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I'd be interested to see how you solve the problems of 1. adapting an IDE to a 5 inch touch screen and 2. getting it approved by Apple

I don't see any issues at all with re-building something like Xcode to work on a very small screen. Much of what I do in Xcode is still typing code, and Swift Playgrounds on the iPad shows you can absolutely re-work the keyboard to make that very practical. Even using IB could almost just as well be done on a small screen as I zoom in and out of UI layout a lot anyway, and you could easily have some way to flip between UI layout and code related to elements you were focused on.

However why do you have to go that far? There are already many scripting language apps (like Python) for the iPhone. Or other ways to learn programming as well - why do you think Apple would have any issues? Hell if you rewrote Xcode for the iPhone Apple would probably buy you out (and not in the Simpsons sense).

It's money for nothing, unless you call running an HTTP server a tough work.

Having people to deal with customers and vendors isn't trivial or that whole cost involved with handling money. How much does PCI compliance cost? Beyond that they've got a curated system, how many viruses and malware have there been available through the App store compared to Google Play/Android Marketplace? Why does Android have a virus scanners?

You cannot have any of that with the iPoor phone.

Interestingly enough Slashdot featured an article recently about the woes of a developer who spent 20% of their time for 5% of the profits. Also the App store has more money flowing through it. Looks like it's a 71/29 split with App Store leading in revenue.

Starting this year, more Android apps will be downloaded than iOS apps. And we're only talking about the Android Market here, not about alternate repositories like aptoid, appslib etc. Let's not even mention the good old way of installing apps called sideloading these days.

To me, this sounds like success. Revenue will certainly follow at some point.

http://www.appolicious.com/tech/articles/9375-analysts-expect-8-billion-app-downloads-for-apple-this-year-but-more-for-android

That is, you only get the "paper" if your pay the subscription... it is subscription-only.

It says nothing like that, you're making thing up. Yes it says it's a paid for subscription but it does not say ads will not be sold. You even say as much later, "they will reel in the advertisers, probably with loss-leader offerings to existing advertising customers." You say as "loss-leaders" yet I provided what Rupert Murdoch believed about ads, that they should cost even more. Higher ad prices not lower ones. In case there's questions about that let's try News Corp. Launches iPad Pub 'The Daily' With Big Brand Support which says:
"For its inaugural issue, The Daily features interactive ads from around 10 advertisers, in addition to ads for products from other News Corp. properties such as Fox. The interactivity of those ads varies from simple click-to-video executions, such as the one for upcoming Paramount Pictures movie Rango, to more involved app-like experiences like the one on display from Verizon, which enables users to view a range of content and even purchase products without leaving the application." That just the first result out of more than 16 million of googling the daily news corp ipad ads.

Falcon

So Apple's cut is 3% of total revenue. Assuming that web ad revenue is anything close to print ad revenue (once they adjust rates for having verified, paying customers seeing the ads instead of just random surfers.)

Actually because subscribers have the money for an iPad and a subscription Rupert Mordoch believes he can set higher advertising rates. Those people have the money.

Falcon

Established media certainly make money out of advertising. However, with a subscription only service such as this

But is this a subscription only service? TFA does not say. Another article, Five things to know about News Corp’s The Daily iPad app does say "The Daily" will have ads. It even says Rupert Murdoch believes ads "should be sold at a premium as its target audience already has the disposable income to buy an iPad and pay for what is now a discretionary item."

Falcon

What I want to know about these tablets is: Can I write on them with a stylus and get results like writing in a notebook?

Maybe not with a stylus, but I have an app called neu.notes. (here, here, here).

You basically write/draw with your finger ... depending on how far zoomed in you are determines the effective "font size" of your writing. Say, everything from an 8 point font to a 100 point font or somesuch. You can have multiple 'notebooks', and each notebook can have multiple sheets. But, it's vector based and has several different pens which can be set to different width, color, opacity, etc.

There is no OCR abilities so it won't turn it into text for you, but if you want the results like writing into a notebook and you have an iPad, I've found it to be a damned handy app. I won't replace my actual notebooks, but in terms of being able to email a quick diagram or something, it's pretty good.

My handwriting is just as bad in the app as it is in the real world, which means it's working pretty well. :-P

It is a relatively minor technical glitch.

It's more than just a "relatively minor technical glitch" and has been since Apple and Jobs stated there was no problem. Steve Jobs went so far as to tell one person who had trouble with his own iPhone "You are getting all worked up over a few days of rumors. Calm down. You are most likely in an area with very low signal strength". He tells the person to relax, it's just a phone, then says to get a life.

If Jobs and Apple had never said there was no problem and that it was just rumors, it would have stayed a technical glitch, but they didn't.

Falcon

Oh, and in case readers then I'm saying this because I'm an Apple basher I'm typing this on my MacBook Pro which I think is great. I got it after switching from Windows PC which I bought and used for almost 10 years.

It may have an effect. Especially after the comments Steve Jobs told one iPhone owner.

Steve Jobs tells angry iPhone 4 owner to "relax". Steve Jobs told an owner who posted a video of his problem on YouTube "No, you are getting all worked up over a few days of rumors. Calm down." Get a Life..

Falcon