What ?
any iPhone can be Jailbroken. that's true.
I don't see the link between this and the fact your wife's phone has crap hardware that's not compatible with Android 2.1
Guess what ? iPhone OS 4 won't run on 1st Gen iPhones either..
Grow a brain please and re read your comment : you're comparing Apples (upgrades) and Oranges (mods)
Before going around and telling people to grow a brain, grow yours first. I was not comparing upgrades to mods, but accessibility to the firmware to accessibility to the firmware. It is a very well known fact that you can do a lot of modifications to an iPhone software. If you are not aware of that, that's not MY problem.
My wife's Magic cannot be upgraded because of a non-rootable boot loader. Other models with otherwise identical hardware can be upgraded, so it is not "crappy" hardware the cause.
But, the discussion was not about this particular thing. I was claiming that Android gives power of control over the firmware to the cellular providers and cell phone manufacturers - and this is correct, no way how you want to spin it. I also claimed that this is worse than iPhone's lock - this is clearly my opinion and you may have a different one.
The main difference is that I behaved like a civil person, and in reply you told me to grow a brain, which is a clear sign that either your parents did not raise you properly, or that you were a hopeless case to begin with. I will not reply to your posts starting from now, so do not waste time on me.
That's not true.
Android doesn't give any power to the cellular manufacturers of the carriers.
Android gives this power to anyone willing to do so.
But, as with the iPhone, potentially violating EULAs, conditions in the contracts with the service provides, voiding your warranty.
And you might not know it (unless you are hypocritical) but Android doesn't lack mods.
pretty much any hpone on the market that's sold to run Android can be flashed to run "stock" version of the OS, or any flavour Cyanogen has come up with.
I know that, but, as with a Jailbroken iPhone, potentially violating EULAs, conditions in the contracts with the service provides, voiding your warranty.
Furthermore, the 192Mb version of the HTC Magic my wife owns has also the "wrong" HBOOT version. So she cannot upgrade to Android 2.1. That's of course compatible with that "pretty much any phone" you write: you admit a few exceptions.
I stand by my words: allowing cell phone manufacturers and service providers the choice of version of Android one can install is, in my opinion, an even worse kind of evil released unto the (average) users.
OTOH, as of today _every_ iPhone, iPod, iPad can be jailbroken (tomorrow the situation could be different).
And that's Stallman's problem. His ideal phone boots a GNU/HURD kernel and comes with nothing but a copy of emacs and the specifications of the hardware.
No... it would come with printer drivers too.
And a TeX installation. I miss TeX on my iPhone.
Roberto
Why was this modded insightful? As the originator of the free software movement Stallman simply wants the software people receive on the phone to be "free."
And not only - it is ok to pay for free software. Source must come with it, you must be allowed to modify and install it. You can pay for the service, for assistance. Open source is not incompatible with commercial use. Only, it is more difficult to do that, because you have to rely on the quality of your services, and not on lock-in.
For an example that comes closer to the mark, see Android.
I find Android even worse than the iPhone OS (that is my platform), because it gives control of the firmware to the cellular phone manufacturers and cellular service providers - but not to the end user.
Roberto
Do iPhone users have the ability to choose a cell phone provider outside of the U.S.?
Depending on the market, yes. In some countries, such as Australia, or Italy, all (or almost all) providers offer the iPhone. In other countries, like Germany, the situation is exactly as in the States (only one provider, all iPhones are locked). In Italy, Belgium, Poland, and other states all iPhones are even sold unlocked and out of contract -- which means that you can put any SIM you want in it and you can even set-up tethering (starting with iPhone OS 3.1.3).
Of course, if you buy a factory unlocked iPhone you pay up front the whole cost (in December 2008 I bought my 16Gb 3G in my native Italy for 569 EUR) but we do have some extremely cheap prepaid offers that include also large data packages (and on 3G networks as well). In fact, I use my iPhone 3G in Italy, Germany, Austria, South Africa and Chile regularly and I saved already $$$ on roaming charges...
