Slashdot Mirror

2. it has a multitouch interface, unlike other tablets.

Every tablet running Windows 7 (released 5 months ago) has a multitouch interface.

3. it has quite a low price.

The ASUS Eee PC T91 convertible tablet is $453 (with Windows XP) and the Lenovo S10 convertible netbook tablet is $480.

5. it is lighter than other devices.

The Eee PC T91 (9-inch screen) weighs 2.1 pounds. The Lenovo S10 (10-inch screen) weighs 3 pounds and has 16 times more storage than the $500 3g-less iPad.

For me, the only reason not considering an iPad is lack of Flash support and lack of openness.

Windows 7 and Moblin-based Linux support Flash and are open, but I'm pretty sure their interfaces aren't quite there yet by your reasonable standards.

I'm sure there's an iPhone analogy somewhere here...

Really? Is there some fact/rumour/speculation of a kill switch in the iPhone?

I think he means the back door put into the iPhone. While Apple claims it's only to remove 'rogue' applications, all I see is a back door is a back door. Kinda like how an engine kill switch in a car is only to be used to kill the engine of the car of unpaid accounts.

I'm pretty sure he said this two days ago. Yep... here it is:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2361029,00.asp

2 days ago...

I used to come here to get the lates tech news.

Pennsylvania is much more densely populated than Maine yet Maine beats Pennsylvania. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2335740,00.asp

The mid-west is really the only barren area. The rest of the US is more densely populated or close enough to Europe rather this imaginary stereotype where everyone in Europe lives beside everyone else and everyone in the US is 50+ miles away from the nearest person.

US: http://maps.unomaha.edu/Peterson/funda/MapLinks/NAmerica/USpop1990.gif

Europe: http://www.roebuckclasses.com/maps/placemap/europe/europepop.JPG

If density matters then less dense states shouldn't be beating more densely populated states but they do.

According to these images, the US, aside from the mid-west, is pretty close to Europe with a lot of areas exceeding Europe yet no doubt falling behind in broadband penetration.

US: http://maps.unomaha.edu/Peterson/funda/MapLinks/NAmerica/USpop1990.gif

Europe: http://www.roebuckclasses.com/maps/placemap/europe/europepop.JPG

Take Sweden. The article claims they have 96% per cent broadband penetration. The density of most of Sweden, at best is 24 people per square mile. But for the sake of argument we'll take the highest possible number and assume that applies to the whole country. That gives it 129 people per square mile.

I'll compare that then to Pennsylvania, since I've lived most of my life there. Most of the state ranges from 100 to 7000 people per square mile. Over all there are definitely more people than Sweden per square mile and quite often, from my experience, broadband is a joke in PA.

In fact this link backs up my experience: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2335740,00.asp

Pennsylvania apparently has 52.5% broadband penetration and apparently only 35% customer satisfaction. That's awful.

In fact, New Jersey is the only state that comes close to Sweden's stats with NJ having 80.2% broadband penetration.

Yes, the mid-west is sparse and not densely populated but using them as an excuse as to why the rest of the US has piss poor broadband standards is laughable. The New England area, with the exception of Maine, is on par if not more densely populated than most of Europe. Funnily enough, Maine is beating the much more populated Pennsylvania. Which throws the argument that density makes a difference.

People need to quit drinking the corporations' Kool-Aid and realise they're being screwed on pretty much every single new technology like broadband and mobile phones. It's no coincidence these things aren't covered by the Communications Act and people are getting bent over on them.

Oh and there is this article called OpenOffice.org 3.0 The Cross-Platform Office. Yeah, clearly no one thinks it's cross-platform.

//Microsoft Employee here//

Check out Microsoft Security Essentials if you work with customers computers.

http://www.microsoft.com/Security_Essentials/

It is 100% free and has gotten favorable reviews. It is also very minimalist in design and simple to understand by non-technical people.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2353447,00.asp

Has anyone checked the iphone source code for back-doors?

You mean this one? http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2327808,00.asp

Another explanation would be that this behavior is simply in keeping with their brand archetype, the magician. Apple obviously pays close attention to the way their products are received; they've had many failures. However, unlike their competition, they have no trouble burying a bad idea quickly. Do you remember the iPod BoomBox? Do you remember the Motorola Rokr? Apple notices when their stuff isn't well received and then it's gone.

By the same token, you don't expect the magician to hang out with the audience after the show. Merlin does not pass out a Rate My Performance card. Nor does Merlin hope to see you at Comdex. Being aloof is simply part of the brand identity, and you can't do that if you let each little division have their own blog.

