for Stanza not only says it's still around, but also that it was updated less than a month ago.
So whatever the point you're trying to make is, "Apple killed ..." is simply a flat-out lie.

If by "killed," you mean, "is still available and actively updated..." Stanza App

really?

The aforementioned iPod Touch has a neat remote wipe feature. You can go to apple's site, see exactly where your iPoe is on a map, remote lock it, send a message to the screen, and initiate a remote wipe of all your user data. It requires of course the thief be on wifi but I'm sure sooner rather than later they would have that online. Pretty neat for free.

http://www.apple.com/ipodtouch/built-in-apps/find-my-ipodtouch.html

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3398 says maybe!

Not likely, as iOS 4.0 hasn't been current for a year and a half now, and the article says the issue was fixed in 4.0.1.

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3398 says maybe!

apple.com

You lose, sucker.

No Contract iPhone 4 8GB $549
No Contract Galaxy SII 16GB $552.45

http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_iphone/family/iphone/iphone4
http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-i9100-Unlocked-Smartphone-Touchscreen/dp/B004QTBQ2C

People putting up with the lack of flash on iOS continue to amaze me.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-57321157-264/adobe-abandons-flash-plug-in-for-mobile-devices-report/

hmmm.... compare that to the iPad experience and you end up making a separate iPad version of your app

No, you make one app with resources for both. Developers choose to separate apps.

As a result I had full SSL VPN capability on my Android phone pretty much from the beginning while the feature is still lacking on iOS,

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1288

You see all the accessories as a good thing which I find strange.

Strangely that doesn't seem like a solution for my car or gym equipment,,,,,

Yes, HyperCard IIGS supports color. You can download it (and a lot of other older Apple software) at
http://www.info.apple.com/support/oldersoftwarelist.html.

Most of iOS is open source.

Except that since you can't get the source code to iOS (you can't build iOS) that makes it closed source.

He's still out there and still coding:
    http://itunes.apple.com/app/bill-atkinson-photocard/id333208430?mt=8

Apple develops the hardware, the OS, and the debugger - and it is all closed source.

Most of iOS is open source.

There could easily be something like CarrierIQ in the closed parts of iOS. However, it would not be useful to Apple unless it phoned home somehow, and that network activity is detectable whether or not the platform source is open.

Can you point out exactly what you think Google does that Apple does not? From Apple's Q&A on Location Data.

1) Apple gathers "crowd-sourced Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower data". To do this, your iPhone sends your location along with your Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower data (SSIDs, signal strength) to Apple. They do say that the request is anonymised so they have no way of figuring out who you are based on the request, but clearly they could just correlate the geo-tagged request with non-geo requests coming from your phone and figure out who you are.

2) Apple has an advertising system (iAds) that uses your location to send you targetted ads. Obviously this involves Apple knowing what your location is.

3) Apple provides application crash logs to third party developers. They say the logs are anonymous, but an app developer could easily include enough information to identify you (a username, IP address etc.).

4) Apple tracks you when you travel. They say it is anonymous, but again they could clearly figure out who you if they wanted to. ("Apple is now collecting anonymous traffic data to build a crowd-sourced traffic database.")

Apple's profit motive is not in the collecting of user information like Google's is, it's in the selling of devices.

iAds: "The iAd mobile advertising network is a significant revenue stream for developers and a powerful way for brands to reach millions of iOS users." This is different to Google how?

Can you point out exactly what you think Google does that Apple does not? From Apple's Q&A on Location Data.

1) Apple gathers "crowd-sourced Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower data". To do this, your iPhone sends your location along with your Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower data (SSIDs, signal strength) to Apple. They do say that the request is anonymised so they have no way of figuring out who you are based on the request, but clearly they could just correlate the geo-tagged request with non-geo requests coming from your phone and figure out who you are.

2) Apple has an advertising system (iAds) that uses your location to send you targetted ads. Obviously this involves Apple knowing what your location is.