What really matters is functionality. What useful background process can you do on the Pre that can not be done on the iPhone. (I already know the answer, so you can just slip back into fantasyland where there are people in the world that are interested in WebOS devices).
IM.
Beejive does IM on the iPhone (3.1.2 on a 3G) just fine, and I get the messages also when the app is closed. Try again.
In addition to Skype running all the time, I also get e-mail (pulled from multiple sources), have IM clients open, listen to music, have my latest eBook open, have WMWiFiRouter running (for my computer connection, and often for serving audio from my laptop to my Squeezebox) and many times have a PowerPoint presentation opened and loaded so it's ready to go when I get to my client's office. Some of us do use actual multitasking...
And also, let's not forget, Mainland China (despite all the problems they had with Google) are forking and standardizing on Android 1.6. How many cell phone users does China have anyway?
And this will be a total disaster for Android. A huge market that will use only an older version of the OS, lacking some of the most recent features. Android is at 2.1, 3.0 is in development, and many older handsets cannot be upgraded. Not only that, but tens of millions of smartphones are still produced with 1.6 and customized in such a way that upgrades will be impossible. Most users just know that it is "Android" and will realize later, after they have signed their contracts, that they have been scre*ed.
By allowing providers and handset makers the ability to tweak the OS, Google shoot Android in the foot. There will be increasing incompatibility between versions, handsets, and providers. Users will notice that, at least those that BUY and USE applications - and, guess what, THESE users are those that are important to developers. The users that never buy an app are irrelevant. Apple will not care much if a new handset maker sells 1B phones in a year, when the application market on these phones is small.
I predict that many Android users will not be satisfied, and thus will leave the platform. On my iPhone, I know that I will get regular OS updates, that almost all my applications are guaranteed to work with the different devices, and this protects my investment in software. This makes most iPhone OS users loyal, or locked-in, depending from your perspective. Apple is going to laugh in the long run.
I hope that Android will keep pressure on Apple, but it may *not* be on the basis of features, because handset makers and cellular service providers are not interested in that. This is a pity. Somehow I got the feeling that it will be Windows Phone 7 that will make pressure on Apple.
The user interface is perhaps the single most important substantive component of the computing experience, yet posters like you routinely pretend as if it isn't even there.
Right, but we all know that software developers and sophisticated manufacturing processes cost nothing, right?
These trolls act like developing OS X costed nothing (after all, its "just BSD," right? with a fancy UI that any 12 year old kiddo can draw, right?), that OS research, compiler research, writing browsers (even with an originally lifted codebase), doing usability studies is all done for free...
It's a tablet, it's got a small screen. For the love of god please tell us what the fuck you'd use "multi-tasking" for on a device like this? 90% of the Windows users I know run everything full screen. Even on 24" monitors. Including the file explorer.
That's what they are used to. I find that terrible. I commonly drag-and-drop between different applications on my Mac. I like to have a fraction of an IM application visible. The desktop of my mac is a bit like a crazy creative desktop. A windows users screen looks to me too often like a nightmare from the soviet union.
None of them would know if the machine was capable of multitasking or not, as long as their open apps came up in the same state that they left them. Which is exactly what the iPhone/iPad do!
Most users just need to interrupt a task and then resume it. Which is what the iPhone OS does. Applications do not consume time and resources in the background and quickly restart where the user left them.
With Push Notification, the only thing one would need multitasking for would be sound streaming apps. That the only thing in fact I miss. Not that the experience is usually great when you are steaming over a data connection while travelling, but, still, it is something that is missing. The only one, probably.
I mean, it would be cool if one could run some HPC application in the background on an iPhone. Cool for a geek, that is. And... for what?
Fuck me, if multitasking was that important to you, the first thing you'd be thinking is "cool hardware, how do we jailbreak it". I do wonder what Slashdot has become. News for Nobs is more like it.
In fact I am using JB for one thing - the only productivity thing I really use JB for: copying email attachments and safari downloads to DocsToGo and selectively backup some application data. Once the file management is available on iPhone OS, I guess that almost all meaningless complaints will have be answered.