Microsoft has finally awakened to the fact that they're fighting for their life here. It's good that they've woken up in that Redmond ivory tower - it means they'll finally have to start thinking about what products we might want, how they can increase demand be delivering features and security. This is a lot better than the previous model of telling us what we should want. It's bad because it's easier to kill a sleeping giant than one that's alert and fighting.

It's bad in that once awakened, they fight hard and take no prisoners. It means they will induce more OEMs to force Bing on us - in fact word has it they're negotiating with Apple for just that. I hope that Jobs will be enough offended by the idea of a " Bing powered iPhone " to prevent that. Not only are they forcing the search engine, but they want top billing. That's hubris. I would be offended too if I engineered this device that swept the mobile phone world, only to find that someone else who did everything they could to prevent it wanted to claim they "powered" it. It would take a lot of money to assuage my ire. Office 11, crippled in the usual ways, would not cut it for me, and I don't think Steve Jobs is dumb enough to take that deal.

Regardless this represents a phase change in their strategy that we should be alert to.

Take this piece for example.

I had never seen the term "smartbook" before. This article defines a "smartbook" as a netbook with a non-x86 processor (likely ARM).

I guess it's a portmanteau of "smart phone" and "netbook". Or maybe it means "smart enough finally to use something other than x86 for an ultra-portable device".

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2357758,00.asp

steveha

I don't care for iTunes either. Amazon MP3s or rips from my CDs for me. The kids get iTunes cards for their iPods though. I try and tell them to stick with the MP3s, but I guess some lessons take some experience to learn. I don't use Bing - I tried it and it just doesn't give me what I need from a search engine. Pretty though. I don't care for voice recognition, even in the hypothetical cases that it works well.

Telepresence is essentially webcam chat. When I saw my son's Nintendo DSI (which has wifi and a webcam, but no telepresence app) I knew it was time. Dick Tracy watch, here we come!

Google is about to become Apple's biggest competitor in the phone space. And Apple doesn't play nicely with Google on their app store for apps where they compete on features apparently. Y'know, I still think Google will cut Apple a square deal anyway - at Google they like to hold the moral high ground.

Office for Mac? Is that still around? Does it still lack the most important features, like VBA or images? I always thought that buying it for compatibility was kind of pointless if you couldn't open the same documents with it. I have an XServe and work with the Macs a bit, but don't use them for daily work so I don't know.

W7 does run well on most netbooks, and that's surprising since the 945G chipset is not legendary for its graphics performance, to be kind. Apparently those problems Vista had with Intel video are gone.

Tablets? They're about to change, and not just a little.

They have actually already countersuited Nokia for earlier patent disputes: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2357039,00.asp

You are right, I just use non-transaction friendly MySQL tables--here two way master/slave replication is fine. Transaction are irrelevant for what I do (store lots of information for later reading), so I don't appreciate the difference. Also, this is the article I was talking about.

sorry this is the link

> they don't have the right to deny requests from law enforcement agencies

This is true, if the government comes to them while they still have the information or before they gather it. The difference is, Google will keep your information around a lot longer than Microsoft will, and they put it to all kinds of marketing purposes that may be pushing the "don't-be-evil" envelope.
See http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2282232,00.asp

The cost of your printer is almost meaningless. Focus on what it'll cost to run the thing--long term. This PC Magazine article should help.

Did you read any of the comments before you posted? They have a privacy policy explicitly stating they delete personally-identifiable records after 24 hours.

Hell, who am I kidding? This is /. and not even the *submitter* noticed the privacy page. I found out about it from this article.

This article explicitly says that it can prevent amplification attacks, though it makes no mention of how.

I was already contrarian in yesterday's Chrome thread. Some people are asking "Does Chrome OS Spell the End of Desktop PCs?" I think the thing that's in the most danger of being taken over by Chrome OS is slashdot. Some people will make some interesting builds, and it will be a lot of fun to play with. It's doubtful much more will come of it than that.

But of course Microsoft and their friends at Forrester and Gartner, PC World and news.com.com.com will be declaring it a greater threat to world peace than Scientology, claim it causes genital warts, say that it may damage both your computer and your self esteem. The funniest thing I've seen along this line is this one.

and yet you're the only one who is making such an absurd and asinine claim.

Really?

In a lawsuit filed in August 2009, BREIN claimed that "80 to 90 percent of all torrents... [link] to copyrighted material." (citation)

All that remains is to take the number of torrents on LegalTorrents.com, estimate the number of torrents available through other sites, compare the two numbers, then revise upward the estimate of illegal torrents.

Absurd and asinine it may be, but such claims are already being made.

