Microsoft is choosing to use apple hardware for thier SDK -- but it still runs a Microsoft OS and Microsoft software. There's no conflict of interests here, Microsoft doesn't make hardware (except mice and keyboards) so why shouldn't they use a G5?
Now if the SDK was running on MacOS, then that would be an interesting story. . .
I think they're saying they will generate the power needed to recreate the vacuum by turbines powered by the wind generated while in glide mode. ..
In other words, it's gravity powered.
I'm not really sure whether that would work or not, since I really dont' know how much energy you need to create a vacuum, nor how much is created by winds when you're gliding along at a pokey 5 miles per hour. . .
If you want to keep the movies in tact with menus and mpeg2 format, you're gonna need more than 1 gig per disc. You're looking at 2-4 gigs per dvd. With 1000 dvds, one terabyte won't even get you halfway there. . .
There's no such thing as unblockable pop up. For starters, what if I'm using lynx?
But moreover, in Internet Explorer, for instance, I simply have to disable active x controls -- then NO Video is gonna play on my system. I hope the corporations they're pedlling this crap too don't actually believe that this stuff can't and won't be blocked.
The United States Of America was well known for creating new and confusing "country specific phrases and idioms.
And yet I had the courtesy not to use any that might confuse you. How dare I have the unprecendented gall to expect others to show me the same respect I show them?
. ..even before that illiterate terrorist buffoon Dubya siezed control
He may be an illiterate terrorist and a buffoon but he is NOT . . . uhm..what was the other thing you said?
Few things make me as incredulous as Americans trying to tell anyone else how to use English, the language they abuse at every opportunity.
I've never heard such an arrogant statement made in an attempt to decry someone elses arrogance. So let me clear it up point by point:
1) I'm not trying to tell anyone how to use English, I'm merely asking that they respect the fact that Slashdot is an international meeting place and try to communicate in a manner which will be less confusing to others.
2) Americans don't abuse English anymore than anyone else. There is no version of English which can rightfully claim to be more correct than another. The best we can hope for is that we try to find a common ground (which was the point behind my post) that we can all agree upon.
Every country and culture has it's own traits.
Really? Cause my major in college was/is Anthropology and I'm pretty sure I remember reading somewhere that every culture was identical to every other culture -- except the British (who have bad teeth).
Rather than complain about how they're different from yours and expecting the rest of the world to adopt yours, try to learn to understand them. That's the key skill to making a global society work.
I'm not expecting anyone to adopt to anything. I'm merely asking that I not be forced to learn every local dialect of English and every country-specific idiom in order to understand Slashdot postings.
The story didn't interest me much, but I had to read the article just to try to figure out what on earth that was supposed to mean. Can we try not to use country specific phrases and idioms please? Some of us are stupid Americans. . .
Then providers would quickly make it against the TOS. In fact, comcast already makes it against their TOS for you to share your connection with anyone else (redistribution of services, etc, etc).
Newton, from a buisness perspective, was a flop. A few fanatical fans does not make up for a rejection of the product by consumers at large -- unless they're all planning on owning 10 newtons apiece.
It's like a movie. I can think o fa few movies that have cult followings, but are considered flops because they didn't earn enough money to recoup the costs of producing them.
Well actually, LCD's use a *relatively* small amount of power. But my POINT was that the LCD will only be using power if you're watching video.
Hence, if you're using the device to listen to music, it should have the same battery life as ipod or any other player. The battery life would only be less if you were watching video.
I did read the article and it clearly said multiple devices from multiple manufacturers.
My point was that the orignal poster just read the dumb caption and looked at the pretty picture. The caption said that was a prototype device, the article said there were MANY DEVICES by MANY manufacturers. The original poster clearly didn't understand that or my response would not have been necessary.
GET THIS THROUGH YOUR TINY HEAD: This is an OPERATING system for devices. The devices are NOT being made by microsoft. My laptop came with a "Designed for Microsoft windows 98 sticker on it". Does that mean my Laptop was made by microsfot? Does that mean it even runs windows now?
