How much would it cost said developers to market their apps without a central App Store? How much would they pay in credit card processing fees? How many apps would they have sold if Apple hadn't allowed third party apps? Apple enabled developers to make a load of money. Sure the users paid the money but Apple has done a lot to enable developers in a market that prior to the iPhone was very limited. Did you ever try to write and distribute a mobile app before the iPhone - it was all but impossible to be successful at.
Most Android devices are more locked down than any iDevice. The ones that aren't tend to be more expensive than the equivalent iDevice. I'm actually surprised Google hasn't worked with Chinese manufacturers to make sure some cheap Android devices weren't more developer friendly. I'm not sure why these cheap devices aren't more friendly since the manufacturer isn't making any effort to benefit from the closed state of the devices.
I think Apple needs to be more clear in why they do or don't reject apps and it shouldn't be for political reasons. If there is a technical reason they should be clear on why and be open to change as the devices become more powerful or developers suggest workarounds. If there is a business reason (such as not allowing smut) they should be clear that they think it'll give the best experience for end-users. If anything though I think Apple should be more strict about maintaining quality. They need to make all apps pass a vigorous quality test that checks for stability, security, ease of use, and simply delivering what it claims to. Customers have to trust that when they buy an iOS app it won't suck.
Stealing functionality is a hard issue. If it makes the base better then they need to do it but if it's really anything novel they should compensate the app developer. Even if it's not really novel but well done they'd be foolish not to at least hire the developer. What better way to find the best people to develop iOS? Likewise they'd be stupid to crush the jailbreak community. It's much better to hire the best from the pool of developers there.
Of course for the most part none of this really matters. The more difficult it is to distribute iOS apps the better for the developers that stick to it so long as Apple maintains good sales and iDevice users remain more prone to spending money than Android users (who are actually pretty negative about paid apps). This is a good reason for maintaining strict quality controls. Users will be more willing to buy and there will be less noise in the system to keep people from finding and buying your app. It doesn't matter how easy it is to develop for Android if you're not going to make money doing it.
I'd suggest iOS because it is harder to learn meaning you have less competition and more is a more unified platform meaning more potential customers will have easy access to buying your app.
Also people who buy Android tend to be cheaper, thus buying the cheaper Android devices, and are less likely to spend a lot of money on apps.
Of course why not learn both. Android is pretty easy to learn and most of the time it isn't difficult to port an app from iOS to Android or vice versa. Sure they're different languages but the app logic can be very similar and Java and Obj-C aren't horrible dissimilar. Tools exist to make the job easier too. Or if you're geeky you can write your own programming language that can compile to Android/Java and iOS/Obj-C. I've been playing with my own toy language which is similar to Python in syntax. Also did a little Brainfsck one but that isn't really practical. Was amusing myself with the idea of allowing users to script certain elements of a program in Brainfsck.
Does it really matter where the server is and who technically owns it if you have no control over your data and how it's processed? I have a commercial ERP product I have to deal with that requires it run on a $30000+ AIX box, can only be backed up using their expensive partner company, requires keeping an expensive support contract, and completely sucks but there is no easy way to switch products because there is no way to export all the data and no way to fix the program because the vendor obviously doesn't even know their own product and we don't have the source. It doesn't matter if it's on my server or in the cloud. The only real issue is that the company went with a non-opensource solution (there was no OSS solution at the time) and it's now a nightmare and it will be an even bigger nightmare when we reach e point where we have to switch.
To be fair many OSS solutions would be nearly as big a hassle because they are so badly implemented. In theory you could get your data out and move to a different product but it'd be a serious chore. Bad source is almost as bad as no source.
Way back in college I had an electrical engineering professor that told us that when he worked for the military part of his job was maintaining the control systems for nukes. He said that a big problem they've repeatedly fought with is that the insulation used in many of the nukes breaks down with time so you'll get a bit of crossover and shorting. So the nukes will suddenly arm themselves and fun things like that. It wasn't just single nukes either - whole locations would go into launch mode all on their own. I think the point was to be careful how you built things because what is fine under normal conditions might end up being used harder and longer than you expect.
I keep waiting for Armeggedon by glitch. The end of humanity because we insist on keeping around aging weapons that only an idiot would ever use anyway.
