Apple is currently fed by conspicous consumers constantly buying the current season's product. They buy it just to show it off. They might not even use it.
When a new Apple revision comes out. The groupthink is not "Meh, this is just another minor hardware upgrade". No. The groupthink tries to spin a slight upgrade into something rediculously profound. You see this with Mini revisions and you see this with iPad revisions. There is not quite the "media cult" thing going with Android. It's like PCs. A new device has to struggle for attention in a crowded field. It won't get elevated by the press (tech or otherwise).
Apple just plain gets gobs of free advertising posing as journalism.
Whether or not you describe the situation in inflammatory terms, "cult" a good way to describe it.
Keep telling yourself that. Meanwhile the power users that flee iPhone because of their bad SMS features will take advantage of larger market that diverse hardware allows. I don't really care if 99.99% of the proles are "buying the cheap crap because it's cheap". I am still able to be a more discriminating consumer. I can get something better.
Android is everything that Apple refuses to allow.
You know, all of the "haters" said that EXACTLY this would happen. The open platform would come along and a bunch of Lilliputians working more or less together would end Apple's dominance.
Now you're trying to distort reality to hold onto this delusion that Apple is set to make up for old failures.
Self serving abuses of statistics won't alter the reality of the situation.
While contemplating a "pack light" trip to Europe I am starting to reconsider the idea of a 7" tablet. It seems to be big enough to be a significant improvement over a phone while not being quite as huge as an iPad or similarly sized devices.
> Thats pretty much what's happening with the iPhone and Android phones already.
Not quite.
What's happening with the iPhone and Android phones is that Apple is getting it's clocked cleaned. Android phones and iPhones are both equally subsidized but both are cheap enough that they represent impulse purchases. At the "impulse buy" point, Apple loses it's hype advantage. More people are willing to take risks. Apple exploited this themselves with the iPad. They dropped the tablet price from $2000 to $600.
Apple is the el-cheapo option. It's funny that some people don't realize this.
Also, lifespan only covers one aspect of the situation. Quality of life isn't addressed. The extra 3 years you get from exercise might just be an extra bonus compared to how well you're able to live in the interim.
Except this isn't about the benefits of banding together for the common good. This is more about convincing people to put them completely at the disposal of the cult even if it makes no rational sense. Such zealots will greatly benefit any large movement. The cult will eat them up and spit them out exploiting them for all they are worth. They may die together in droves but the strength of the cult continues to grow.
Lack of city sanitation in general is a pretty clear cause of disease.
It doesn't have to be rats in particular. It can also be the fact that Europeans like to throw the contents of their chamber pots out the window and onto the street.
Barbaric attitudes towards bathing also didn't help.
Europeans were filthy and ignorant and anti-rational in a number of ways.
Actually ironically enough the Pig is much better suited to modern industrial farming. It's "dirtiness" means that it can thrive in conditions that cause other forms of livestock to suffer increased rates of disease. So it's actually better than something more kosher like beef or chicken. Both of those animals take poorly to current industrial farming techniques and need to be pumped full of anti-biotics to make it to market.
In the case of beef. It is the practice of "inappropriate feed" that escalates the problem. Meanwhile, Pigs thrive on industrial waste.
For most people, the chance of an unwanted pregnancy is higher than winning the lottery. That's just the way it is in our modern high tech society if you aren't a total idiot and are paying attention.
Regardless of whom you choose to blame,the fact remains that this "bright new plan" will incur a large hidden cost that's pretty damn foreseeable.
Although we might be expecting too much of teachers and school administrators to think ahead, consider broader consequences, and understand the numbers involved.
I dunno. The nice thing about traditional bathroom reading material is the fact that it is disposable. It doesn't matter if it gets wet. It doesn't matter if it's contaminated. It's not something that's going to be dragged out of the bathroom and then through an airport and then hang around your mother's coffee table.
More people should find the idea of a tablet in the bathroom just plain disgusting.
...I would also not associate this sort of behavior with "techies".
The techies are the ones sneering at the whole tablet thing in general. They're not the "target audience" and therefore less likely to be the ones pulling it out at inappropriate times.
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The "Billions and Billions served" argument just doesn't work.
There's just too much crap that ends up being successful despite of itself.
It mostly includes all of those things that Apple fanboys don't want to be associated with.
I have removable media on my phone.
Millions of people also said "yes we do" to MS-DOS.
Being the vanguard of those with absolutely no taste is not necessarily something to brag about.
Google just blew 12 Billion on Android. So clearly the motivation and resources are there.
Although something like this would likely run afoul of the Sherman Act.
It still presents an interesting idea.
It's not gibberish.
Apple is currently fed by conspicous consumers constantly buying the current season's product. They buy it just to show it off. They might not even use it.
When a new Apple revision comes out. The groupthink is not "Meh, this is just another minor hardware upgrade". No. The groupthink tries to spin a slight upgrade into something rediculously profound. You see this with Mini revisions and you see this with iPad revisions. There is not quite the "media cult" thing going with Android. It's like PCs. A new device has to struggle for attention in a crowded field. It won't get elevated by the press (tech or otherwise).