Admittedly, it's overstating the importance of LegalTorrents.com by quite a lot. This is a site that has tried and failed to reinvent itself a number of times over the last six years, and seems destined to fail again.

But in response to the claim that it will someday support the argument that torrents have substantially non-infringing uses, it's fair to point out that it is far more likely to damage such arguments.

Or is it just another shitstorm of astroturf and payed for reviews that is pretty much the trademark of Microsoft?

Yeah I'm sure they payed off Cnet, PC World, PC Magazine, and even Engadget... You're an idiot.


And technically astroturfing is payed-for reviews since I'm pretty sure most companies pay their employees.

Dvorak is a clueless moron. Check out this rant of his in PC mag about about the windows XP "idle process" hogging his cpu and making the machine unusable.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,1304348,00.asp

"When I hit Ctrl-Alt-Delete, I see that the System Idle Process is hogging all the resources and chewing up 95 percent of the processor's cycles. Doing what?"

/facepalm.

If it were comparable, it would keep winning PC Magazine's service and reliability survey every year, wouldn't it?

http://www.pcmag.com/image_popup/0,1871,iid=242792,00.asp

The only thing I sort of remember is Dvorak claiming he had the scoop on Apple switching to Intel....

That would be when he predicted Apple would adopt Intel Itanium, naturally. And yes, this was well after Itanium had become "Itanic."

whereas a Compaq PC-compatible == Mac in terms of reliability.

Fail. Epic fail.

whereas a Compaq PC-compatible == Mac in terms of reliability.

Fail. Epic fail.

Use this link instead of the one in the parent. I updated to indicate that Mozilla has unblocked.

Microsoft has updated their advisory and blog on the matter to address Firefox

Somewhat tangential to the subject: your plug-in check page showed a lot of my plugins as not reporting version information.

Is there a standard interface for this that many plugins are ignoring, or do you have to fish out version information from files?

Oh, ATI was one of the first to cheat on a graphics benchmark quack.exe anyone?

Oh this type of thing has been going on for a VERY long time. For example, there was the Chang Modification back in 1988 (It slowed down the system clock that was used as a timing base for the benchmark, resulting in higher benchmark scores).

Apparently I should have left off the last 't' in text. It should have been spelled audiotex:

audiotex

-They want to be able to force you to purchase a data plan with certain WiFi phones.

A friend mentioned to me the other day that he's read somewhere that AT&T is planning on forcing data plans on any account that has a SmartPhone/PDA. According to him, if you don't call them and put the data plan on there willingly, supposedly they're just going to add it on themselves.

A quick search on Google seems to back this information up although, according to these sources, it should have started in September:

AT&T to force data plans with all smartphones starting next month

AT&T to Require Data Plan for Smartphone Users

True, I'd say a lot of people that have smartphones probably use data, but I know people who have phones on their account that aren't even in use and are simply there to hold their phone number (they have it forwarded to another phone for instance) and don't use the data. They could probably try to switch the phones over to a simpler one for this functionality, but if they're stuck in the middle of a two year contract that can be problematic as well.

uh, wireless hdmi?

$800

Latency 85-90ms.

Maxes out at 1080p30.

Some motion-compression artifacts. Some loss in detail. Gefen Wireless HDMI Extender (EXT-WHDMI)

The HDMI 1.4 cable supports 4K x 2K video, 3D over HDMI, Ethernet, etc.

The Most recent survey of product reliability I saw put mac's in third place. I see many more faulty macs than I do quality pc machines.

anecdotal evidence is not worth the bits it is written on.

Your second point is the same one I was making. My personal experience is that Macs are very reliable relative to all PCs so his assertion that they were unreliable based solely on his personal perception was a troll. He should have backed it up.

Macs are a great consumer and niche machine. I think the valid knocks against them in the enterprise relate to their manageability in large scale deployments. I was hoping to see whether or not any of that has changed. Even if the tools have improved, I wonder about Apple's willingness to support the kind of slow changing dull uniformity in hardware that the managers of corporate PCs like to see.

As for your first point, please cIte your sources. Some I found are:

Apple # 1 http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2352798,00.asp Apple # 2 http://www.rescuecom.com/RESCUECOM269.html Apple # 2 (tied) in reliability and # 1 in satisfaction http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/electronics-computers/computers-internet/computers/laptop-ratings/brand-reliability.htm

No, it's not.

It's emulation only, it has a limited specific subset, and it has no graphics capability. It's a limited virtualization basically, that not many computers can run, especially the people upgrading from old systems.

Basically, you're not going to be able to run what you can run in xp. That is not necessarily a bad thing in all ways, but you know.

I'm going to have to take a shower after writing this, but I agree 100% with John C Dvorak on this subject.