The devices are bieng made by MANY companies. Viewsonic, iriver, creative labs and several others which I cannot think of right now.
Now stop posting before you post even more WRONG stuff and come out looking even more stupid.
Well you make a good point. I'd have to say this first generation of video players are not gonna be ipod killers, but future ones will be. With the falling price of LCD's, coupled with the fact that battery life while listening to music on both devices could theoretically be the same (with battery life being less if you're watching video), it will mean that an ipod and a theoretical device the same size and cost with video capabillities will someday exist.
When that day comes, who's gonna pick the one that has fewer features for the same cost (or possibly more, considering the premium price apple charges).
This is the next LOGICAL step. LCD screens are cheap now -- video playback can be added without adding much to the cost. Now that apple's stranglehold on the 1.8 inch hard drive has FINALLY been broken, there will be no reason why other companies won't start making devices as small and compact as the ipod (witness Dell's new DJ mp3 player using hitachi's 1.8 inch drives as evidence).
Based on that here is what you'll see in the future:
Device as small as ipod (this is already happening, now that Apple's monopoly on 1.8 drives has been broken up by hitachi)
Same price as ipod (Easy enough to do, dell's DJ player which is the same size of ipod with better battery life and only slightly poorer design is half the cost of ipod)
Well designed as ipod (might take them a bit to catch up in this respect)
With video functionality (coming soon!)
Which will you pick? THere will be NO reason to go with ipod anymore. If apple is smart, they'll come out with the long-rumored video ipod. I know I'd buy one. ..
This got moderated up? This post is garbage. It makes no insightful or funny comments at all, merely pointless Microsoft bashing.
For the record smart guy, Microsoft is only making the operating system. It's not "a device" its MANY products by MANY different companies. You clearly did NOT read the article -- you just looked at a picture or two and hit the "flame" button on your keyboard.
Anytime you mention APPLE or IPOD in a post your bound to get dozens of zealots crawling out of the woodwork to defend any POSSIBLE defamation of their favorite product. They're worse than Disney lawyers. ..
Anyways, EVERYONE of you is making the same point, and its a dumb one. You write these products off because you say "You can watch video AND do other stuff, so ipod is better."
But the fact is, these players can do everything an ipod can do (when it comes to music) AND They can play video. Which means, if you're doing something else, and you just want to listen to some tunes, then this device will have you covered. But if you happen to be in a situation (say a plane flight) where you want to watch a movie you can do that also.
Do you see the point? Your argument falls apart because it fails to consider the fact that these devices are not video only -- they are media players -- capable of doing anything your home computers media player can do.
Personally, though, I believe apple will jump on this bandwagon too. Whether I spend my money on the first good PvP to hit the market, or a video ipod depends on how fast Apple does so. But I've already decided not to buy an ipod in favor of one of these devices.
You're wrong. There are plenty of people out there waiting for a device like the ipod that plays video. I'm one of them, and I've seen forums and message boards full of other people.
Sure we're not gonna use this to watch movies while jogging or working out at the gym -- but then again, techie types are not known for doing either of these activities much anyways.
Everyone has their own reason. Some want these devices for storing photos for portable presentations. Some want to be able to take their video collections with them (to watch portablly, or simply to hook up to a friends tv and watch).
I, for one, made the decision months ago NOT to buy an ipod (and I was VERY close to doing so) in order to wait for the first GOOD PvP. SO far the archos AV340 (which has been very successful) was a disspointment to me and so was the RCA Lyra RD2780. Nevertheless, I am proof that apple has sold one less ipod because the very devices mentioned by the article. . .
Sure, I agree that Microsoft has had some flops (especially BOB), but how does something like WebTV lose out to Apple blunders (Of which there have been just as many) like Newton and LISA. Come on, I mean, WebTV was only a tiny little flop by comparison. . .