Roberto
Because 30% of revenue on 50% of applications for a platform with 40% of the market, is a lot more money than 30% of revenue on 100% of applications for a platform that has dwindled to 5% of the market.
Plenty of people would use Apple's app store voluntarily--for convenience, for the promotional clout, and so on. (Plenty of people use the BlackBerry and Android marketplaces.) However, by forcing everyone to use the app store, Apple run the risk of destroying their platform market share.
Yes, but where is it written in stone that Apple is now forced to keep this very same model and not allow alternative stores in the future? I do not have a crystal ball, but I am sure you do not have one. Believe it or not, they have some clever people at Apple. Of course they can also make big, huge, blunders, but they may even do it right
I think that's what Verizon is trying to point out in those ads; Verizon's 3G network is much, much more expansive than AT&T's, and as such, there are lots of places where an AT&T phone won't have signal whereas a Verizon phone will. They just picked the iPhone because its the most visible, and arguably the most popular phone on AT&T.
Yes, but I would say that ATT's 3G coverage more than a problem OF the iPhone is a problem FOR the iPhone. I would say that Verizon's add in fact underlines that. The other toys tell it "you can do a lot of stuff, why are you depressed" and the iPhone shows the coverage map.
In Europe we can't always choose the network. In Italy, Belgium, the Czech republic, Poland, you can just buy it and put in it any SIM card you want. In France and the UK you have more providers but it is still simlocked. In Germany you have only one provided, the phone is locked and, guess what, you have the worst and most expensive tariffs of all.
My hunch is that in the future simlocked iPhones will become rare. Even in Germany (the country where the behaviour of phone companies most closely resembles the legalised-rape-like attitude of cellular networks in the U.S. & Canada), when you get an Android phone from vodafone, it is not locked. Sooner or later Apple will have to react to *that* to remain competitive.
With Android-based phones cranking up, how long will it be before Apple loses their market share due to these shenanigans?
Android was first released in October 2008, with the first device being available the same month - thats over a year ago. According to Apple, the iPhone sold more than 4 million units in the first 200 days, so wheres the equivalent Android sales explosion? Analysts are expecting Android sales to outstrip iPhone sales by 2012, but why is it going to take that long if Android is such a good competitor? It didn't take the iPhone anywhere near two and a half years to take a significant chunk of the market from competitors.
I'm not an Android hater, I haven't used it so I don't hold an opinion on it, but it seems to be held as the ultimate saviour on/., and I'm struggling to see why. Its not the iPhone I am worried about, its the Android series of phones...
And leaving some of control of the firmware to the handset makers is the single, biggest mistake you can do. One of the main reasons the software scene on Symbian is lo lousy. You end up with too many different versions of the OS in use at the same time, and in some cases updating will be very, very difficult (did it never happen that a give FW update was NOT available for your specific Nokia handset - and thus you were unable to use some applications? IN Europe this is very common).
And TOO different HW characteristics. Some people complain that Apple's 480x320 screen is no longer the coolest around.
Of course Apple is already working on updates to the display - but in such a way that applications and icons won't look like rubbish (like scaling on the Motorola Droid). I need non insider info to know they are: they would be dumb if they didn't - and they may be evil, but not stupid.
I expect an exact doubling of resolution in both axes, and this will of course happen a bit later than on the Android platform (854x480 current on Droid), and with some _very_ simple software support (developers will have to check if such a screen is available, otherwise apps will be scaled, I guess).
Apple once owned 50% desktop market. If you read the history, even from sources like Wikipedia, you will see it isn't exactly "evil Microsoft" put them in bad position, it is their bad treatment to developers, especially tiny ones.
Well, the development tools on OS X are excellent. So it seems that Apple has learned. And they have almost half of all U.S. desktop revenue, so their marketing, product, and developer strategies are working well at the moment.
As for the iPhone, a lot of developers have success. Good applications are visible. iPhone users can buy applications for cheap with respect to other platforms. The system is not perfect, but it seems to be working.
Should problems arise, Apple will adapt the strategy. Of course they may do it terribly wrong, but, hey, it is a company, not a religion.
