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I have a small, but growing stable of Macs in my house. I read on Engadget that, "it will run you just $29.99 for all of your authorized Macs." Does this mean that its $30 or $60 to upgrade the two Macs I have that are tied to my iTunes account?

http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/06/os-x-lion-all-the-details/

maybe dell is cheaper because their quality sucks?? i bet the macbook will last much longer than the dell and will have lesser hardware issues the question is: are you willing to pay $600 extra for that?

Do yourself a favour and never visit a Vegas casino because your bet is wrong. The differences between most manufacturers (including Dell and Apple) are very small.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/17/laptop-reliability-survey-asus-and-toshiba-win-hp-fails/

Keeping in mind Apple only sells higher end notebooks and desktops, while Dell sells everything from high end notebooks and desktops to bargain basement netbooks. So I would have expected Apple to have far fewer problems than Dell, but the difference is less than 2%. Afterall, the main justification in charging higher prices is the better materials and build quality.

So if I had $2500 to spend on computing gear, I'd save the $600 and buy a Nexus S smartphone for the difference.

In completely unrelated news, Chromium laptops start shipping next week.

I was interested to see that the Engadget story is filled with pretty much the same complaints about this new Windows interface that the Linux world is making about GNOME 3 and Ubuntu Unity - that is, people (e.g. me, I'll note) are annoyed at the prospect of the desktop as they know it being made into a big phone.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/13/samsung-and-lg-to-showcase-large-high-pixel-density-lcd-panels/

Samsung will have a 10" with an astonishing resolution of 2,560 x 1,600

Per Engadget, this is Paypal upset that their go-to guy who was negotiating with Google for a deal that would probably have been involved in the Wallet backend jumped ship to Google and helped launch Wallet instead. If the allegations are true, Osama Bedier was working both sides-- while pretending to work for Paypal to negotiate a business deal with Google, he was talking to Google about a potentially lucrative job.

(If Paypal are also suing over patents, they're insane-- NFC payments have been available for quite a while now. If there's anything they should learn from Oracle v. Google, it's that you don't want to dump a bunch of extra charges on the bench of an already overworked judge.)

> Apple doesn't hide rootkits in their software or media files.

Nor are they a content company like sony is.

Are you actually DEFENDING Sony's rootkits HERE, on Slashdot?!? Wow! No wonder you posted AC!!!

> Apple doesn't actively prohibit "rooting" of their devices.

Yeah, steve just loves those jailbreaks right? Its not like the appstore tries to prevent this or anything.

Huh? Citation, please!

> Apple doesn't pursue the iOS "hacker" community with legal threats, DMCA takedown notices, etc.

Apple tried very hard to prosecute people who develops and performs jailbreaks but where shot down by the courts. They also issue dmca takedown notices to any hacker community who would have the balls to inform people how to install or virtualize osx on a pc (Which is a 100% pure drm stye lockdown as a modern mac IS a high spec pc) regardless of wether they want to buy the software.

First, Apple had one opinion, the EFF had another. The Feds sided with the EFF. However, since then, Apple hasn't tried to do an end-run around that decision, like many Android Device manufacturers. No "fuses" in microcontrollers. No encrypted bootloaders. In short, no REAL effort to stop Jailbreaking. In the end, Apple respected the adversarial process. Doesn't make them evil. At all. In fact, quite the opposite.

As far as their prohibition against virtualizing OS X: As Apple has stated many, many, many times, they are a HARDWARE company. That is unabashedly they claim to make their money. Not from the sale of OS X. So, their prohibition against virtualizing OS X on non-Apple hardware is exactly in concert with their prohibition against installing it directly on non-Apple hardware. Their OS. Their rules. Doesn't make them evil, though. Just protecting their primary revenue stream, which is the sale of HARDWARE.

Besides, as pointed out in this article, it is quite possible to install OS X on, for example VMWare running under Windows 7, just like it is quite simple to install OS X on any number of hardware-compatible non-Apple computers. Apple says "Please". It does NOT run around like the Artist Now Again Known as Prince, (or the widow of Frank Zappa!), filing DMCA takedown notices of Hackintosh websites, or articles like the one above regarding installing OS X (illegally) on VMWare Server on Windows 7, let alone prosecute anyone who attempts to do so. Illegally.

> Apple doesn't embrace DRM every day, and in every way

Osx is locked using drm to prevent it running in a virtual enviroment (Which really sucks for developers),

No it isn't. See above.

and iPod is most certainly an attempt of a locked in device that uses both drm and propriatary formats to faux competitive mp3 players. Only the competition forced them to abandon this strategy.