3) Apple provides application crash logs to third party developers. They say the logs are anonymous, but an app developer could easily include enough information to identify you (a username, IP address etc.).

4) Apple tracks you when you travel. They say it is anonymous, but again they could clearly figure out who you if they wanted to. ("Apple is now collecting anonymous traffic data to build a crowd-sourced traffic database.")

Apple's profit motive is not in the collecting of user information like Google's is, it's in the selling of devices.

iAds: "The iAd mobile advertising network is a significant revenue stream for developers and a powerful way for brands to reach millions of iOS users." This is different to Google how?

Go give the 2007 open letter "Thoughts on Music" a read.

I somehow doubt Jeff Bezos will publish a similar article.

DRM-free MP3 sales from Amazon only happened as a "fight back" against the "evil single source for music" that was iTunes at the time.

If we-the-public have got to rely on some similar benevolent dictator demanding DRM-free choices, is it gonna be Barnes and Noble's Leonard Riggio? I'm not holding my breath. :-/

Built-in rechargeable lithium-ion battery

So they're creating an alternative way of working with the iPhone? Oh man, apple lawsuit incoming.

As of iOS 4.3, Apple has an extensible set of APIs that allow third-party applications to manage iDevice endpoints in the Enterprise (iPads / iPhones, even iPods). Apple refers to this as "MDM" (Mobile Device Management). There are already numerous players in this space.

More here:

http://www.apple.com/iphone/business/integration/mdm/

So no, no lawsuit coming, particularly as Apple doesn't actually make these tools themselves.

Actually haven't you heard lately? apple sues anyone that has any minute similarities with their company or ideas of their company. It is quite amusing their attempts to squeeze money from others with similar ideas, except when they win over things that should not be copyrightable.

So they're creating an alternative way of working with the iPhone? Oh man, apple lawsuit incoming.

As of iOS 4.3, Apple has an extensible set of APIs that allow third-party applications to manage iDevice endpoints in the Enterprise (iPads / iPhones, even iPods). Apple refers to this as "MDM" (Mobile Device Management). There are already numerous players in this space.

More here:

http://www.apple.com/iphone/business/integration/mdm/

So no, no lawsuit coming, particularly as Apple doesn't actually make these tools themselves.

Apple's prohibited programs fulfilling some of those requirements from being sold in the AppStore.

Yes, it is well known, and well documented, and actually part of the developer agreement. Apple pans any software that tries to do what Apple's own software already does compentantly.

If you try to submit software that is superior to Apple's solutions, generally, Apple just buys you.

Umm... with computers it does, as they were named by their creators. IBM called them hard disks, so everyone uses that terminology, including the British. Similarly, Philips (Dutch) and Sony (Japanese) called their products compact discs. Before that, the BBC used the different spellings to refer to different types of audio media, so it appears the two terms were always subtly different words rather than just a difference in the spelling of the same word.

First four hits on Google:
What's the difference between a "disc" and a "disk?"
Grammar Girl : Disc or Disk? :: Quick and Dirty Tips
Spelling of disc - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
disc/disk (From the book: Common Errors in English Usage)

And if that isn't enough, skim the article comments. It seems ~90% of slashdotters are using the spellings in this manner.

That's not true.

What's the difference between a "disc" and a "disk?"

Imagine that - an advert for a music player that focuses on a person enjoying music. Yeah, it was stylised, but when you look at the bare essence of the advert, it's about what the product can do for you, not brainwashing people into thinking they are buying a lifestyle.

Likewise, aside from the silhouette ads, they've had ads focusing on taking iPods running, clipping iPod nanos to your clothing, listening to music on a beach, commuting with them, playing games on them - all focusing on people actually using the products. Unsurprisingly, people respond to being shown the value of the devices and buy them in droves. No "buying a lifestyle" bollocks necessary to explain the obvious.

Why don't we take a look at something more recent? These are the latest TV ads for the iPad. Every single one of them is focused like a laser on what you can use them for. Practically every single shot is somebody using an app. This is a defining quality of Apple's marketing strategy, and it has been for a long time.