And if for somebody Apple is a religion, then, poor them.
The two most common complaints I hear, in order, are: "I refuse to sign up for AT&T's service," and "I keep reading about how they won't let people publish their apps." The more they press this issue, the more they are setting themselves up for a spectacular failure.
Well, Apple can always relax, and it does. Is there a need for kinds of apps other than web apps? Here's a set of APIs and an appstore. Do you need Exchange compatibility? Here it is. Do you need some kind of services offered usually by background processes? For now, in some cases, we have Push Notifications.
Sooner or later Apple will have to shift the responsibility of activating tethering on the user (yes, I know the patent). Apple *can* allow more sources for apps in the future. It is more difficult to restrict conditions later (as Android will notice - at the moment applications seldom have visibility on Android, and sell much less than on the iPhone, and some developers are fleeing as well).
I am not condoning all of Apple's practices, but they sure know what they are doing. If you do not like what Apple is doing in a particular country, then you can still buy something else. If Apple does not offer some set of functions in your country, then the Apple product WITH that set of functions does not exist (it may exist if you hack the product, but then it is no longer Apple's offering).
As far as I know a phone does not have "coverage". The network has coverage (or has not). Under coverage a phone gets signal. This myopic perspective is always baffling me. In fact, it is not even ATT's fault the iPhone does not get signal where ATT does not provide coverage: the fault is in the business model.
...the iPhone is NOT TIED TO AT&T. Believe it or not, countries exist outside of USA. This discussion on/. about iPhone sucks because all of you don't seem to understand that the iPhone is sold GLOBALLY. STFU ABOUT AT&T
You are right. A lot of people write that the iPhone has bad voice quality, because they only tested it with ATT. Well, I get better voice quality from the iPhone than with all Motorola and Nokia handsets I have tried so far. Because I am using a good network.
Not trying to flame you. Honestly curious. How does the IPhone handle multiple languages?
There is builtin support for many languages, and all the strings are stored in separate files, as on mac os x. You can change language and most apps will change immediately as well.
I have never seen funny things like on my wife's android, such as "Hai un appuntamento il 31 ottobre, donnerstag" which means "you got a date on the 31rst of october, thursday", but the text is in italian except for the name of the day of the week, which is in German. This is really poor.
Is there any automatic language selection for the text correction?
Not automatic, but you can enable more keyboards. I have an italian, a german, and an english keyboard. text correction depends on the keyboard you are using and there is an on-screen icon you can tap to change keyboard - and thus text correction dictionary.
>>>Don't upgrade if you don't think it's worth it!
You can't do that with Macs. They'll stop running the latest software. For example I wouldn't be able to run Firefox 3 or 3.5 on my G4 Mac's original OS (10.1). I had to upgrade.
But that's not Apple's fault. As far as I know, Firefox has not been developed by Apple.
Now you see why the average windows user just runs as administrator.
Under OS X, you just type username and password of an administrator upon installation (and that only of SOME applications - you can install most of them just locally) and there is no file permission problem as you are running the application as a non-admin user.
But I thought Macs were supposed to be virus-proof? That's what many slashdotters have been telling me over the last several months, in efforts to get me to dump my buggy PC. Could they have been... (shocking)... wrong?;-)
Well, this is *not* a virus. This is something that can happen on *any* operating system. It requires the user to intentionally install it and give root or admin privileges during the installation. It is a trojan.
Slashdot Mirror
What ? any iPhone can be Jailbroken. that's true. I don't see the link between this and the fact your wife's phone has crap hardware that's not compatible with Android 2.1 Guess what ? iPhone OS 4 won't run on 1st Gen iPhones either.. Grow a brain please and re read your comment : you're comparing Apples (upgrades) and Oranges (mods)
Before going around and telling people to grow a brain, grow yours first. I was not comparing upgrades to mods, but accessibility to the firmware to accessibility to the firmware. It is a very well known fact that you can do a lot of modifications to an iPhone software. If you are not aware of that, that's not MY problem.