You might have a point if the majority of graduates weren't completely useless anyway. They get some pansy liberal arts degree or get into computer science without knowing their CPU from their hard drive and coming out still completely lost as how their computer works, how to write software, what Unix is, or how to do anything especially useful. Or maybe they'll get a biology degree but decide not to go into medicine or research. Yeah those bio degrees are horribly useful when you end up working at McDonalds.
Heck, most recent graduates I've dealt with don't even know enough to look at you when they talk to you. They stare off into space. And they think a group hug means they've mastered teamwork.
Wow, somebody understands why we're in this economic mess and is doing something to try to fix it? Yeah that research and development stuff is all bullshit anyway. Getting kids excited by technology that actually works - idiots don't they know it's more fun to take a garbage device and give it a dipshit tweak that makes it worse but gives it your own personal picture of a naked anime chick on every button!? We know that real economic health comes from finding loopholes and playing tricks with numbers. Maybe it'll be better if we give out more stimulus checks or lower the price of HDTVs.
Obviously to much for most Slashdotters to grasp. Go back to your video games and pr0n. Wake me when you've learned to code, moved out of your parents basement, gotten laid, and gained experience points in a life that doesn't require a monthly subscription.
Meanwhile people like me that live and breath code somehow manage to do just about everything with the iPad. It's hardly the devices fault if someone can't figure out the App Store. I know that search box and browse by category thing is totally new still after all these years of using the web. And given I've seen six month old children successfully navigate between apps, play games, etc it must be very difficult for some adults.
If you want to get into how Apple doesn't encourange much innovation by hardware developers I can agree. You might have some sort of point that until it gets iOS 4 it lacks multitasking, printing, etc it probably should have shipped with. But claiming you can't do real things with it means you didn't try.
It's more about centralizing resources. It's a lot more expensive to give 100 machines 4GB of RAM they rarely use but sometimes need than to put 128GB in my server and let the 100 workstations use what they need. The only real control at issue is that it's easier to maintain backups, virus scanning, upgrades, etc from a centralized system than maintaining 100 individual machines.
I'm just waiting for the company bright enough to pack good local network attached storage and distributed computing (CPU/GPU/RAM) into a household server and standardize the protocols and push out some lightweight devices (Android/iOS tablets) that will seamlessly use the server for more power if it's available. With the option to use a remote cloud service if the user wants and the application benefits from it. We're already hacking up solutions like this for businesses so it just needs to be standardized and packaged.
I think it won't be long before average small businesses and homes have something of a hybrid NAS server that also has some ability to provide extra processing power to lightweight devices on the network and with the option to tie into a service to provide off-site backup, remote access to files, maybe even extra processing power if it exceeds what your local server can do and isn't overly bandwidth intensive.
We're already starting the move to a local server for much of our storage and processing. In the business virtualization is growing popular and it makes total sense in the home. Why give each kid a clunky PC that is either underpowered or often sits with wasted resources when you can centralize those resources and give them lightweight portable devices. We're moving towards the cloud which is essentially the same thing on a bigger scale over the Internet. It makes sense for all these trends to converge.
Unlike when companies have spouted these ideas before we actually have the infrastructure in place now and have devices that are both good enough and cheap enough. Now it's just a matter of putting the bits together and agreeing on standards.
Things will only get faster and cheaper if you have usage patterns to prompt the changes.
Local storage is cheap until you lose all your data when a device dies, you can't access it because you don't happen to be local to it, your files get ate by a virus, or you want to share files and have to spend hours trying to get them to someone who isn't on the same system. As with anything cheap upfront is not the same as cheap over time.
The cloud is just a nice way to say you're using a network attached service. That can be your own server, someone else's server, or a combination of the two (what most of us will end up using I think).
And how often do you actually use your files? I have terabytes of files sitting that I haven't accessed in years but also don't want to lose. I don't need to transfer them. They just need to sit there and be safe. A good storage provider can tell which files are personal and which aren't. Non-personal files only need to be stored once for an endless number of users. Much more efficient use of space. Personal files can be kept safe by encrypting them before they ever get sent to the server. Everything can be backed up across multiple locations. Let's see the average user do all that for themselves.
What is annoying me about these issues is that they are described so poorly that I'm not certain if I have a problem. I run 64-bit Linux but no 32-bit code and there are no local users other than for the services I'm running (http and ssh). So do I need to take the time to do something or can I wait for a normal update?
