Not to rain on your parade mate, but those contracts don't exist globally, the phone makers make a sizable profit on the phones, it's the resellers that get boned
1) Fair enough, i found it to be no better then other phones in the same price segment
2) I suppose i could have formulated that better, inflexible isn't the same as incapable, try defining your own theme for instance, that changes not just the background, but also the fonts & colors used in the UI, unless things have changed with 10.6, your options are very limited, compared to other systems, or heaven forbid, try actually replacing Finder with something else!
Granted, this won't be an issue for everyone, but i like to have a computer that works the way i want it, instead of a computer that tells me how to work
My android phone cost 2/3 of the price of the iPhone, for that, i have a device on which i can install anything i want, it's not locked to iTunes, it has tethering (important for me), it can multitask and it works with the rest of my kit.
So yes, from my perspective, it's overpriced & limited
1) Built better is ambiguous wording, as is customer satisfaction, without really qualifying both (is the device build to withstand XYZ/is the customer satisfied with feature XYZ) stating these is rather pointless.
Look, i'm not saying the iPhone is crap or build lousilly, i'm stating that it's build quality was on par with the competition.
2) OSX's UI is unflexable, i didn't make the claim that the OS lacked capabilites.
3) I've maintained Apple systems at my old job, that included repairs of hardware and maintaining software, i was using Apple gear when they switched from MacOS to OSX, i was there when they switched from PPC to X86 (and i've dealt with a few 68k legacy systems), however, i have only owned 3 items built by Apple, a PowerBook (came with the job and i used it only for the job) and 2 iPod Nano's, it's not because i don't buy Apple gear that i am not familiar with it.
"All I can say is that I have absolutely no complaints. Phone gives better audio quality and apparently better signal strength than my 3GS, which also rarely dropped calls and generally had little trouble accessing the 'net even though I live in NYC and supposedly ought not to have even been able to place a call, period.
Prior to switching to Android last month i was also using a WinMo device, because at the time i bought it, it was the only platform tht did what i needed it to do, a nice UI add-on for WinMo devices is Point-UI, it's free and pretty much the only decent touch driven add-on i've seen on WinMo.
Another nice fact about the WinMo platform was that it's unrestricted, you can download any app & install it, no App Store, no walled garden, it was the most open mobile platform when i bought it (you know a market is fucked when the most open platform comes from Microsoft), things have changed though the last few years, the iPhone came, Android was born, and Maemo saw the light on a phone too, i think WinMo has pretty much had it now, and the real battle will be iPhone, Android and Maemo's replacement (forgot the name).
As for the iPhone, i personally find it to be an overpriced, locked-down & limited gadget, pretty & shiney though
1) Good design does not equal good engineering. While the iPhone raised the bar for design, it wasn't build better then most of the other phones out there.
2) OS X is a Mach kernel with a BSD layer on which they've placed their custom interface, it's not the most stable OS out there, nor is it the most buggy one, it is however, one of the most inflexible ones out there (do things our way or don't do them at all seems to be Apple's mentallity).
3) The GP's post isn't a troll, it's an opinion (an opinion i happen to share after years of dealing with Apple hardware).
I wouldn't be surprised if some Americans think we do, as i wouldn't be surprised if there were Europeans thinking that English is the only language spoken in the USA.
I'd expect pretty much any more or less educated person to know the difference, after all, the rest of the world also uses North & South (and West & East), you did realize that did you?
While i'm not a gamer, i have an extensive DVD & CD collection, and i refuse to pay to download a bunch of bytes, if i pay for it, i want it in a shiny container that i can put with the rest of my collection.
Also, physical media can be sold on, downloads.... not so much
BP might be able to afford it, however, we might not be able to afford it, this disaster will cause a lot of damage, from endangered species to loss in tourism, and BP won't have to pay a penny for the actual damage they caused
Slashdot Mirror
They should've noticed this earlier, like, before release
iPhones are sold without any lock-down (except the iTunes store) in Belgium & France, probably also in the rest of Europe
Not to rain on your parade mate, but those contracts don't exist globally, the phone makers make a sizable profit on the phones, it's the resellers that get boned
This looks like something straight from the onion, but it's sadly a real story *sigh*
Well i'm not going to try it ;)
1) Fair enough, i found it to be no better then other phones in the same price segment
2) I suppose i could have formulated that better, inflexible isn't the same as incapable, try defining your own theme for instance, that changes not just the background, but also the fonts & colors used in the UI, unless things have changed with 10.6, your options are very limited, compared to other systems, or heaven forbid, try actually replacing Finder with something else!