My wife's Magic cannot be upgraded because of a non-rootable boot loader. Other models with otherwise identical hardware can be upgraded, so it is not "crappy" hardware the cause.
But, the discussion was not about this particular thing. I was claiming that Android gives power of control over the firmware to the cellular providers and cell phone manufacturers - and this is correct, no way how you want to spin it. I also claimed that this is worse than iPhone's lock - this is clearly my opinion and you may have a different one.
The main difference is that I behaved like a civil person, and in reply you told me to grow a brain, which is a clear sign that either your parents did not raise you properly, or that you were a hopeless case to begin with. I will not reply to your posts starting from now, so do not waste time on me.
Roberto
That's not true. Android doesn't give any power to the cellular manufacturers of the carriers. Android gives this power to anyone willing to do so.
But, as with the iPhone, potentially violating EULAs, conditions in the contracts with the service provides, voiding your warranty.
And you might not know it (unless you are hypocritical) but Android doesn't lack mods. pretty much any hpone on the market that's sold to run Android can be flashed to run "stock" version of the OS, or any flavour Cyanogen has come up with.
I know that, but, as with a Jailbroken iPhone, potentially violating EULAs, conditions in the contracts with the service provides, voiding your warranty.
Furthermore, the 192Mb version of the HTC Magic my wife owns has also the "wrong" HBOOT version. So she cannot upgrade to Android 2.1. That's of course compatible with that "pretty much any phone" you write: you admit a few exceptions.
I stand by my words: allowing cell phone manufacturers and service providers the choice of version of Android one can install is, in my opinion, an even worse kind of evil released unto the (average) users.
OTOH, as of today _every_ iPhone, iPod, iPad can be jailbroken (tomorrow the situation could be different).
Roberto
And that's Stallman's problem. His ideal phone boots a GNU/HURD kernel and comes with nothing but a copy of emacs and the specifications of the hardware.
No... it would come with printer drivers too.
And a TeX installation. I miss TeX on my iPhone.
Roberto
Why was this modded insightful? As the originator of the free software movement Stallman simply wants the software people receive on the phone to be "free."
And not only - it is ok to pay for free software. Source must come with it, you must be allowed to modify and install it. You can pay for the service, for assistance. Open source is not incompatible with commercial use. Only, it is more difficult to do that, because you have to rely on the quality of your services, and not on lock-in.
For an example that comes closer to the mark, see Android.
I find Android even worse than the iPhone OS (that is my platform), because it gives control of the firmware to the cellular phone manufacturers and cellular service providers - but not to the end user.
Roberto
Do iPhone users have the ability to choose a cell phone provider outside of the U.S.?
Depending on the market, yes. In some countries, such as Australia, or Italy, all (or almost all) providers offer the iPhone. In other countries, like Germany, the situation is exactly as in the States (only one provider, all iPhones are locked). In Italy, Belgium, Poland, and other states all iPhones are even sold unlocked and out of contract -- which means that you can put any SIM you want in it and you can even set-up tethering (starting with iPhone OS 3.1.3).
Of course, if you buy a factory unlocked iPhone you pay up front the whole cost (in December 2008 I bought my 16Gb 3G in my native Italy for 569 EUR) but we do have some extremely cheap prepaid offers that include also large data packages (and on 3G networks as well). In fact, I use my iPhone 3G in Italy, Germany, Austria, South Africa and Chile regularly and I saved already $$$ on roaming charges...
Roberto
What really matters is functionality. What useful background process can you do on the Pre that can not be done on the iPhone. (I already know the answer, so you can just slip back into fantasyland where there are people in the world that are interested in WebOS devices).
IM.
Beejive does IM on the iPhone (3.1.2 on a 3G) just fine, and I get the messages also when the app is closed. Try again.
Roberto
In addition to Skype running all the time, I also get e-mail (pulled from multiple sources), have IM clients open, listen to music, have my latest eBook open, have WMWiFiRouter running (for my computer connection, and often for serving audio from my laptop to my Squeezebox) and many times have a PowerPoint presentation opened and loaded so it's ready to go when I get to my client's office. Some of us do use actual multitasking...