Is it really possible that in 80 posts, no one has suggested The Geek Atlas?

It's a book of 128 geeky sites to visit, with background stories and science discussions for each one, as well as the normal location and logistic information.

There's also a website with maps and other content, as well as an iOS app that will give you info on the places closest to you and other handy reference info.

If only his had been done before... Oh, it has. It's called "asl".

http://opensource.apple.com/source/syslog/syslog-132/

-- Terry

AppleTV - $99 for a standalone streaming device (Netflix, Youtube, Vimeo in addition to Apple Store content)

"web browsing, reading PDFs and accessing my e-mails via SSH"

Yes, if only there were a single tablet on the market that didn't require rooting to do such complicated tasks as web browsing, reading PDFs, or even a single SSH client.

Look, I'm all in favor of individuals having control of their devices. But I'm pretty sure there's a reason nobody sells a rooted tablet that does exactly the same things as everyone else's tablets. If you can't even answer why you need root access, don't expect to find a product that will.

"web browsing, reading PDFs and accessing my e-mails via SSH"

Yes, if only there were a single tablet on the market that didn't require rooting to do such complicated tasks as web browsing, reading PDFs, or even a single SSH client.

Look, I'm all in favor of individuals having control of their devices. But I'm pretty sure there's a reason nobody sells a rooted tablet that does exactly the same things as everyone else's tablets. If you can't even answer why you need root access, don't expect to find a product that will.

Here's your secure (in concept, not as much in practice) OS: http://www.apple.com/ipad/

It prevents users from elevating themselves and running arbitrary software, which is the security hole that allows malware to spread.

(Then again, Windows can do that too, if you also get a human to be a sysadmin, and get that person to not give you admin privs on your own machine.)

Problem is, most people, for a desktop OS, would call that a feature, not a bug. And I don't mean that in the Microsoft sense, I mean that it's actually a feature.

Very little *nix software cares if one has a monolithic kernel or not. X11 may not be the native Mac GUI but X11 is fully supported by Apple.

"With its UNIX foundation, OS X can run many UNIX tools and environments, including X11. Available for every Mac, X11 allows you to run applications using the X Window System graphical user interface. It provides a complete X Window System implementation based on open source software and includes a suite of standard X11 display server software, client libraries, developer toolkits, and utilities such as xterm. And X11 applications in OS X offer features such as minimizing windows to the Dock and copying and pasting between X11 and OS X applications."
http://www.apple.com/macosx/apps/all.html#x11

While gcc is available Apple Xcode development tools for Mac OS X and iOS are actually using Clang.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clang

I moded in this thread so I'm posting anonymously.

iTunes? Great for music and apps but utterly horrible for movies and TV. Most of the visual media on iTunes is either the same cost or slightly less than the cost of the physical media it would normally come on. Take for example the excellent nerdy show The Big Bang Theory:

On the Canadian iTunes store the Hi-Def version of The Big Bang Theory costs 55.99.
On Amazon.ca the Blu-Ray version of The Big Bang Theory costs 44.99

So not only would I get free shipping and save eleven bucks, I'm protected from a potential hard drive failure too. Now if Apple decided to ship me the purchase on Blu-Ray as well I'd consider the eleven bucks a convenience charge, who wants to spend all that time transcoding files, and go for it, but they don't so they get no sale from me.

Tablets are nice but not really a viable solution for most people because of the price.

[[citation needed]], i.e. I call shenanigans.

iPad 2 $500

Well, $500 is a lot of money for many people - and that's only for 16 GB or about 20 hours of video (if you have nothing else on it).

refurbished iPad $300

Out of Stock - all three models

Kindle Fire $200

Another way to put it, since you have a bro-crush on your spinning media, a kindle fire = 8 DVDs. so unless you live in a favela, it's hard to justify the claim "not really viable for most people."