Granted, this won't be an issue for everyone, but i like to have a computer that works the way i want it, instead of a computer that tells me how to work
My android phone cost 2/3 of the price of the iPhone, for that, i have a device on which i can install anything i want, it's not locked to iTunes, it has tethering (important for me), it can multitask and it works with the rest of my kit.
So yes, from my perspective, it's overpriced & limited
1) Built better is ambiguous wording, as is customer satisfaction, without really qualifying both (is the device build to withstand XYZ/is the customer satisfied with feature XYZ) stating these is rather pointless.
Look, i'm not saying the iPhone is crap or build lousilly, i'm stating that it's build quality was on par with the competition.
2) OSX's UI is unflexable, i didn't make the claim that the OS lacked capabilites.
3) I've maintained Apple systems at my old job, that included repairs of hardware and maintaining software, i was using Apple gear when they switched from MacOS to OSX, i was there when they switched from PPC to X86 (and i've dealt with a few 68k legacy systems), however, i have only owned 3 items built by Apple, a PowerBook (came with the job and i used it only for the job) and 2 iPod Nano's, it's not because i don't buy Apple gear that i am not familiar with it.
Serious question, but, use it for what? I've not found a single use for an iPad or simular device sofar
"All I can say is that I have absolutely no complaints. Phone gives better audio quality and apparently better signal strength than my 3GS, which also rarely dropped calls and generally had little trouble accessing the 'net even though I live in NYC and supposedly ought not to have even been able to place a call, period.
Is AT&T really that horrid?!
Prior to switching to Android last month i was also using a WinMo device, because at the time i bought it, it was the only platform tht did what i needed it to do, a nice UI add-on for WinMo devices is Point-UI, it's free and pretty much the only decent touch driven add-on i've seen on WinMo.
Another nice fact about the WinMo platform was that it's unrestricted, you can download any app & install it, no App Store, no walled garden, it was the most open mobile platform when i bought it (you know a market is fucked when the most open platform comes from Microsoft), things have changed though the last few years, the iPhone came, Android was born, and Maemo saw the light on a phone too, i think WinMo has pretty much had it now, and the real battle will be iPhone, Android and Maemo's replacement (forgot the name).
As for the iPhone, i personally find it to be an overpriced, locked-down & limited gadget, pretty & shiney though
"The iPhone 4's launch bugs are minuscule compared to the typical Android or Nokia phone."
Care to elaborate on this?
1) Good design does not equal good engineering. While the iPhone raised the bar for design, it wasn't build better then most of the other phones out there.
2) OS X is a Mach kernel with a BSD layer on which they've placed their custom interface, it's not the most stable OS out there, nor is it the most buggy one, it is however, one of the most inflexible ones out there (do things our way or don't do them at all seems to be Apple's mentallity).
3) The GP's post isn't a troll, it's an opinion (an opinion i happen to share after years of dealing with Apple hardware).
If only i had modpoints :)
I wouldn't be surprised if some Americans think we do, as i wouldn't be surprised if there were Europeans thinking that English is the only language spoken in the USA.
Usually these things are apparent from their context.
I'd expect pretty much any more or less educated person to know the difference, after all, the rest of the world also uses North & South (and West & East), you did realize that did you?
Well to be fair, when it comes to Apple the user always had to adjust his way of working to them, be it their phones or OS's
It's worse for the publishers alright
While i'm not a gamer, i have an extensive DVD & CD collection, and i refuse to pay to download a bunch of bytes, if i pay for it, i want it in a shiny container that i can put with the rest of my collection.
Also, physical media can be sold on, downloads.... not so much
Someone mod this up!
there is not a single thing that REQUIRES paper in todays age.
But i don't know how the use the shells! How am i going to take a crap now?
The people should be accountable, not some faceless company
BP might be able to afford it, however, we might not be able to afford it, this disaster will cause a lot of damage, from endangered species to loss in tourism, and BP won't have to pay a penny for the actual damage they caused
Wait, newer iPods aren't mountable anymore?