Does it matter? They do evil things with the data like making search results more effective, ads less annoying, and helping keep services free and prices low by allowing the people actually providing your web experience to optimize theirvability to make a profit. Do you think everything can keep coming to you at such low costs to you without somebody being able to find a profit somewhere? You're not being tracked unless you're purposely using the web.
Even if you can pass laws to keep all tracking from being done by private companies, forcing us all to pay a lot kore for Internet services, the government will still track you and they're the ones most likely to be dangerous. I'd worry more about the huge AT&T tap where they record everything you do in their jumbo database and pipe it over to the NSA.
I've been disappointed with the availability and quality of toddler friendly games available for PC/Mac and the game consoles I have. I did find a downloadable Wii game called PooYoos (or something like that) recently that at least my daughter enjoyed but it wasn't highly educational. I haven't tried a lot of web based stuff but to me it makes sense it might be better because I've noticed iOS apps from small developers are better than any of these PC or console games for toddlers.
I have been pleased with iOS apps for toddlers though as many are very affordable ($1 - $5), they look good, they are educational, and most important my daughter enjoys playing them and can do so without my help. (Not that I don't interact but she can do it and isn't just watching me.) She has picked up a lot of information through these games such as object recognition, spelling, and so on that seems advanced for a two year old. All without drilling which could take the fun out of learning. Also she has gotten very apt at technology itself.
We watch a lot of Dora, Kai-Lan, Signing Time, etc too which I think is good for her too. I like the exposure to different languages she gets and the other topics they cover ranging from shapes and numbers to how to handle emotions is a good place for us to start our interaction on the topics.
Of course we do a lot with blocks, toy trains, dolls, books, coloring, etc too. All the basics of childhood. Before actually having kids I'd read a lot about how bad it was to let children watch tv or play video games and at first I was avoiding them but as I gained experience I decided that these studies were misrepresented or wrong because I can clearly see the opposite result. I think leaving your kids in front of the tv all day is a bad idea but giving them good educational resources of all types and using them with your child will produce good results. As always it's about being involved and balancing it all.
My laptop has a 128GB SSD which would be really cramped except I keep most my files on my NAS where it can be kept in RAID and be automatically backed up etc. Really the local drive should only be the files needed to boot and hook to the network and the rest used to cache the files you're most likely to need soon. As you said you can already get decent storage space in the usual form factors so it's not really a big deal if the drives can't get more dense. I dont really care if my NAS takes up a whole server rack. It's only a matter of time before the cloud handles most our storage anyway. Local storage is just to much hassle for most people anyway and why should we ever worry about a hard limit to how much space we have available?
The iOS versus Android argument to me comes down to that I prefer open source but what is the point of having the source to crap. Not that Android is really crap but the UI is poorly designed and the lack of control of end devices by Google results in a wide, and confusing, user experience. I get frustrated at the number of people new to open source or not even developers that like to rant about the evil that is Apple and the good that is Google. Obviously they haven't a lot of experience with the nice way Google makes it difficult to hack around on other devices they sell such as the Google Search Appliances (which I have). I think both Apple and Google are leading technology companies and both make some great products.
If I was going to make my own device I'd start with Android to build from but I'd copy a lot of iOS design decisions at the UI level and iDevice design decisions. I'd also keep a lot more control than Google has done as I think Android gets a lot of the negative light coming off of the devices it runs on. And many devices are difficult to even run an unlocked copy of Android on which defeats the entire benefit of having the source. And comparable Android devices are no cheaper, and often are even more expensive, than an iDevice. I'm looking for a good Android tablet to develop on but there Google seems to be unsure if they want to push Android or Chrome OS.
Apple's biggest short coming is lack of third party devices. If I was Google, along with fixing the UI and ecosystem issues, I'd be all over that as a way to really be better than Apple. I'm not talking supporting USB and SD, which are anti-features IMO, but defining good interfaces for mobile devices, licensing it for free, and really pushing it.
Since nobody is paying me to make my own device I'm going to choose to own iDevices. At least until I see an equal Android device and see the Android ecosystem become equal.
I have something like 3000 items rated and my experience is items average a lot less than two hours. I have a lot of 20 minute show episodes rated. Also it's important to note that more than one person use a single account and with steaming you can pump through shows pretty quickly.