Anyone can CLAIM anything without proof. But I DO know that NOBODY forces Steve Jobs to do ANYTHING. And least of all, write an Open Letter decrying DRM, like this.

> Apple doesn't infest its products with an OS (Windows 7) that has DRM from the driver-level up.

Ehh..What do you mean? And how does that compare to sony anyway???

> Now, let's compare the above to Sony... ....

How does it compare to Sony? Sony COULD install Linux on its machines (Apple doesn't count; because they have created their own OS). But instead, they have embraced Vista, and then Windows 7. I can't find the article now, but both have so much DRM that, even after Vista shipped (which was LONG after there was a "driver stable" version available for developers) ATi couldn't even write a damned video card driver! I guess

Next up : Dell. Hey if you got to copy so

Hey, don't knock it, it's the thinnest notebook! Based on Dell internal analysis as at February 2011. Based on a thickness comparison (front and rear measurements) of other 15" laptop PCs manufactured by HP, Acer, Toshiba, Asus, Lenovo, Samsung, Sony, MSI. No comparison made with Apple or other manufacturers not listed."

Apple doesn't hide rootkits in their software or media files.

Maybe not. But they were summoned to the US Senate to answer questions on privacy concerns over what they track & why they track it unencrypted.

Google, who is responsible for Android, was also called to those hearings. Apple sent a vice-president in charge of software development. Google sent a lobbyist. Apple voluntarily has already taken steps, and has promised to take further steps, to reduce both the amount of "tracking data", and to encrypt what data the user's phone does store. What has Google done/promised (I honestly don't know on that one)? But don't let facts available for nearly two months stop your rant.

Apple doesn't actively prohibit "rooting" of their devices.

I think you need to read the last 2 lines about possibly denying sevice on this page.

Yeah, EULAs always sound terrible. But point to me one instance of Apple actually doing that. [Crickets]

Apple doesn't pursue the iOS "hacker" community with legal threats, DMCA takedown notices, etc.

It has put the mechanisms in place to do so in the future though.

Again, the potential of doing it; but obviously Apple is just putting that in as a guard against an unforseeable "worst-case-scenario" threat. And again, please show me a single instance of Apple actually making good on any sabre-rattling. And didn't it get settled nearly a year ago that "Jailbreaking" was NOT illegal? Do you see Apple actively fighting that with signed bootloaders, security fuses, etc, like some Android Device manufacturers? So, your point, again?

Apple doesn't embrace DRM every day, and in every way (they DO have to put up with SOME DRM due to pressures from "content providers"; but it is obvious they chafe against it).

Apple dropped DRM from iTunes about 2 years ago. It could be argued that they bowed to pressure from their user base after the Sony rootkit and CD DRM fuss. I have not come across a DRMed CD for some years now because of the stink DRM caused.

ANYTHING "can be argued". But at least Apple's CEO published an Open Letter publicly decrying DRM. Has Sony? Howabout Google?

Apple doesn't infest its products with an OS (Windows 7) that has DRM from the driver-level up.

I'm mainly a Linux guy, I'm still using XP for some stuff but haven't played with Windows 7 much beyond setting up some laptops for colleagues - therefore I'm no expert on it. However, I am not aware of any restrictions on Windows 7 that stop you running non-DRMed formats on it exactly as you can do on previous iterations of Windows. I am led to believe that it provides a *platform* for DRM, again probably bowing to the same pressures from the RIAA that you said it was perfectly okay for Apple to have done during the early days of iTunes.

When Apple was starting out with iTunes, NO ONE would have signed up without DRM, and you (and everybody else) knows it. Even when iTunes had DRM on music, it was the weakest DRM possible. Individual songs weren't DRMed, per se; only Playlists were copy-restricted. NOTHING (but trust) prevented the user from deleting the Playlist, and recreating it, thus garnering another seven (then five) copies of a particular song. And let's not forget that iTunes also allows creating an Audi

Next up : Dell. Hey if you got to copy so

Calculators that can play Doom

Netbooks running Crysis

Mass hysteria.

except hdcp keys were leaked

Anyway, maybe is more simpler to use a version of the app that does not tell it is on a rooted device.