Have you noticed that when someone manages to get an overly vauge patent on a concept which is semi-obvious (I mean, who wasn't thinking to themselves back in the day "When are they gonna make writable cds?"), that they always wait to file the law suit until after its a multi-billion dollar industry?
Surely there should be some sort of time limits in place. Either your protecting your intellectual property so YOU can be the one who uses it to profit, or you're simply trying to be a leech. A simple time-frame for filing a law suit could go a long way towards determining which are which.
The number of people on the big file-sharing networks is half of what it was before the law suits. But as kazaa declines, edonkey and bittorrent grow. If they're stated goal is to destroy kazaa, then mission accomplished. But if they want to stop file sharing, they'll have to destroy the internet.
Maybe it's just that all the shows this season suck?
Fox has pissed me off. They got rid of firefly and John Doe and gave me Joe Millionaire 2? Go to hell fox.
I can't even name a single show on CBS -- not one.
ABC has nothing I want to watch, just reality shows and lame sitcoms.
I still watch a few things on NBC, like Frasier and the West Wing. However both of these shows have different writers than last season, so perhaps some viewers have simply become alienated.
Of course, the networks will never, ever admit that their problem lies with themselves. So rather than blaming On-line gaming, allow me to offer up the following scapegoat:
What about the availabillity of such shows through bittorrent?
For instance, check out www.suprnova.org.
I'm probably rather atypical in this regard, but I've often not made as much effort to "not miss a show" simply because I know I can always get it later if I do.
Microsoft announced an *operating* system for media players -- primarily for use in PVP's (personal video players). This is basically a stripped down windows CE. They didn't announce an actual player (To be manufactured by them).
Slashdot Mirror
Iriver has announced exactly what you're describing -- theres pictures of it on various gadget sites. It's supposed to come out in April. . .
I enjoyed firefly and was sad to see it go -- but I'd still really like a Farscape movie. I need resolution damnit!
Microsoft is choosing to use apple hardware for thier SDK -- but it still runs a Microsoft OS and Microsoft software. There's no conflict of interests here, Microsoft doesn't make hardware (except mice and keyboards) so why shouldn't they use a G5?
Now if the SDK was running on MacOS, then that would be an interesting story. . .
I think they're saying they will generate the power needed to recreate the vacuum by turbines powered by the wind generated while in glide mode. . .
In other words, it's gravity powered.
I'm not really sure whether that would work or not, since I really dont' know how much energy you need to create a vacuum, nor how much is created by winds when you're gliding along at a pokey 5 miles per hour. . .
If you want to keep the movies in tact with menus and mpeg2 format, you're gonna need more than 1 gig per disc. You're looking at 2-4 gigs per dvd. With 1000 dvds, one terabyte won't even get you halfway there. . .
There's no such thing as unblockable pop up. For starters, what if I'm using lynx?
But moreover, in Internet Explorer, for instance, I simply have to disable active x controls -- then NO Video is gonna play on my system. I hope the corporations they're pedlling this crap too don't actually believe that this stuff can't and won't be blocked.
The United States Of America was well known for creating new and confusing "country specific phrases and idioms.
.even before that illiterate terrorist buffoon Dubya siezed control
And yet I had the courtesy not to use any that might confuse you. How dare I have the unprecendented gall to expect others to show me the same respect I show them?
. .
He may be an illiterate terrorist and a buffoon but he is NOT . . . uhm..what was the other thing you said?
Few things make me as incredulous as Americans trying to tell anyone else how to use English, the language they abuse at every opportunity.
I've never heard such an arrogant statement made in an attempt to decry someone elses arrogance. So let me clear it up point by point:
1) I'm not trying to tell anyone how to use English, I'm merely asking that they respect the fact that Slashdot is an international meeting place and try to communicate in a manner which will be less confusing to others.
2) Americans don't abuse English anymore than anyone else. There is no version of English which can rightfully claim to be more correct than another. The best we can hope for is that we try to find a common ground (which was the point behind my post) that we can all agree upon.