Definition of: Net neutrality (NETwork neutrality) A level playing field for Internet transport. It refers to the absence of restrictions or priorities placed on the type of content carried over the Internet by the carriers and ISPs that run the major backbones. It states that all traffic be treated equally; that packets are delivered on a first-come, first-served basis regardless from where they originated or to where they are destined.

From http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia_term/0,2542,t=Net+neutrality&i=55962,00.asp (yes, I know I probably could have found a better site, but didn't feel like Wikipedia would have enough credibility for this AC). This violates net neutrality because HTTP is being favored over FTP, P2P, and a whole host of other protocols.

Until Ipod holds a 90% or larger share and they use that to illegally force people out of ANOTHER marketplace, you really dont know what you are talking about.

Um, the iPod has been hovering above and below that number for a while. Kinda Legitimate Proof.

Apple Reportedly Recalls iPod Nanos in Korea

ClamAV has the smallest virus database of all products on the market - and, consequently, ~75% detection rate in typical test suites, which is at the bottom of the barrel.

At least those other browsers give you a choice of whether to update. Chrome defaults to applying updates and doesn't even inform the user that they have been applied. There is a mechanism for changing this behavior, but it's convoluted and outside of Chrome itself and I think it's Windows-only.

Can you imagine the /. thread if Microsoft decided to force all users to silently install updates to IE?

At least those other browsers give you a choice of whether to update. Chrome defaults to applying updates and doesn't even inform the user that they have been applied. There is a mechanism for changing this behavior, but it's convoluted and outside of Chrome itself and I think it's Windows-only.

Can you imagine the /. thread if Microsoft decided to force all users to silently install updates to IE?

"Do you know what's easier to do than following any of those directions? Buying a fucking Mac." - by RyuuzakiTetsuya (195424) on Monday June 15, @09:37PM (#28343231)

Think so? MacOS X, once it started gaining more popularity, began to be attacked as well - proving the points I made in my "p.s." in my prior post you responded to!

APK

P.S.=> Here are 20 "evidences thereof", as to my statements above about MacOS X, being "virus/trojan/spyware/malware-in-general" prone, like ANY OS IS - thus, here we go:

A Worm for Your Apple:

http://www.beskerming.com/commentary/2007/07/18/222/A_Worm_for_Your_Apple

Another Mac Trojan/Fake Codec:

http://blogs.pcmag.com/securitywatch/2007/11/another_mac_trojanfake_codec.php

Leopard Has More Holes than Spots:

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Security/Leopard-Has-More-Holes-than-Spots/

Mac OS X Exploit Rapidly Follows Patch:

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Security/Mac-OS-X-Exploit-Rapidly-Follows-Patch/

More Mac Vulnerabilities Than Windows In 2007?

http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/12/18/170241&from=rss

OS X Still Open to Samba Vulnerabilities:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2141380,00.asp

A Little .Mac Security Flaw:

http://it.slashdot.org/it/07/12/16/0055211.shtml

Ancient Flaws May Leave Mac OS X Vulnerable:

http://apple.slashdot.org/apple/06/01/26/2224236.shtml

Apple Clients Still Vulnerable After DNS Patch:

http://it.slashdot.org/it/08/08/01/1932258.shtml

Apple Still Has Not Patched the DNS Hole:

http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/07/28/2311240

Mac OS X Root Escalation Through AppleScript:

http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/06/18/1919224

Mac OS X Users Vulnerable To Major Java Flaw:

http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/19/2344239

Macs May No Longer Be Immune to Viruses:

http://apple.slashdot.org/apple/06/05/01/0359225.shtml

OS X Leopard Firewall Flawed:

http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/30/188214

Two Trojans for MacOS X:

http://it.slashdot.org/it/08/06/25/0032226.shtml

Worm Threat Forces Apple To Disable Software?

http://it.slashdot.org/it/07/08/03/1451217.shtml

Zombie Macs Launch DoS Attack:

http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/04/16/2327246

Third flaw hits Mac OS X:

http://www.techworld.com/security/news/index.cfm?NewsID=5429

(Want more? I can provide them, & a larger list for Linux over time also... as I said I could in my post to the "Pro-Penguin" pe

"Do you know what's easier to do than following any of those directions? Buying a fucking Mac." - by RyuuzakiTetsuya (195424) on Monday June 15, @09:37PM (#28343231)

Think so? MacOS X, once it started gaining more popularity, began to be attacked as well - proving the points I made in my "p.s." in my prior post you responded to!