And as they didn't have enough problems already...

http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/23/bbc-hd-quietly-begins-broadcasting-in-1080p-but-not-all-sony-hd/

The only difference between a standard-sized SIM and microSIM is the amount of plastic put around the actual chip. It is straightforward to slice and dice a standard SIM down to micro-SIM. It's not like the carrier is going to ask for it back. Maybe I would find it a pain in the ass if I were doing it every time I went on a business trip, but in that case I would probably have a multiple-SIM world phone (probably a blackberry) anyway.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/19/microsoft-rebuts-intels-claims-about-windows-8-calls-them-fac/ [engadget,com]

I remember the Oqo quite well, and as a geek I wanted one (or a Sharp Zarus...). However as an engineer and end user, I knew it was never practical and would be primarily an expensive toy.

Can't speak for the Oqo, but I have a Zaurus C3000, one of the clamshell models.

The whole idea of the UMPC is that it's not a tablet, it's got a keyboard. Tablets are expensive toys with questionable practical value, but I used my Zaurus to get a lot of writing done, and could tether it to my phone and ssh into servers.

It's showing its age -- they came out in 2004, IIRC. No built-in networking and the support for wifi CF cards was a little dogey. So over the past few months I've mostly switched over to an Eee, but its not nearly as convenient -- I'm thinking of picking up a Netwalker, which seems to be the closest think to an updated Zaurus.

The long battery life is if you are running Symbian. Running Windows goes down to just 2 hours. My Linux (maemo) phone runs for 1-2 days, its interface is meant for touchscreens and even includes a qwerty keyboard.

Goddamn you Elop! Goodbye, Nokia:(

Goddamn it. I fucking knew that sorry piece of shit mole motherfucker Elop was going to do this. Goodbye, Nokia.

A bunch of audiophiles couldn't tell the difference between monster brand and coathangers

Engadget is reporting that it's not limited to Comcast. I'm on FIOS and I can confirm that it's unreachable as well.

I am on FiOS as well and I can reach TPB just fine. I mean, I don't use the site at all but I wanted to see if it was just you.

Everyone may be jumping to conclusions:

Update: Comcast just got back to us reaffirming that it is not the cause of this issue. "We're not blocking PirateBay and reports online indicate users from several ISPs around the world are affected." As we originally mentioned we're seeing those reports too, and many of you in the poll below are showing this isn't necessarily a Comcast-specific thing. So the question remains: what kind of a thing is it?

Engadget is reporting that it's not limited to Comcast. I'm on FIOS and I can confirm that it's unreachable as well.

These people are working on sentinels. http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/13/revenge-of-the-quadrocopters-now-they-move-in-packs-video/

they will begin offering Angry Birds on Chrome!

http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/11/angry-birds-gets-a-web-version-in-google-chrome/

Why didn't they mention that in the original article? Sign me up!

they will begin offering Angry Birds on Chrome! http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/11/angry-birds-gets-a-web-version-in-google-chrome/

wait for the bad deed to actually occur before screaming about said bad deed.

Ordinarily, yes. However, in Microsoft's case, they have a demonstrable history of leveraging their "monopoly" to prop up their offerings in other markets ultimately dominating those markets, reducing consumer choice, then leaving the product to stagnate with no other real alternative. IE6 is the premier example of this. They tried to do it with Java but Sun managed to stop them. Personally, I like real competition. The mobile device industry is on fire right now with newer and better products coming out seemingly everyday. Of course there is a fly in the ointment. MS, not content to compete on merit, has made it obvious that they will do anything possible to destroy competition through any means necessary. Skype is an important application for all devices. The last thing we need is to just sit and wait hoping for MS' good will.

Ugh. Where to start?
Here's just the tip of the iceberg:
1. rectangular electronic devices with/without rounded corners
2, icons: either in rows & columns or all over the place
3. cell phones
4. devices with touch screens
5. multi-touch
6. pinch to zoom
and perhaps the biggest:
7. thinking they invented everything

Engadget has an interesting article that covers some of this: http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/28/apple-vs-palm-the-in-depth-analysis/
And one other interesting article: http://www.billbuxton.com/multitouchOverview.html

Do you *seriously* expect any random reporter to understand the difference between encryption and hashing? :)

It seems he got it right, they *weren't* encrypted, however they *were* hashed.
3:01 JST: Sony decided to correct an earlier statement, saying that PSN passwords were not encrypted but rather hashed.

Found them: http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/12/asus-eee-pad-transformer-and-slider-another-look/ http://www.slashgear.com/asus-eee-pad-transformer-first-impressions-video-30143387/

What buzz does RIM have with the 15-35 crowd?