Are you sure you are talking about phones?
Roberto
That's with the iPhone being restricted to people willing to switch to AT&T.
Uh, the world is not part of the U.S., you know. At least, not yet ;-)
Roberto
And also, let's not forget, Mainland China (despite all the problems they had with Google) are forking and standardizing on Android 1.6. How many cell phone users does China have anyway?
And this will be a total disaster for Android. A huge market that will use only an older version of the OS, lacking some of the most recent features. Android is at 2.1, 3.0 is in development, and many older handsets cannot be upgraded. Not only that, but tens of millions of smartphones are still produced with 1.6 and customized in such a way that upgrades will be impossible. Most users just know that it is "Android" and will realize later, after they have signed their contracts, that they have been scre*ed.
By allowing providers and handset makers the ability to tweak the OS, Google shoot Android in the foot. There will be increasing incompatibility between versions, handsets, and providers. Users will notice that, at least those that BUY and USE applications - and, guess what, THESE users are those that are important to developers. The users that never buy an app are irrelevant. Apple will not care much if a new handset maker sells 1B phones in a year, when the application market on these phones is small.
I predict that many Android users will not be satisfied, and thus will leave the platform. On my iPhone, I know that I will get regular OS updates, that almost all my applications are guaranteed to work with the different devices, and this protects my investment in software. This makes most iPhone OS users loyal, or locked-in, depending from your perspective. Apple is going to laugh in the long run.
I hope that Android will keep pressure on Apple, but it may *not* be on the basis of features, because handset makers and cellular service providers are not interested in that. This is a pity. Somehow I got the feeling that it will be Windows Phone 7 that will make pressure on Apple.
Roberto
The user interface is perhaps the single most important substantive component of the computing experience, yet posters like you routinely pretend as if it isn't even there.
Right, but we all know that software developers and sophisticated manufacturing processes cost nothing, right?
These trolls act like developing OS X costed nothing (after all, its "just BSD," right? with a fancy UI that any 12 year old kiddo can draw, right?), that OS research, compiler research, writing browsers (even with an originally lifted codebase), doing usability studies is all done for free...
Roberto
It's a tablet, it's got a small screen. For the love of god please tell us what the fuck you'd use "multi-tasking" for on a device like this?
90% of the Windows users I know run everything full screen. Even on 24" monitors. Including the file explorer.
That's what they are used to. I find that terrible. I commonly drag-and-drop between different applications on my Mac. I like to have a fraction of an IM application visible. The desktop of my mac is a bit like a crazy creative desktop. A windows users screen looks to me too often like a nightmare from the soviet union.
None of them would know if the machine was capable of multitasking or not, as long as their open apps came up in the same state that they left them. Which is exactly what the iPhone/iPad do!
Most users just need to interrupt a task and then resume it. Which is what the iPhone OS does. Applications do not consume time and resources in the background and quickly restart where the user left them.
With Push Notification, the only thing one would need multitasking for would be sound streaming apps. That the only thing in fact I miss. Not that the experience is usually great when you are steaming over a data connection while travelling, but, still, it is something that is missing. The only one, probably.
I mean, it would be cool if one could run some HPC application in the background on an iPhone. Cool for a geek, that is. And... for what?
Fuck me, if multitasking was that important to you, the first thing you'd be thinking is "cool hardware, how do we jailbreak it". I do wonder what Slashdot has become. News for Nobs is more like it.
In fact I am using JB for one thing - the only productivity thing I really use JB for: copying email attachments and safari downloads to DocsToGo and selectively backup some application data. Once the file management is available on iPhone OS, I guess that almost all meaningless complaints will have be answered.
Roberto
Tethering is a provider problem. Are you with ATT? I tether my iPhone to my laptop for data. I am with WIND in Italy, and simyo (eplus) in Germany.
Because 30% of revenue on 50% of applications for a platform with 40% of the market, is a lot more money than 30% of revenue on 100% of applications for a platform that has dwindled to 5% of the market.