APK

P.S.=> Here are 20 "evidences thereof", as to my statements above about MacOS X, being "virus/trojan/spyware/malware-in-general" prone, like ANY OS IS - thus, here we go:

A Worm for Your Apple:

http://www.beskerming.com/commentary/2007/07/18/222/A_Worm_for_Your_Apple

Another Mac Trojan/Fake Codec:

http://blogs.pcmag.com/securitywatch/2007/11/another_mac_trojanfake_codec.php

Leopard Has More Holes than Spots:

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Security/Leopard-Has-More-Holes-than-Spots/

Mac OS X Exploit Rapidly Follows Patch:

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Security/Mac-OS-X-Exploit-Rapidly-Follows-Patch/

More Mac Vulnerabilities Than Windows In 2007?

http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/12/18/170241&from=rss

OS X Still Open to Samba Vulnerabilities:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2141380,00.asp

A Little .Mac Security Flaw:

http://it.slashdot.org/it/07/12/16/0055211.shtml

Ancient Flaws May Leave Mac OS X Vulnerable:

http://apple.slashdot.org/apple/06/01/26/2224236.shtml

Apple Clients Still Vulnerable After DNS Patch:

http://it.slashdot.org/it/08/08/01/1932258.shtml

Apple Still Has Not Patched the DNS Hole:

http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/07/28/2311240

Mac OS X Root Escalation Through AppleScript:

http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/06/18/1919224

Mac OS X Users Vulnerable To Major Java Flaw:

http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/19/2344239

Macs May No Longer Be Immune to Viruses:

http://apple.slashdot.org/apple/06/05/01/0359225.shtml

OS X Leopard Firewall Flawed:

http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/30/188214

Two Trojans for MacOS X:

http://it.slashdot.org/it/08/06/25/0032226.shtml

Worm Threat Forces Apple To Disable Software?

http://it.slashdot.org/it/07/08/03/1451217.shtml

Zombie Macs Launch DoS Attack:

http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/04/16/2327246

Third flaw hits Mac OS X:

http://www.techworld.com/security/news/index.cfm?NewsID=5429

(Want more? I can provide them, & a larger list for Linux over time also... as I said I could in my post to the "Pro-Penguin" pe

The current atoms run about 2 watts, way too much for a smartphone even if they are able to cut that in half, and that's not even counting the power hog chipsets needed for the atom that require 5-12+ watts. By comparison the current cortex A8 packages with video etc that are able to do 1080p are able to make it under the 300 milliwatt line smartphone manufacturers are looking for.

And even better, if you're talking about Intel's chips two generations out, then consider the Cortex A9 quad core chips that are claiming to be ready to go and at reasonable power consumption in the same time frame if not sooner than Intel's offering. That article is actually claiming dual core Cortex A9 phones within a year that use about the same power as current chips with much better performance.

So as noted it looks like ARM is going to have a much easier time scaling up performance at the smartphone power draw level than Intel is going to have getting anywhere near it. And the Cortex A9 will probably spank the Atom. The race should benefit everyone though. Maybe we'll actually get some decent performing netbook, laptop, and desktop chips out of it that run on extremely low power.

http://m.news.com/2166-12_3-10263278-64.html
http://www.liliputing.com/tag/arm-cortex-a9
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2341032,00.asp
Crap, missed the link the first time. A couple more for good measure.

I'll probably get modded down for this, but the latest versions of Norton aren't slow anymore. I used to be dead set against Norton, but 2009 came with my laptop and it is easily the least intrusive AV I've ever come across. It's never picked up a virus, so I can't comment on detection, but I've never gotten viruses in the past anyway.

I suggest you use it before regurgitating the old Norton issues.

http://www.geek.com/articles/chips/review-norton-internet-security-2009-not-ready-2008101/
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2330018,00.asp
http://reviews.cnet.com/internet-security-and-firewall/norton-internet-security-2009/4505-3667_7-33246586.html?tag=api&subj=re

Even Newegg customer reviews are overwhelmingly fives. Yes, I know there aren't a ton of reviews, but it's interesting nonetheless.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductReview.aspx?Item=N82E16832108387

I can't comment on Microsoft's offering, but I am a bit skeptical. If it's free, I'll probably try it at some point.

No, just fairly certain.

The Apple devices are the same, terrible audio quality especially if you consider the high price.

Actually, the audio quality of the iPod is generally regarded very highly

http://www.whathifi.com/Review/Apple-iPod-Classic-120GB/

http://www.t3.com/ipod-and-mp3-players/all-mp3-players/apple-ipod-shuffle-third-generation-review

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,1857401,00.asp>

It's the piss poor earphones that have always let the side down. Swap them out for something better, and the sound shines through.