BBM, of course. Did I mention that BBM (with it's 39 million users) is significantly cutting into SMS among the 15 to 24 crowd?

What magnificent design team exists which will drop the next major jump onto the market to show that RIM is here now?

RIM very recently (December) acquired The Astonishing Tribe -- the Swedish UI design team that needs no introduction. Check out some of their stuff

They've actually made a good number of very smart acquisitions last year. QNX is obviously the most exciting. They also picked up Data Viz, the makers of the popular Documents To Go office suite, giving RIM's customers some very enticing software out-of-box.

RIM's lineup of phones this year is also rather exciting -- it's about time too! The Bold Touch is certainly going to be a hit with the enterprise and the BB faithful and, of course, it has its consumer-grade companion in the Curve Touch. For the touch-screen only crowd, the Monaco/Monza is (finally) an up-to-date and usable device, with the Torch 2 filling in the gap between pure productivity and entertainment.

The Bold Touch (and Curve counterpart) is a whole new concept that is sure to spawn imitators. In the mean time, it certainly stands out in the sea of touch-slab phones. The brilliant design, coupled with RIM's best-in-class messaging, is sure to be a hit with the both the youth and enterprise markets.

Like it or not, the ISP is treated like a phone company

No, the problem is that ISPs are not treated like a phone company. They're not regulated as common-carriers. The FCC considered re-categorizing ISPs as a "Title II" telecommunications service, but backed away after Congressional opposition. Now the Commission is proposing a "third way" which seems unlikely to satisfy either the ISPs or their critics. Here's a quick summary: http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/06/fcc-outlines-new-third-way-internet-regulatory-plan-will-spli/

To my mind, ISPs shouldn't be able to process traffic based on anything other than packet headers. Their job is to take a packet I create and deliver it to its intended destination. (Yes, yes, QOS, etc. Whatever is in the headers is fine by me.) DPI equipment should be banned. Anything else offers too many opportunities for censorship and manipulation.

And XBOX Live is any better? Remember when XBOX Live was out for two weeks? You couldn't play that, either. And that isn't free.

http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/03/xbox-live-outage-day-13-still-up-and-down-still-preventing-fu/

You could at random times during that two weeks. Microsoft communicated the issue and an expected turnaround. As well, MS comped subscribers a free live arcade game. Not to mention they didn't lose your personal data in the process. Don't forget to cancel that card!

In short, yes, XBOX Live IS better.

There is a bit of a different (I suspect) between a network being down completely for a period of time due to a hack... and one being intermittently available due to a massive increase in demand.

I don't see a difference. In either case, the network failed.

There is a bit of a different (I suspect) between a network being down completely for a period of time due to a hack... and one being intermittently available due to a massive increase in demand.

A one-week outage does not make Xbox live better.

Uh, it doesn't? What other console have you owned that locked you out of playing games for a week?

What other console, besides my PS3 has locked me out of playing (online) games for a week? Hm. Only my XBOX 360, which locked me out of playing (online) games for two weeks.

http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/03/xbox-live-outage-day-13-still-up-and-down-still-preventing-fu/

And XBOX Live is any better? Remember when XBOX Live was out for two weeks? You couldn't play that, either. And that isn't free.

http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/03/xbox-live-outage-day-13-still-up-and-down-still-preventing-fu/

Even Google doesn't guarantee there won't be trouble with patents.

As others have mentioned, neither does MPEG-LA. And after you've paid MPEG-LA for an H.264 patent license, you can pay AT&T for an additional patent license. And after that, you can pay Philips/Sisvel for an additional patent license. And who knows who will be the next one to come knocking at your door...

Yes, Microsoft was only capable of making a concept:
http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/05/microsofts-courier-digital-journal-exclusive-pictures-and-de/
http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/29/microsoft-confirms-kills-courier-in-one-fell-swoop/

Yes, Microsoft was only capable of making a concept:
http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/05/microsofts-courier-digital-journal-exclusive-pictures-and-de/
http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/29/microsoft-confirms-kills-courier-in-one-fell-swoop/

So this is why google kicked psx4droid out of the android market

Of course, that just resulted in the application becoming free.

If M$ can do this, they are actually going to end up saving you a ton of money.

Of course you could use something far cheaper cheaper, maybe something that uses 1/50th the power like Apple TV. There are many other choices. But it sounds like a hot idea.

http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/19/xbox-360-power-supply-pinpointed-as-cause-of-house-fire/

ZTE the 4th largest phone maker in the world.