I like the Fire, but with 6GB of expandable memory it's limited as a portable tablet for non-connected use, such as the OP's airplane example. With any of the tablets, the media costs are still incurred; so the 8 DVD reference is irrelevant. More to the point - you can no longer just rent a DVD, get one from the library, etc; now you must plan ahead and rip a selected set. In addition, the cost of ripping in time is a barrier to tablet use; and I don't want to repurchase my DVD collection simply to be able to use it on a tablet.

I think the DVD is going away, but right now it is still the most convenient and common way to distribute video to a broad audience. It's often the cheapest as well, especially with the availability of used, rental, and sale priced media. That's why I think the next step is to slim the see of the in computer DVD mechanism before it finally disappears.

/., by it's nature, attracts people with bro-crushes on the latest tech gadgets (I personally really want a new iPad but am waiting for the next-gen) who tend to forget that "newer" doesn't alway's translated to "better enough to replace the existing in the short term." I think DVD's, from a cost and convenience standpoint, are still the most viable option for most people to use when traveling. Anecdotally, I see more people using them sitting up front than I see iPads or other tablets. That will change, but not in the near term, IMHO.

Tablets are nice but not really a viable solution for most people because of the price.

[[citation needed]], i.e. I call shenanigans.

iPad 2 $500

Well, $500 is a lot of money for many people - and that's only for 16 GB or about 20 hours of video (if you have nothing else on it).

refurbished iPad $300

Out of Stock - all three models

Kindle Fire $200

Another way to put it, since you have a bro-crush on your spinning media, a kindle fire = 8 DVDs. so unless you live in a favela, it's hard to justify the claim "not really viable for most people."

I like the Fire, but with 6GB of expandable memory it's limited as a portable tablet for non-connected use, such as the OP's airplane example. With any of the tablets, the media costs are still incurred; so the 8 DVD reference is irrelevant. More to the point - you can no longer just rent a DVD, get one from the library, etc; now you must plan ahead and rip a selected set. In addition, the cost of ripping in time is a barrier to tablet use; and I don't want to repurchase my DVD collection simply to be able to use it on a tablet.

I think the DVD is going away, but right now it is still the most convenient and common way to distribute video to a broad audience. It's often the cheapest as well, especially with the availability of used, rental, and sale priced media. That's why I think the next step is to slim the see of the in computer DVD mechanism before it finally disappears.

/., by it's nature, attracts people with bro-crushes on the latest tech gadgets (I personally really want a new iPad but am waiting for the next-gen) who tend to forget that "newer" doesn't alway's translated to "better enough to replace the existing in the short term." I think DVD's, from a cost and convenience standpoint, are still the most viable option for most people to use when traveling. Anecdotally, I see more people using them sitting up front than I see iPads or other tablets. That will change, but not in the near term, IMHO.

Tablets are nice but not really a viable solution for most people because of the price.

[[citation needed]], i.e. I call shenanigans.

iPad 2 $500

refurbished iPad $300

Kindle Fire $200

Another way to put it, since you have a bro-crush on your spinning media, a kindle fire = 8 DVDs. so unless you live in a favela, it's hard to justify the claim "not really viable for most people."

Tablets are nice but not really a viable solution for most people because of the price.

[[citation needed]], i.e. I call shenanigans.

iPad 2 $500

refurbished iPad $300

Kindle Fire $200

Another way to put it, since you have a bro-crush on your spinning media, a kindle fire = 8 DVDs. so unless you live in a favela, it's hard to justify the claim "not really viable for most people."

Not as limited as you would like to believe: http://store.apple.com/us/product/MD256Z/A

Mac OS X Lion now installs from the Internet into completely blank hard disks (yes, even if the recovery partition is wiped or the original disk replaced), if necessary. No installation media required.

Quick update: read this page as well: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1420

It looks like you can only do the deauthorize all operation once per year, so keep that in mind.

More or less, but it's been that way for ages. I remember Apple using that as a way of damaging competing brands of MP3 player. They would have tons of DRMed ITMS exclusives that couldn't be played on other players without degrading the sound quality. All because Apple refused to license its DRM to competitors and wasn't willing to license MS' DRM.

