It may be an analog signal, but that analog signal is carrying digital data, which is usually checksummed and/or even encrypted and subsequently decrypted. It's much more of an all-or-nothing situation than with pure analog signals... if your HDMI cable works, you've got a pretty good chance that you're getting pristine 100% digital picture and sound quality...
The iPhone is just smoother. Just last Friday evening I got the chance to compare an iPhone 3GS to my Motorola Milestone (overclocked to 800MHz and tweaked for speed and stability) and an HTC Desire (more or less stock, as far as I could tell)... even with Launcher Pro and Sense UI on the Milestone and Desire, respectively, the iPhone just felt... nicer.
The scrolling, pinching, app-switching animations, hell, even the lockscreens... all smoother and more responsive on the iPhone.
Of course, that's not important to everyone (definitlely won't be swaying me any time soon), but many people will go with the iPhone on this basis alone, because they assume it signifies that everything else about the iPhone will be better as well...
Try running without a page file (because Windows is stupid enough to swap everything out to disk even though the RAM isn't nearly full, slowing everything down if you've got a slow hard drive)...
With 2GB of RAM I frequently had the following scenario: ~1.2GB of RAM used by Windows and misc apps (Winamp, Pidgin, Thunderbird, OneNote and a few others... nothing major). Enter Firefox... half an hour later, "Low Memory, please end programs...". Firefox memory usage with only a single Gmail tab open: ~800MB
Restart Firefox, back to 100MB of memory usage. Meeeeeehhh...
Your comparison of Flash with C++ is not very fitting, because C++ apps are not something that is arbitrarily executed and displayed automatically when a user visits a website.
Sadly, the only defense we have against jackass Flash developers who make CPU-hogging Flash banner-ads and the web devs that put two or three of those ads on a single page is Flashblock. Personally, I'm pretty happy with NoScript...
Are there any? The nice thing is that, as far as I know, they ALL have WiFi, and models like the HTC Magic and Dream should be dirt-cheap by now - so cheap that getting a full-blown Android smartphone is just a bonus...:)
I have adequate cell phone coverage at my university, but making calls via WiFi (Sipdroid) is just nicer, because the quality is so much better... so it's even relevant for people who don't take their classes at a backwoods "University" at the North Pole...:D
What I'm talking about is that, in the event of a catastrophic hardware failure that has nothing to do with software, you won't be able to get a repair/replacement if you root. The lost warranty is one that used to count for hardware defects as well... if they find out you rooted or flashed a custom ROM, you're SOL.
Or at least that's the situation for the Milestone...may be different for Nexus One...
IIRC you _are_, however, required to sacrifice your warranty... something about agreeing to a prompt and an eFuse on the processor being set to "Warranty void", wasn't it?
Well, that's because it has the same operating system that runs most of the world's supercomputers on it. For heaven's sake, what more do you want?
So then why is the handset warranty voided when I flash a custom ROM? Why is Android so locked down in the sense that I have no idea when I'll be getting Froyo on my Milestone, even though the source code was released... yesterday?
Android isn't Linux - it's an iPhone-OS-wannabe based on Linux.:(
Couldn't have put it better myself. I feel a little duped, tbh (I own a Motorola Milestone, which is not only not open, but additionally has a locked bootloader)...
Android is, for consumers, anything but open. We're still stuck waiting on ROM releases from manufacturers who don't care about supporting their old devices, even though the new devices are internally more or less the same...
It's a pocket-sized computer, so why don't we have pocket-sized operating systems instead of glorified firmware on them?
I was going to make a joke about the change to the name "iOS" meaning that iMacs will also run it on one of the last Apple articles... never thought it would come true.:|
Not sure if this works on the iPhone, as I'm not sure what level of GMail Integration is present there, but if you happen to be using GMail, try the following:
Have the messages you don't want to bother you set to be moved to a label and immediately archived, via a filter... Gmail will then no longer notify for these messages, because it only notifies for things that actually land in the inbox. Since this works for Gtalk and Gmail notifier on the PC as well as on the Android GMail app, I'm presuming it'd work on the iPhone too.
If you don't use Gmail and/or are looking for this feature for something other than Gmail, you're probably SOL.:p
Bit surprising that there isn't a decent IMAP (it even sounds like an Apple product... iMap!) client for the iPhone that will do this by folder...
Slashdot Mirror
It may be an analog signal, but that analog signal is carrying digital data, which is usually checksummed and/or even encrypted and subsequently decrypted. It's much more of an all-or-nothing situation than with pure analog signals... if your HDMI cable works, you've got a pretty good chance that you're getting pristine 100% digital picture and sound quality...
Doesn't really matter if the last tab is Gmail, Slashdot, or just about:blank :P
The iPhone is just smoother. Just last Friday evening I got the chance to compare an iPhone 3GS to my Motorola Milestone (overclocked to 800MHz and tweaked for speed and stability) and an HTC Desire (more or less stock, as far as I could tell)... even with Launcher Pro and Sense UI on the Milestone and Desire, respectively, the iPhone just felt... nicer.