My theory is they had to rate that many movies to get the stupid Netflix rating system to make suggestions for them. I was well into 1000+ ratings before it'd even occasionally try. Horrible system.
I've yet to see a college test that has any meaning to if the knowledge itself is understood. Probably this is partly because college is a poor way to learn most subjects and partly because educators want to hide the fact that their students aren't learning any useful material. Of the people I know with, or without, college degrees the people that are self learners know their stuff and those that aren't don't know it regardless of what degree they may hold or what grades they got. (True of science, engineering, med, economics, business, and marketing people I know at least. Maybe not programs like English or History.)
A work environment is often more educational because you have to really see all the angles and how things work, or more often don't, over time. You have senior employees that mentor you. School should be like that but I've yet to see one that was. Instead it's all about working your way through an ineffective lesson plan and passing tests that evaluate nothing more than taking tests. Using a calculator, book, notes, computer, or buddy or not is meaningless compared to the complete uselessness of the entire system. The dummies schools crank out in droves completely devalues the job market.
You're better off reading books and working on your own projects than going to college. If you can't learn on your own college isn't going to help you.
Just let them use whatever they want. However they want to do it it's up to them to get the most they can from their education. It's not educators jobs to be babysitters. Besides we'll have access to these devices on the job so why not in school? I remember teachers saying we couldn't use a calculator because we won't always have a calculator on us in real life. Yeah right - I've had an iTouch on me every day for years and before that a cellphone which had a calculator for many more years. In case of Armageddon I may be screwed but on the job I'm fine
I think being any kind of a fanboy for any Microsoft product (excepting maybe the gaming division) should qualify you as mentally ill and get you a free trip to visit the nice guys in white coats. When has any Microsoft product not been crap that only made it because of their aggressive marketing and business deals? I've used some very expensive WinCE mobiles and they suck horribly. Win7 has to be better as there is no way to be worse but even imagining Microsoft understanding users well enough to make a good mobile is laughable. Android and iOS are really the only contenders and its all a matter of which will get it's act together first as to who will become the only real player. Android is lacking a clean UI and some control over providing a good user experience. Apple is to restrictive and needs to ease up. Either can fix the issues way easier than any competitor can come to market.
If I was Google I'd fix my, mostly minor, problems and add a cross compiler that'd recompile iOS apps for Android with no work on the part of the developer.
I like my Roku but with the price drop I'm thinking of getting an Apple TV. Despite an official thumbs up they've set the new device to be able to run iOS apps. It's only a matter of time until that happens and that'll kill Roku and the game consoles for me. I have little interest in Google TV or Boxee right now but might be interested if they can top the new Apple TV.
I'm interested to see how the big consoles respond to these new threats.
Largely we could still make things cheap in the US but we'd have to rely more on technology instead of slave labor. So along with more jobs for labororers we'd also be providing more jobs for people to design, build, run, and maintain all that technology. It's absurd that we're draining the US economy out so Walmart can make short term profits and consumers can get things cheap in the short term.
This Walmart effect is directly responsible for part of our economic woes and I've yet to see any politician even mention it let alone make any effort to fix it. I really don't see the benefit of globalization if we're not working with equal peers or purchasing resources not available here (such as minerals, plants, etc). All we're doing is sending American jobs and skills overseas in exchange for cheap crap. Unemployed people don't have a lot of buying power and industries that don't exist here aren't spurring innovation here.
I'd pay twice as much for products made in the US but I doubt most consumers feel the same way. People would rather get cheap stuff now than worry that it's destroying American jobs, weakening America (a country without it's own manufacturing industry is at the whims of others), and is of course allowing foreign workers to be treated badly (worse than not having a job?)
Seriously be the time I got done adding protective screen cover, an extra power adapter, wireless keyboard, etc to my iPad it was at least $1100 and people seem to have a problem with that but if it comes marked 'Made in the USA.' I already pay a premium for Apple products because, in my experience, they are better made and last longer.
I keep looking for a HDTV that is built in the US. So far no luck. I really don't want to spend a lot on a tv and have it break within six months like the last one I bought. I'd rather pay more and have it last a few years.