Plenty of people would use Apple's app store voluntarily--for convenience, for the promotional clout, and so on. (Plenty of people use the BlackBerry and Android marketplaces.) However, by forcing everyone to use the app store, Apple run the risk of destroying their platform market share.
Yes, but where is it written in stone that Apple is now forced to keep this very same model and not allow alternative stores in the future? I do not have a crystal ball, but I am sure you do not have one. Believe it or not, they have some clever people at Apple. Of course they can also make big, huge, blunders, but they may even do it right
Roberto
I think that's what Verizon is trying to point out in those ads; Verizon's 3G network is much, much more expansive than AT&T's, and as such, there are lots of places where an AT&T phone won't have signal whereas a Verizon phone will. They just picked the iPhone because its the most visible, and arguably the most popular phone on AT&T.
Yes, but I would say that ATT's 3G coverage more than a problem OF the iPhone is a problem FOR the iPhone. I would say that Verizon's add in fact underlines that. The other toys tell it "you can do a lot of stuff, why are you depressed" and the iPhone shows the coverage map.
In Europe we can't always choose the network. In Italy, Belgium, the Czech republic, Poland, you can just buy it and put in it any SIM card you want. In France and the UK you have more providers but it is still simlocked. In Germany you have only one provided, the phone is locked and, guess what, you have the worst and most expensive tariffs of all.
My hunch is that in the future simlocked iPhones will become rare. Even in Germany (the country where the behaviour of phone companies most closely resembles the legalised-rape-like attitude of cellular networks in the U.S. & Canada), when you get an Android phone from vodafone, it is not locked. Sooner or later Apple will have to react to *that* to remain competitive.
Roberto
With Android-based phones cranking up, how long will it be before Apple loses their market share due to these shenanigans?
Android was first released in October 2008, with the first device being available the same month - thats over a year ago. According to Apple, the iPhone sold more than 4 million units in the first 200 days, so wheres the equivalent Android sales explosion? Analysts are expecting Android sales to outstrip iPhone sales by 2012, but why is it going to take that long if Android is such a good competitor? It didn't take the iPhone anywhere near two and a half years to take a significant chunk of the market from competitors.
I'm not an Android hater, I haven't used it so I don't hold an opinion on it, but it seems to be held as the ultimate saviour on /., and I'm struggling to see why. Its not the iPhone I am worried about, its the Android series of phones...
There is an analysis here, not entirely without flaws, that explains some of the problems Android is facing.
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/11/21/inside_googles_android_and_apples_iphone_os_as_software_markets.html
One of the biggest ones is hardware: limited flash on board castrates applications.
And leaving some of control of the firmware to the handset makers is the single, biggest mistake you can do. One of the main reasons the software scene on Symbian is lo lousy. You end up with too many different versions of the OS in use at the same time, and in some cases updating will be very, very difficult (did it never happen that a give FW update was NOT available for your specific Nokia handset - and thus you were unable to use some applications? IN Europe this is very common).
And TOO different HW characteristics. Some people complain that Apple's 480x320 screen is no longer the coolest around.
Of course Apple is already working on updates to the display - but in such a way that applications and icons won't look like rubbish (like scaling on the Motorola Droid). I need non insider info to know they are: they would be dumb if they didn't - and they may be evil, but not stupid.
I expect an exact doubling of resolution in both axes, and this will of course happen a bit later than on the Android platform (854x480 current on Droid), and with some _very_ simple software support (developers will have to check if such a screen is available, otherwise apps will be scaled, I guess).
Roberto
Apple once owned 50% desktop market. If you read the history, even from sources like Wikipedia, you will see it isn't exactly "evil Microsoft" put them in bad position, it is their bad treatment to developers, especially tiny ones.
Well, the development tools on OS X are excellent. So it seems that Apple has learned. And they have almost half of all U.S. desktop revenue, so their marketing, product, and developer strategies are working well at the moment.
As for the iPhone, a lot of developers have success. Good applications are visible. iPhone users can buy applications for cheap with respect to other platforms. The system is not perfect, but it seems to be working.