Every country and culture has it's own traits.
Really? Cause my major in college was/is Anthropology and I'm pretty sure I remember reading somewhere that every culture was identical to every other culture -- except the British (who have bad teeth).
Rather than complain about how they're different from yours and expecting the rest of the world to adopt yours, try to learn to understand them. That's the key skill to making a global society work.
I'm not expecting anyone to adopt to anything. I'm merely asking that I not be forced to learn every local dialect of English and every country-specific idiom in order to understand Slashdot postings.
It's a bad idea -- not because it somehow promotes an Apple monopoloy, but because no one wants WMA playback on thier ipod.
The story didn't interest me much, but I had to read the article just to try to figure out what on earth that was supposed to mean. Can we try not to use country specific phrases and idioms please? Some of us are stupid Americans. . .
Then providers would quickly make it against the TOS. In fact, comcast already makes it against their TOS for you to share your connection with anyone else (redistribution of services, etc, etc).
Newton, from a buisness perspective, was a flop. A few fanatical fans does not make up for a rejection of the product by consumers at large -- unless they're all planning on owning 10 newtons apiece.
It's like a movie. I can think o fa few movies that have cult followings, but are considered flops because they didn't earn enough money to recoup the costs of producing them.
Well actually, LCD's use a *relatively* small amount of power. But my POINT was that the LCD will only be using power if you're watching video.
Hence, if you're using the device to listen to music, it should have the same battery life as ipod or any other player. The battery life would only be less if you were watching video.
I did read the article and it clearly said multiple devices from multiple manufacturers.
My point was that the orignal poster just read the dumb caption and looked at the pretty picture. The caption said that was a prototype device, the article said there were MANY DEVICES by MANY manufacturers. The original poster clearly didn't understand that or my response would not have been necessary.
GET THIS THROUGH YOUR TINY HEAD: This is an OPERATING system for devices. The devices are NOT being made by microsoft. My laptop came with a "Designed for Microsoft windows 98 sticker on it". Does that mean my Laptop was made by microsfot? Does that mean it even runs windows now?
The devices are bieng made by MANY companies. Viewsonic, iriver, creative labs and several others which I cannot think of right now.
Now stop posting before you post even more WRONG stuff and come out looking even more stupid.
Well you make a good point. I'd have to say this first generation of video players are not gonna be ipod killers, but future ones will be. With the falling price of LCD's, coupled with the fact that battery life while listening to music on both devices could theoretically be the same (with battery life being less if you're watching video), it will mean that an ipod and a theoretical device the same size and cost with video capabillities will someday exist.
.
When that day comes, who's gonna pick the one that has fewer features for the same cost (or possibly more, considering the premium price apple charges).
This is the next LOGICAL step. LCD screens are cheap now -- video playback can be added without adding much to the cost. Now that apple's stranglehold on the 1.8 inch hard drive has FINALLY been broken, there will be no reason why other companies won't start making devices as small and compact as the ipod (witness Dell's new DJ mp3 player using hitachi's 1.8 inch drives as evidence).
Based on that here is what you'll see in the future:
Device as small as ipod (this is already happening, now that Apple's monopoly on 1.8 drives has been broken up by hitachi)
Same price as ipod (Easy enough to do, dell's DJ player which is the same size of ipod with better battery life and only slightly poorer design is half the cost of ipod)
Well designed as ipod (might take them a bit to catch up in this respect)
With video functionality (coming soon!)
Which will you pick? THere will be NO reason to go with ipod anymore. If apple is smart, they'll come out with the long-rumored video ipod. I know I'd buy one. .
This got moderated up? This post is garbage. It makes no insightful or funny comments at all, merely pointless Microsoft bashing.
For the record smart guy, Microsoft is only making the operating system. It's not "a device" its MANY products by MANY different companies. You clearly did NOT read the article -- you just looked at a picture or two and hit the "flame" button on your keyboard.