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How much would it cost said developers to market their apps without a central App Store? How much would they pay in credit card processing fees? How many apps would they have sold if Apple hadn't allowed third party apps? Apple enabled developers to make a load of money. Sure the users paid the money but Apple has done a lot to enable developers in a market that prior to the iPhone was very limited. Did you ever try to write and distribute a mobile app before the iPhone - it was all but impossible to be successful at.
Most Android devices are more locked down than any iDevice. The ones that aren't tend to be more expensive than the equivalent iDevice. I'm actually surprised Google hasn't worked with Chinese manufacturers to make sure some cheap Android devices weren't more developer friendly. I'm not sure why these cheap devices aren't more friendly since the manufacturer isn't making any effort to benefit from the closed state of the devices.
I think Apple needs to be more clear in why they do or don't reject apps and it shouldn't be for political reasons. If there is a technical reason they should be clear on why and be open to change as the devices become more powerful or developers suggest workarounds. If there is a business reason (such as not allowing smut) they should be clear that they think it'll give the best experience for end-users. If anything though I think Apple should be more strict about maintaining quality. They need to make all apps pass a vigorous quality test that checks for stability, security, ease of use, and simply delivering what it claims to. Customers have to trust that when they buy an iOS app it won't suck.
Stealing functionality is a hard issue. If it makes the base better then they need to do it but if it's really anything novel they should compensate the app developer. Even if it's not really novel but well done they'd be foolish not to at least hire the developer. What better way to find the best people to develop iOS? Likewise they'd be stupid to crush the jailbreak community. It's much better to hire the best from the pool of developers there.
Of course for the most part none of this really matters. The more difficult it is to distribute iOS apps the better for the developers that stick to it so long as Apple maintains good sales and iDevice users remain more prone to spending money than Android users (who are actually pretty negative about paid apps). This is a good reason for maintaining strict quality controls. Users will be more willing to buy and there will be less noise in the system to keep people from finding and buying your app. It doesn't matter how easy it is to develop for Android if you're not going to make money doing it.
I'd suggest iOS because it is harder to learn meaning you have less competition and more is a more unified platform meaning more potential customers will have easy access to buying your app.
Also people who buy Android tend to be cheaper, thus buying the cheaper Android devices, and are less likely to spend a lot of money on apps.
Of course why not learn both. Android is pretty easy to learn and most of the time it isn't difficult to port an app from iOS to Android or vice versa. Sure they're different languages but the app logic can be very similar and Java and Obj-C aren't horrible dissimilar. Tools exist to make the job easier too. Or if you're geeky you can write your own programming language that can compile to Android/Java and iOS/Obj-C. I've been playing with my own toy language which is similar to Python in syntax. Also did a little Brainfsck one but that isn't really practical. Was amusing myself with the idea of allowing users to script certain elements of a program in Brainfsck.
Does it really matter where the server is and who technically owns it if you have no control over your data and how it's processed? I have a commercial ERP product I have to deal with that requires it run on a $30000+ AIX box, can only be backed up using their expensive partner company, requires keeping an expensive support contract, and completely sucks but there is no easy way to switch products because there is no way to export all the data and no way to fix the program because the vendor obviously doesn't even know their own product and we don't have the source. It doesn't matter if it's on my server or in the cloud. The only real issue is that the company went with a non-opensource solution (there was no OSS solution at the time) and it's now a nightmare and it will be an even bigger nightmare when we reach e point where we have to switch.
To be fair many OSS solutions would be nearly as big a hassle because they are so badly implemented. In theory you could get your data out and move to a different product but it'd be a serious chore. Bad source is almost as bad as no source.
Way back in college I had an electrical engineering professor that told us that when he worked for the military part of his job was maintaining the control systems for nukes. He said that a big problem they've repeatedly fought with is that the insulation used in many of the nukes breaks down with time so you'll get a bit of crossover and shorting. So the nukes will suddenly arm themselves and fun things like that. It wasn't just single nukes either - whole locations would go into launch mode all on their own. I think the point was to be careful how you built things because what is fine under normal conditions might end up being used harder and longer than you expect.
I keep waiting for Armeggedon by glitch. The end of humanity because we insist on keeping around aging weapons that only an idiot would ever use anyway.