Should problems arise, Apple will adapt the strategy. Of course they may do it terribly wrong, but, hey, it is a company, not a religion.
And if for somebody Apple is a religion, then, poor them.
Roberto
The two most common complaints I hear, in order, are: "I refuse to sign up for AT&T's service," and "I keep reading about how they won't let people publish their apps." The more they press this issue, the more they are setting themselves up for a spectacular failure.
Well, Apple can always relax, and it does. Is there a need for kinds of apps other than web apps? Here's a set of APIs and an appstore. Do you need Exchange compatibility? Here it is. Do you need some kind of services offered usually by background processes? For now, in some cases, we have Push Notifications.
Sooner or later Apple will have to shift the responsibility of activating tethering on the user (yes, I know the patent). Apple *can* allow more sources for apps in the future. It is more difficult to restrict conditions later (as Android will notice - at the moment applications seldom have visibility on Android, and sell much less than on the iPhone, and some developers are fleeing as well).
I am not condoning all of Apple's practices, but they sure know what they are doing. If you do not like what Apple is doing in a particular country, then you can still buy something else. If Apple does not offer some set of functions in your country, then the Apple product WITH that set of functions does not exist (it may exist if you hack the product, but then it is no longer Apple's offering).
Roberto
As far as I know a phone does not have "coverage". The network has coverage (or has not). Under coverage a phone gets signal. This myopic perspective is always baffling me. In fact, it is not even ATT's fault the iPhone does not get signal where ATT does not provide coverage: the fault is in the business model.
...the iPhone is NOT TIED TO AT&T. Believe it or not, countries exist outside of USA. This discussion on /. about iPhone sucks because all of you don't seem to understand that the iPhone is sold GLOBALLY. STFU ABOUT AT&T
You are right. A lot of people write that the iPhone has bad voice quality, because they only tested it with ATT. Well, I get better voice quality from the iPhone than with all Motorola and Nokia handsets I have tried so far. Because I am using a good network.
In Germany. By the way, Germany exists.
Roberto
Not trying to flame you. Honestly curious. How does the IPhone handle multiple languages?
There is builtin support for many languages, and all the strings are stored in separate files, as on mac os x. You can change language and most apps will change immediately as well.
I have never seen funny things like on my wife's android, such as "Hai un appuntamento il 31 ottobre, donnerstag" which means "you got a date on the 31rst of october, thursday", but the text is in italian except for the name of the day of the week, which is in German. This is really poor.
Is there any automatic language selection for the text correction?
Not automatic, but you can enable more keyboards. I have an italian, a german, and an english keyboard. text correction depends on the keyboard you are using and there is an on-screen icon you can tap to change keyboard - and thus text correction dictionary.
Roberto
>>>Don't upgrade if you don't think it's worth it!
You can't do that with Macs. They'll stop running the latest software. For example I wouldn't be able to run Firefox 3 or 3.5 on my G4 Mac's original OS (10.1). I had to upgrade.
But that's not Apple's fault. As far as I know, Firefox has not been developed by Apple.
Roberto
... apparently the hackers used jailbroken iPhones ;-)
http://apple.slashdot.org/story/09/07/29/1440233/Apple-Says-iPhone-Jailbreaking-Could-Hurt-Cell-Towers
Roberto
Are they green? Affected by the greenfly? The end of the universe is nigh! Roberto
The solution? Log in as admin and fix it.
Nope.
runas /user:administrator cmd
cacls <filename> /E /G Everyone:W
Now you see why the average windows user just runs as administrator.
Under OS X, you just type username and password of an administrator upon installation (and that only of SOME applications - you can install most of them just locally) and there is no file permission problem as you are running the application as a non-admin user.
Roberto
But I thought Macs were supposed to be virus-proof? That's what many slashdotters have been telling me over the last several months, in efforts to get me to dump my buggy PC. Could they have been... (shocking)... wrong? ;-)
Well, this is *not* a virus. This is something that can happen on *any* operating system. It requires the user to intentionally install it and give root or admin privileges during the installation. It is a trojan.
In fact, we still do not know any OS X virus
Roberto