The scrolling, pinching, app-switching animations, hell, even the lockscreens... all smoother and more responsive on the iPhone.
Of course, that's not important to everyone (definitlely won't be swaying me any time soon), but many people will go with the iPhone on this basis alone, because they assume it signifies that everything else about the iPhone will be better as well...
Can't you do that with a laptop/tablet/smartphone on the couch just as well? :P
Try running without a page file (because Windows is stupid enough to swap everything out to disk even though the RAM isn't nearly full, slowing everything down if you've got a slow hard drive)...
With 2GB of RAM I frequently had the following scenario: ~1.2GB of RAM used by Windows and misc apps (Winamp, Pidgin, Thunderbird, OneNote and a few others... nothing major). Enter Firefox... half an hour later, "Low Memory, please end programs...". Firefox memory usage with only a single Gmail tab open: ~800MB
Restart Firefox, back to 100MB of memory usage. Meeeeeehhh...
Your comparison of Flash with C++ is not very fitting, because C++ apps are not something that is arbitrarily executed and displayed automatically when a user visits a website.
Sadly, the only defense we have against jackass Flash developers who make CPU-hogging Flash banner-ads and the web devs that put two or three of those ads on a single page is Flashblock. Personally, I'm pretty happy with NoScript...
While it slowly builds up to 800MB of RAM used, even though you've closed every tab except for one...
Excellent, how's the SIP call quality? It's nice to know that SIP is being adopted into the general cellphone population ;)
That's precisely why I was so surprised that this fabled "UMA" actually exists... it's so much easier, and doesn't make the providers a dime...
Forgot to add "excluding tablets" in the first sentence ;)
Are there any? The nice thing is that, as far as I know, they ALL have WiFi, and models like the HTC Magic and Dream should be dirt-cheap by now - so cheap that getting a full-blown Android smartphone is just a bonus... :)
Why, for the love of God, is this not a feature on every WiFi enabled phone available on the market today? Sounds wonderful...
Ah, see further down... guess you mean UMA...
I have adequate cell phone coverage at my university, but making calls via WiFi (Sipdroid) is just nicer, because the quality is so much better... so it's even relevant for people who don't take their classes at a backwoods "University" at the North Pole... :D
So... these "UDP Phones" magically convert WiFi into cell signals? Or why else would you need the SIM?
Or are you talking about SIP via UDP?
Another vote for Sipdroid here.
Works flawlessly on WiFi as well as 3G, and the call quality through PBXes.org is landline-crystal-clear.
What I'm talking about is that, in the event of a catastrophic hardware failure that has nothing to do with software, you won't be able to get a repair/replacement if you root. The lost warranty is one that used to count for hardware defects as well... if they find out you rooted or flashed a custom ROM, you're SOL.
Or at least that's the situation for the Milestone...may be different for Nexus One...
Should they FORCE the phone companies to support all flavors of the OS? Would this make Android more open and flexible?
Yes, and yes. Doesn't rooting and/or installing a custom ROM void the warranty even on a Nexus One?
IIRC you _are_, however, required to sacrifice your warranty... something about agreeing to a prompt and an eFuse on the processor being set to "Warranty void", wasn't it?
No, you're not.
I am if I want to keep my warranty officially...
Well, that's because it has the same operating system that runs most of the world's supercomputers on it. For heaven's sake, what more do you want?
So then why is the handset warranty voided when I flash a custom ROM? Why is Android so locked down in the sense that I have no idea when I'll be getting Froyo on my Milestone, even though the source code was released... yesterday?
Android isn't Linux - it's an iPhone-OS-wannabe based on Linux. :(
Couldn't have put it better myself. I feel a little duped, tbh (I own a Motorola Milestone, which is not only not open, but additionally has a locked bootloader)...
How is that more open than the iPhone? You can jailbreak that and add all the functionality you want... same thing, really.
And yes, you DO void your warranty for Android devices by installing unofficial ROMs... does that sound open to you? :P
Android is, for consumers, anything but open. We're still stuck waiting on ROM releases from manufacturers who don't care about supporting their old devices, even though the new devices are internally more or less the same...
It's a pocket-sized computer, so why don't we have pocket-sized operating systems instead of glorified firmware on them?
I was going to make a joke about the change to the name "iOS" meaning that iMacs will also run it on one of the last Apple articles... never thought it would come true. :|
Then again, I'm not a Mac user, so meh... :p
Not sure if this works on the iPhone, as I'm not sure what level of GMail Integration is present there, but if you happen to be using GMail, try the following:
Have the messages you don't want to bother you set to be moved to a label and immediately archived, via a filter... Gmail will then no longer notify for these messages, because it only notifies for things that actually land in the inbox. Since this works for Gtalk and Gmail notifier on the PC as well as on the Android GMail app, I'm presuming it'd work on the iPhone too.
If you don't use Gmail and/or are looking for this feature for something other than Gmail, you're probably SOL. :p
Bit surprising that there isn't a decent IMAP (it even sounds like an Apple product... iMap!) client for the iPhone that will do this by folder...