Anytime you mention APPLE or IPOD in a post your bound to get dozens of zealots crawling out of the woodwork to defend any POSSIBLE defamation of their favorite product. They're worse than Disney lawyers. . .
Anyways, EVERYONE of you is making the same point, and its a dumb one. You write these products off because you say "You can watch video AND do other stuff, so ipod is better."
But the fact is, these players can do everything an ipod can do (when it comes to music) AND They can play video. Which means, if you're doing something else, and you just want to listen to some tunes, then this device will have you covered. But if you happen to be in a situation (say a plane flight) where you want to watch a movie you can do that also.
Do you see the point? Your argument falls apart because it fails to consider the fact that these devices are not video only -- they are media players -- capable of doing anything your home computers media player can do.
Personally, though, I believe apple will jump on this bandwagon too. Whether I spend my money on the first good PvP to hit the market, or a video ipod depends on how fast Apple does so. But I've already decided not to buy an ipod in favor of one of these devices.
You're wrong. There are plenty of people out there waiting for a device like the ipod that plays video. I'm one of them, and I've seen forums and message boards full of other people.
Sure we're not gonna use this to watch movies while jogging or working out at the gym -- but then again, techie types are not known for doing either of these activities much anyways.
Everyone has their own reason. Some want these devices for storing photos for portable presentations. Some want to be able to take their video collections with them (to watch portablly, or simply to hook up to a friends tv and watch).
I, for one, made the decision months ago NOT to buy an ipod (and I was VERY close to doing so) in order to wait for the first GOOD PvP. SO far the archos AV340 (which has been very successful) was a disspointment to me and so was the RCA Lyra RD2780. Nevertheless, I am proof that apple has sold one less ipod because the very devices mentioned by the article. . .
Since when does Slashdot post corporate press releases. . .
Sure, I agree that Microsoft has had some flops (especially BOB), but how does something like WebTV lose out to Apple blunders (Of which there have been just as many) like Newton and LISA. Come on, I mean, WebTV was only a tiny little flop by comparison. . .
Have you noticed that when someone manages to get an overly vauge patent on a concept which is semi-obvious (I mean, who wasn't thinking to themselves back in the day "When are they gonna make writable cds?"), that they always wait to file the law suit until after its a multi-billion dollar industry?
Surely there should be some sort of time limits in place. Either your protecting your intellectual property so YOU can be the one who uses it to profit, or you're simply trying to be a leech. A simple time-frame for filing a law suit could go a long way towards determining which are which.
The number of people on the big file-sharing networks is half of what it was before the law suits. But as kazaa declines, edonkey and bittorrent grow. If they're stated goal is to destroy kazaa, then mission accomplished. But if they want to stop file sharing, they'll have to destroy the internet.
Surely this is just another one of those "Major News outlet accidently picks up story from The onion" things. . . right?
Maybe if I convert, some nice Protestant city will throw in free cell phone service in order to win me back.
Maybe it's just that all the shows this season suck?
Fox has pissed me off. They got rid of firefly and John Doe and gave me Joe Millionaire 2? Go to hell fox.
I can't even name a single show on CBS -- not one.
ABC has nothing I want to watch, just reality shows and lame sitcoms.
I still watch a few things on NBC, like Frasier and the West Wing. However both of these shows have different writers than last season, so perhaps some viewers have simply become alienated.
Of course, the networks will never, ever admit that their problem lies with themselves. So rather than blaming On-line gaming, allow me to offer up the following scapegoat:
What about the availabillity of such shows through bittorrent?
For instance, check out www.suprnova.org.
I'm probably rather atypical in this regard, but I've often not made as much effort to "not miss a show" simply because I know I can always get it later if I do.
Microsoft announced an *operating* system for media players -- primarily for use in PVP's (personal video players). This is basically a stripped down windows CE. They didn't announce an actual player (To be manufactured by them).