And instead of licensing their DRM, they encouraged the music industry to allow all music to be sold DRM free.

http://www.apple.com/de/hotnews/thoughtsonmusic/

The third alternative is to abolish DRMs entirely. Imagine a world where every online store sells DRM-free music encoded in open licensable formats. In such a world, any player can play music purchased from any store, and any store can sell music which is playable on all players. This is clearly the best alternative for consumers, and Apple would embrace it in a heartbeat. If the big four music companies would license Apple their music without the requirement that it be protected with a DRM, we would switch to selling only DRM-free music on our iTunes store. Every iPod ever made will play this DRM-free music.

Why would the big four music companies agree to let Apple and others distribute their music without using DRM systems to protect it? The simplest answer is because DRMs havenâ(TM)t worked, and may never work, to halt music piracy. Though the big four music companies require that all their music sold online be protected with DRMs, these same music companies continue to sell billions of CDs a year which contain completely unprotected music. Thatâ(TM)s right! No DRM system was ever developed for the CD, so all the music distributed on CDs can be easily uploaded to the Internet, then (illegally) downloaded and played on any computer or player.

Apple is still the most closed choice in computing.

Depends on what angle you view it from:

Hardware? Yeah, Apple's a stickler, though Hackintoshing is not all that hard to do, as long as you do your homework first. Microsoft doesn't sell PC hardware, so it's kind of a non-comparison.

Software? I beg to differ, greatly.

Until you can show me where I can download the Windows kernel/core source code without signing an NDA or paying a huge bucket of money? Microsoft is still king of the closed-source software, and since they are primarily a software company, they're still the most closed.

http://images.apple.com/supplierresponsibility/pdf/Apple_SR_2011_Progress_Report.pdf

http://www.apple.com/supplierresponsibility/

http://images.apple.com/supplierresponsibility/pdf/Apple_SR_2011_Progress_Report.pdf

http://www.apple.com/supplierresponsibility/

I realize that the iPad is pretty much out but I have to throw my experience with Note Taker HD in the ring. Coupled with a Wacom Bamboo stylus it has met all of my needs as a consultant and could see it performing well in an academic setting with the addition of a keyboard.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id455117843?mt=8

Look at Apple's Q&A on this topic:
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2011/04/27Apple-Q-A-on-Location-Data.html

You can also look at their support page on location services:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1975

Notably, the first link says: "These calculations are performed live on the iPhone using a crowd-sourced database of Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower data that is generated by tens of millions of iPhones sending the geo-tagged locations of nearby Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers in an anonymous and encrypted form to Apple."

Apple's implementation is different than Google's and Skyhook's, particularly as it relates to how a phone estimates its location from the visible APs, but its still sending geotagged MAC addresses up to a mothership.

Your absolutely right that a cell phone doesn't need to use wifi to get an estimate on where it is. But, as I said before, wifi triangulation is much, much more accurate. That's not necessarily a big deal if you're just using it to assist GPS, but it might be if you're using it as an alternative to GPS (for instance, if you're using an iPod touch, or you're inside a big building and can't see GPS satellites). Apple's Q&A says the iPhone will use geotagged wifi information from their database in addition to cell tower information.

My iPod touch is not figuring out where it is based on IP address. If you turn on location services in the settings its using the geotagged wifi database. That's how its able to pinpoint your location to around 100 meters or so. There actually seems to be a bit of an inconsistency between the two Apple pages. The first one makes it sound like the iPhone has its own cache of geotagged APs, but the second one points out that the iPod Touch needs an active Internet connection to work. I've noticed that on my iPod Touch. That implies that its sending something up, and getting a response back. Maybe the iPod just passes up the MAC addresses of visible APs, and it gets back geotagged MAC addresses, and does the triangulation computations on the iPod.

I don't understand what point you're trying to make in your second paragraph. You're right that Apple devices don't auto connect without user authorization. That's true, but irrelevant. iOS devices can certainly see the MAC addresses of visible APs without connecting to them.