You have any evidence of this at all? I mean the slightest?

Not a shred. But the environment and Microsoft's maliciousness certainly lead me to that conclusion.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/06/sony-ericsson-windows-phone-7-prototype-caught-in-the-wild/

But that's just one. What others are doing Android devices that aren't doing WP7 devices?

"About t o give up on Facebook again.. It's going very very very very slow on my netbook. It takes about three seconds per word to type or delete. It takes about one to two minutes to move from the top to the bottom of the page. Arrrrrgggghhhhhhh"

I mentioned that it might be time to get an iPad, which does everything 90% (I'm expecting someone to jump on me for a "made up number"!) of the worlds computer users could want, slickly, in a beautiful design, for a low, low price. I got this back in response:

"Looked at getting one, but didn't do everything I wanted. For half the price I got this Acer netbook, which is great, except of course it runs Windows. Once i-Pads dramatically increase their storage capacity, run full size programs and drop in price, then maybe I'll look at them. I'm fully loaded with H/P's (hire purchases) at present so couldn't afford one now anyway. :-)

"didnt do everything I wanted", for a non technical user seems to mean "I looked for Windows Solitaire and didnt see it, or the start menu" :-) So, he went from Apple, to world leader Acer:

"The details behind the rift that saw Acer's CEO Gianfranco Lanci (pictured) suddenly resign yesterday are now starting to emerge. Simply put, Acer's board wants the Taiwanese company to be more like Apple and HTC, according to Bloomberg, raking in big profits on fat margins. Lanci's approach, however, was to aggressively increase volumes and use its scale to negotiate cheaper prices from suppliers in a race to steal market share from Dell and HP. According to data compiled by Bloomberg, Acer's profit margin in the last fiscal year was just 2.3 percent compared to Apple's 21.5 percent. Daunting, to say the least."

http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/01/new-acer-will-be-more-like-apple-less-like-hp/

Who'd you rather be, Steve Jobs, on top of the world, or this "Gianfranco Lanci" character, who just got the boot from Acer? :-) Lets face it, a "race to the bottom" sucks ass for everyone, you end up killing your own business, working on making the blandest, most awful machine you can for the lowest price, thats got to be great for morale, and the customer ends up with a hunk of crap, bought on hire purchase that they'll hate before it runs out of battery charge the first time, that cannot even use Facebook, you know, that thing that 500 Million people use? "but it was half the price"! :-)

I wouldnt take away your Eee PC, I agree, I dont think I'd enjoy editing/compiling code on my iPad, for students? I think you'd be nuts to buy something other than an iPad, truly.

Thank you for your refreshing comment, best wishes :-)

Agreed. To further the cause of 'not flaming about units', I put an entirely unrelated question to the currently assembled geekery: how would you go about building one of these on, say, half the budget? Can it be done? (Anyone answering "Why bother? Just buy 'x' and be done with it." have missed the point and will be required to sit in the corner and think about what they've done).

review

They already released their "slate" with HP with Balmer being on stage to introduce it:

"press images of the HP Slate just hit the web, right as Ballmer showed it off during his CES keynote. The prototype device is said to be coming later this year, and it's running Windows -- Ballmer showed it running the PC Kindle app."

Fortunately for them it has bombed so badly they actaully have a chance of people buying this shit about them not wanting in the tablet market yet.

It's hard to see what MS can gain from the Kinect long term. All it looks to have done is give their xbox sales a bit of a boost. The hardware itself is not theirs - it's built by another company, Primesense (http://www.primesense.com/)...which is not in MS' pockets. PrimeSense is building other similar units already. One in particular with Asus. See http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/03/primesense-and-asus-team-bring-kinect-like-wavi-xtion-to-your-h/. Other companies are also already close to bringing their similar products to market - our company is engaged with one at the moment.

What is Microsoft's is some of the software bundle that is used in kinect games. But with the excitement around the product, and some software from primesense itself, that void is and will rapidly be filled. When it does it won't leave Microsoft anything for the long term. Already we're using it in all sorts of ways on our robots, running linux, using the openni and ros software. Its rather easy to forget that its an actual Microsoft product.

Local encryption of all data (messages, address book entries, calendar entries, memos and tasks)... and with the Password Keeper, Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) encryption technology allows password entries to also be stored securely on the device (e.g., banking passwords, PINs, etc.).

Sure beats iPhone's 6-minute protection. But yeah, I guess you could just try to delete all your iPhone data every time you saw cop lights flashing.