You might have a point if the majority of graduates weren't completely useless anyway. They get some pansy liberal arts degree or get into computer science without knowing their CPU from their hard drive and coming out still completely lost as how their computer works, how to write software, what Unix is, or how to do anything especially useful. Or maybe they'll get a biology degree but decide not to go into medicine or research. Yeah those bio degrees are horribly useful when you end up working at McDonalds.
Heck, most recent graduates I've dealt with don't even know enough to look at you when they talk to you. They stare off into space. And they think a group hug means they've mastered teamwork.
Wow, somebody understands why we're in this economic mess and is doing something to try to fix it? Yeah that research and development stuff is all bullshit anyway. Getting kids excited by technology that actually works - idiots don't they know it's more fun to take a garbage device and give it a dipshit tweak that makes it worse but gives it your own personal picture of a naked anime chick on every button!? We know that real economic health comes from finding loopholes and playing tricks with numbers. Maybe it'll be better if we give out more stimulus checks or lower the price of HDTVs.
Obviously to much for most Slashdotters to grasp. Go back to your video games and pr0n. Wake me when you've learned to code, moved out of your parents basement, gotten laid, and gained experience points in a life that doesn't require a monthly subscription.
Meanwhile people like me that live and breath code somehow manage to do just about everything with the iPad. It's hardly the devices fault if someone can't figure out the App Store. I know that search box and browse by category thing is totally new still after all these years of using the web. And given I've seen six month old children successfully navigate between apps, play games, etc it must be very difficult for some adults.
If you want to get into how Apple doesn't encourange much innovation by hardware developers I can agree. You might have some sort of point that until it gets iOS 4 it lacks multitasking, printing, etc it probably should have shipped with. But claiming you can't do real things with it means you didn't try.
It's more about centralizing resources. It's a lot more expensive to give 100 machines 4GB of RAM they rarely use but sometimes need than to put 128GB in my server and let the 100 workstations use what they need. The only real control at issue is that it's easier to maintain backups, virus scanning, upgrades, etc from a centralized system than maintaining 100 individual machines.
I'm just waiting for the company bright enough to pack good local network attached storage and distributed computing (CPU/GPU/RAM) into a household server and standardize the protocols and push out some lightweight devices (Android/iOS tablets) that will seamlessly use the server for more power if it's available. With the option to use a remote cloud service if the user wants and the application benefits from it. We're already hacking up solutions like this for businesses so it just needs to be standardized and packaged.
I think it won't be long before average small businesses and homes have something of a hybrid NAS server that also has some ability to provide extra processing power to lightweight devices on the network and with the option to tie into a service to provide off-site backup, remote access to files, maybe even extra processing power if it exceeds what your local server can do and isn't overly bandwidth intensive.
We're already starting the move to a local server for much of our storage and processing. In the business virtualization is growing popular and it makes total sense in the home. Why give each kid a clunky PC that is either underpowered or often sits with wasted resources when you can centralize those resources and give them lightweight portable devices. We're moving towards the cloud which is essentially the same thing on a bigger scale over the Internet. It makes sense for all these trends to converge.
Unlike when companies have spouted these ideas before we actually have the infrastructure in place now and have devices that are both good enough and cheap enough. Now it's just a matter of putting the bits together and agreeing on standards.
Things will only get faster and cheaper if you have usage patterns to prompt the changes.
Local storage is cheap until you lose all your data when a device dies, you can't access it because you don't happen to be local to it, your files get ate by a virus, or you want to share files and have to spend hours trying to get them to someone who isn't on the same system. As with anything cheap upfront is not the same as cheap over time.
The cloud is just a nice way to say you're using a network attached service. That can be your own server, someone else's server, or a combination of the two (what most of us will end up using I think).
And how often do you actually use your files? I have terabytes of files sitting that I haven't accessed in years but also don't want to lose. I don't need to transfer them. They just need to sit there and be safe. A good storage provider can tell which files are personal and which aren't. Non-personal files only need to be stored once for an endless number of users. Much more efficient use of space. Personal files can be kept safe by encrypting them before they ever get sent to the server. Everything can be backed up across multiple locations. Let's see the average user do all that for themselves.
What is annoying me about these issues is that they are described so poorly that I'm not certain if I have a problem. I run 64-bit Linux but no 32-bit code and there are no local users other than for the services I'm running (http and ssh). So do I need to take the time to do something or can I wait for a normal update?