Apple just plain gets gobs of free advertising posing as journalism.
Whether or not you describe the situation in inflammatory terms, "cult" a good way to describe it.
> Certainly there are android phones....
Keep telling yourself that. Meanwhile the power users that flee iPhone because of their bad SMS features will take advantage of larger market that diverse hardware allows. I don't really care if 99.99% of the proles are "buying the cheap crap because it's cheap". I am still able to be a more discriminating consumer. I can get something better.
Android is everything that Apple refuses to allow.
You're confusing your phone with your junk.
You're funny.
You know, all of the "haters" said that EXACTLY this would happen. The open platform would come along and a bunch of Lilliputians working more or less together would end Apple's dominance.
Now you're trying to distort reality to hold onto this delusion that Apple is set to make up for old failures.
Self serving abuses of statistics won't alter the reality of the situation.
> Please identify a manufacturer who remotely comes close to Apple's success and sales figures.
It's a stupid argument. You might as well say that MacOS has the largest marketshare for the same dumb reason.
A device that can't play your original files is a bother. Whatever is a bother for a geek, may be pretty impossible for a mundane consumer.
Anything that's a video player should "just work" for a wide range of media files.
While contemplating a "pack light" trip to Europe I am starting to reconsider the idea of a 7" tablet. It seems to be big enough to be a significant improvement over a phone while not being quite as huge as an iPad or similarly sized devices.
> Thats pretty much what's happening with the iPhone and Android phones already.
Not quite.
What's happening with the iPhone and Android phones is that Apple is getting it's clocked cleaned. Android phones and iPhones are both equally subsidized but both are cheap enough that they represent impulse purchases. At the "impulse buy" point, Apple loses it's hype advantage. More people are willing to take risks. Apple exploited this themselves with the iPad. They dropped the tablet price from $2000 to $600.
Apple is the el-cheapo option. It's funny that some people don't realize this.
Also, lifespan only covers one aspect of the situation. Quality of life isn't addressed. The extra 3 years you get from exercise might just be an extra bonus compared to how well you're able to live in the interim.
Except this isn't about the benefits of banding together for the common good. This is more about convincing people to put them completely at the disposal of the cult even if it makes no rational sense. Such zealots will greatly benefit any large movement. The cult will eat them up and spit them out exploiting them for all they are worth. They may die together in droves but the strength of the cult continues to grow.
Focusing on the hereafter helps.
The Roman empire had huge cities by mideival European standards.
In ancient times, Rome itself was a very respectable size by even modern standards.
Roman public works from 2000 years ago are still big enough and advanced enough to be in use today and impress modern architects.
Lack of city sanitation in general is a pretty clear cause of disease.
It doesn't have to be rats in particular. It can also be the fact that Europeans like to throw the contents of their chamber pots out the window and onto the street.
Barbaric attitudes towards bathing also didn't help.
Europeans were filthy and ignorant and anti-rational in a number of ways.
Actually ironically enough the Pig is much better suited to modern industrial farming. It's "dirtiness" means that it can thrive in conditions that cause other forms of livestock to suffer increased rates of disease. So it's actually better than something more kosher like beef or chicken. Both of those animals take poorly to current industrial farming techniques and need to be pumped full of anti-biotics to make it to market.
In the case of beef. It is the practice of "inappropriate feed" that escalates the problem. Meanwhile, Pigs thrive on industrial waste.
This boils down to parental involvement and there's already a clearly observable link between school performance and parental involvement.
This is why magnet schools do so well. They are a self-selected population of students with more motivated and involved parents.
For most people, the chance of an unwanted pregnancy is higher than winning the lottery. That's just the way it is in our modern high tech society if you aren't a total idiot and are paying attention.
Regardless of whom you choose to blame,the fact remains that this "bright new plan" will incur a large hidden cost that's pretty damn foreseeable.
Although we might be expecting too much of teachers and school administrators to think ahead, consider broader consequences, and understand the numbers involved.
They can't even fully understand lunch.
THAT looks nothing like an iPad or a PADD. It's a thick clipboard. It's a big fat wedge with incandescent lights on it.
One of my HTPCs takes up less space.
...and this here is why copyrights on APIs are a really stupid idea.
The people that came up with this gem must be "code illiterate" for not realizing the broader implications of their idea.
Yes. Yes. Yes.
You are an idiot that clearly has never done any of these.
Otherwise you would know how absurd the concept of copyright on an API really is.
If the kid hasn't yet mastered civilized table manners, they shouldn't be put in the position to act out in the first place.
If you need some sort of electronic pacification device you have failed at some level.
Helps if the kid in question and the associated parents are not big duffusses.
I dunno. The nice thing about traditional bathroom reading material is the fact that it is disposable. It doesn't matter if it gets wet. It doesn't matter if it's contaminated. It's not something that's going to be dragged out of the bathroom and then through an airport and then hang around your mother's coffee table.
More people should find the idea of a tablet in the bathroom just plain disgusting.
...I would also not associate this sort of behavior with "techies".
The techies are the ones sneering at the whole tablet thing in general. They're not the "target audience" and therefore less likely to be the ones pulling it out at inappropriate times.