Does it matter? They do evil things with the data like making search results more effective, ads less annoying, and helping keep services free and prices low by allowing the people actually providing your web experience to optimize theirvability to make a profit. Do you think everything can keep coming to you at such low costs to you without somebody being able to find a profit somewhere? You're not being tracked unless you're purposely using the web.
Even if you can pass laws to keep all tracking from being done by private companies, forcing us all to pay a lot kore for Internet services, the government will still track you and they're the ones most likely to be dangerous. I'd worry more about the huge AT&T tap where they record everything you do in their jumbo database and pipe it over to the NSA.
I've been disappointed with the availability and quality of toddler friendly games available for PC/Mac and the game consoles I have. I did find a downloadable Wii game called PooYoos (or something like that) recently that at least my daughter enjoyed but it wasn't highly educational. I haven't tried a lot of web based stuff but to me it makes sense it might be better because I've noticed iOS apps from small developers are better than any of these PC or console games for toddlers.
I have been pleased with iOS apps for toddlers though as many are very affordable ($1 - $5), they look good, they are educational, and most important my daughter enjoys playing them and can do so without my help. (Not that I don't interact but she can do it and isn't just watching me.) She has picked up a lot of information through these games such as object recognition, spelling, and so on that seems advanced for a two year old. All without drilling which could take the fun out of learning. Also she has gotten very apt at technology itself.
We watch a lot of Dora, Kai-Lan, Signing Time, etc too which I think is good for her too. I like the exposure to different languages she gets and the other topics they cover ranging from shapes and numbers to how to handle emotions is a good place for us to start our interaction on the topics.
Of course we do a lot with blocks, toy trains, dolls, books, coloring, etc too. All the basics of childhood. Before actually having kids I'd read a lot about how bad it was to let children watch tv or play video games and at first I was avoiding them but as I gained experience I decided that these studies were misrepresented or wrong because I can clearly see the opposite result. I think leaving your kids in front of the tv all day is a bad idea but giving them good educational resources of all types and using them with your child will produce good results. As always it's about being involved and balancing it all.
My laptop has a 128GB SSD which would be really cramped except I keep most my files on my NAS where it can be kept in RAID and be automatically backed up etc. Really the local drive should only be the files needed to boot and hook to the network and the rest used to cache the files you're most likely to need soon. As you said you can already get decent storage space in the usual form factors so it's not really a big deal if the drives can't get more dense. I dont really care if my NAS takes up a whole server rack. It's only a matter of time before the cloud handles most our storage anyway. Local storage is just to much hassle for most people anyway and why should we ever worry about a hard limit to how much space we have available?
It doesn't seem a big deal to me. I'd be more interested in seeing the prices drop and to have larger RAM caches.
The iOS versus Android argument to me comes down to that I prefer open source but what is the point of having the source to crap. Not that Android is really crap but the UI is poorly designed and the lack of control of end devices by Google results in a wide, and confusing, user experience. I get frustrated at the number of people new to open source or not even developers that like to rant about the evil that is Apple and the good that is Google. Obviously they haven't a lot of experience with the nice way Google makes it difficult to hack around on other devices they sell such as the Google Search Appliances (which I have). I think both Apple and Google are leading technology companies and both make some great products.
If I was going to make my own device I'd start with Android to build from but I'd copy a lot of iOS design decisions at the UI level and iDevice design decisions. I'd also keep a lot more control than Google has done as I think Android gets a lot of the negative light coming off of the devices it runs on. And many devices are difficult to even run an unlocked copy of Android on which defeats the entire benefit of having the source. And comparable Android devices are no cheaper, and often are even more expensive, than an iDevice. I'm looking for a good Android tablet to develop on but there Google seems to be unsure if they want to push Android or Chrome OS.
Apple's biggest short coming is lack of third party devices. If I was Google, along with fixing the UI and ecosystem issues, I'd be all over that as a way to really be better than Apple. I'm not talking supporting USB and SD, which are anti-features IMO, but defining good interfaces for mobile devices, licensing it for free, and really pushing it.
Since nobody is paying me to make my own device I'm going to choose to own iDevices. At least until I see an equal Android device and see the Android ecosystem become equal.
I have something like 3000 items rated and my experience is items average a lot less than two hours. I have a lot of 20 minute show episodes rated. Also it's important to note that more than one person use a single account and with steaming you can pump through shows pretty quickly.
My theory is they had to rate that many movies to get the stupid Netflix rating system to make suggestions for them. I was well into 1000+ ratings before it'd even occasionally try. Horrible system.
I've yet to see a college test that has any meaning to if the knowledge itself is understood. Probably this is partly because college is a poor way to learn most subjects and partly because educators want to hide the fact that their students aren't learning any useful material. Of the people I know with, or without, college degrees the people that are self learners know their stuff and those that aren't don't know it regardless of what degree they may hold or what grades they got. (True of science, engineering, med, economics, business, and marketing people I know at least. Maybe not programs like English or History.)
A work environment is often more educational because you have to really see all the angles and how things work, or more often don't, over time. You have senior employees that mentor you. School should be like that but I've yet to see one that was. Instead it's all about working your way through an ineffective lesson plan and passing tests that evaluate nothing more than taking tests. Using a calculator, book, notes, computer, or buddy or not is meaningless compared to the complete uselessness of the entire system. The dummies schools crank out in droves completely devalues the job market.
You're better off reading books and working on your own projects than going to college. If you can't learn on your own college isn't going to help you.
Just let them use whatever they want. However they want to do it it's up to them to get the most they can from their education. It's not educators jobs to be babysitters. Besides we'll have access to these devices on the job so why not in school? I remember teachers saying we couldn't use a calculator because we won't always have a calculator on us in real life. Yeah right - I've had an iTouch on me every day for years and before that a cellphone which had a calculator for many more years. In case of Armageddon I may be screwed but on the job I'm fine
I think being any kind of a fanboy for any Microsoft product (excepting maybe the gaming division) should qualify you as mentally ill and get you a free trip to visit the nice guys in white coats. When has any Microsoft product not been crap that only made it because of their aggressive marketing and business deals? I've used some very expensive WinCE mobiles and they suck horribly. Win7 has to be better as there is no way to be worse but even imagining Microsoft understanding users well enough to make a good mobile is laughable. Android and iOS are really the only contenders and its all a matter of which will get it's act together first as to who will become the only real player. Android is lacking a clean UI and some control over providing a good user experience. Apple is to restrictive and needs to ease up. Either can fix the issues way easier than any competitor can come to market.
If I was Google I'd fix my, mostly minor, problems and add a cross compiler that'd recompile iOS apps for Android with no work on the part of the developer.
I like my Roku but with the price drop I'm thinking of getting an Apple TV. Despite an official thumbs up they've set the new device to be able to run iOS apps. It's only a matter of time until that happens and that'll kill Roku and the game consoles for me. I have little interest in Google TV or Boxee right now but might be interested if they can top the new Apple TV.
I'm interested to see how the big consoles respond to these new threats.
Largely we could still make things cheap in the US but we'd have to rely more on technology instead of slave labor. So along with more jobs for labororers we'd also be providing more jobs for people to design, build, run, and maintain all that technology. It's absurd that we're draining the US economy out so Walmart can make short term profits and consumers can get things cheap in the short term.
This Walmart effect is directly responsible for part of our economic woes and I've yet to see any politician even mention it let alone make any effort to fix it. I really don't see the benefit of globalization if we're not working with equal peers or purchasing resources not available here (such as minerals, plants, etc). All we're doing is sending American jobs and skills overseas in exchange for cheap crap. Unemployed people don't have a lot of buying power and industries that don't exist here aren't spurring innovation here.
I'd pay twice as much for products made in the US but I doubt most consumers feel the same way. People would rather get cheap stuff now than worry that it's destroying American jobs, weakening America (a country without it's own manufacturing industry is at the whims of others), and is of course allowing foreign workers to be treated badly (worse than not having a job?)
Seriously be the time I got done adding protective screen cover, an extra power adapter, wireless keyboard, etc to my iPad it was at least $1100 and people seem to have a problem with that but if it comes marked 'Made in the USA.' I already pay a premium for Apple products because, in my experience, they are better made and last longer.
I keep looking for a HDTV that is built in the US. So far no luck. I really don't want to spend a lot on a tv and have it break within six months like the last one I bought. I'd rather pay more and have it last a few years.
Usually we opt for human sacrifice. Whomever the poor slob is that gets stuck with the job soon wishes someone would just cut out their beating heart.