Not exactly 100% true, take pharmaceuticals for instance. I live in a country with a higher cost of living (and arguably better quality of life) than the US, but with MUCH lower pharmaceuticals costs. Yes, we have socialized healthcare, but I know for a fact the the _total_ drug cost is still significantly lower that even what the consumer pays in the US. Our co-pay is typically less than 10€ and there is even a maximum cap per annum, above which you pay nothing.
At least in the US, you seem to be willing to accept the highest pharmaceutical costs in the world while letting the drug companies make huge profits.
I disagree. The so-called "forced" warranties you quote are needed because companies have tried many times in the past to dump cheap crap on the consumer that breaks before it should. It does not increase the cost of quality, it means the company can't make crap that breaks easily and pawn it off on the unknowing consumer and then claim it's "out of warranty" when it breaks. When you buy something, you have a reasonable expectation that it will last X years. There is no reason a TV, computer or other electronic goods should not last at least 5-10 years if not more. Yes, defects happen and that is what the warranty is for and the consumer protection laws reinforce this if the product breaks during it's expected lifetime. I'm not implying that everything has to last forever, that would be silly. And of course companies should not be bound to excessive expectations of product lifetime. But I feel good that if my TV breaks one day out of official warranty, I can still make a claim with the manufacturer and they may be obligated by law to fix it. I also like the fact that most consumer electronics must carry a 2 year warranty in Europe.
Companies created this situation. If crap had not been pawned off on consumers in the past we would not NEED the current consumer protection laws.
Agree. It's something you see commonly done by US companies, I see it all the time and Apple is partaking in this practice wholesale. Take for example a Macbook. Goes for $999 in the US. Same laptop in the EU? 999€, despite the fact the US dollar to Euro exchange rate is much stronger in favor of the Euro (currently ~45% stronger). Yes, VAT is included in Europe, but how do you explain the extra 20-25% markup? It surely isn't import duties. I say it's fat profits for American companies doing business in Europe.
Funny enough, I don't see European companies doing this often. For example, something selling here for 319€ or 329€ would be $399 in the US. This is at least close to reality considering the different currency valuations.
Because for getting any real creation work done, you need a PC or laptop, it just can't be done on an iPad. That $600 is then ON TOP of the cost of a PC or laptop.
I learned this myself, I own an iPad. After the cool factor wears off and you get down to business with it, you will discover its limitations pretty quickly. It is a tool and it has its uses, but a replacement for a PC or laptop, it is not. I can think of very few business cases where an iPad-only equipped employee is capable of using it for real work in the absence of a proper computer. Yes, there are some very narrow vertical segments where it can be used alone, but not in a general office workplace.
I didn't read TFA, that would be blasphemy, but as a long-time PC advocate and a more recent iPad user, I do agree with a lot of the comments here. The iPad is a relatively good tool for consumption and as an organizing aid. It's great to take to meetings and have access to my calendar and contacts and it's reasonably ok to take notes on. For light email use it's ok, but the mail client is missing a LOT of features compared to a full-featured mail client like Outlook, Thunderbird or Evolution.
For any real creation work it becomes tedious very quickly. Also, if text entry requires anything more than the normal A-Z, it is EXTREMELY tedious, especially if you need to enter special characters. Just entering the paragraph end tag requires an ungodly number of taps and finger dancing (it's 10, I just checked). The available special characters are also quite limited, for example there is no degree symbol.
Given a choice between a normal laptop and the iPad, if I was forced to take one over the other, it would be a laptop. But used in combination with a laptop the iPad is a useful tool for some tasks.
Sorry, BS. Yet another idiot predicting the end of the PC. Why does this story pop up once a year or so? It never goes anywhere. It's just someone pushing their own agenda.
I'd like to relate something that happened to me recently. I am a long-time computer guy going back to the original PC-XT and DOS. I have multiple PC's and various reclaimed business laptops at home. I needed to get an iPad for work-related stuff this summer, so I bought one (company paid, not personal). I have also been looking for a good ultra-portable laptop for taking on vacation, to be able to check email, web surfing, run dive software and do a little light some content creation work. I did NOT want a netbook, too slow and too limited. I really expected that after getting the iPad, I would no longer want a small laptop and would probably get an iPad for personal use. I used the work iPad for the past couple months, and while it has perfectly valid uses and it's good at some things, I felt it was just too limited for what I needed personally. I ended up buying a small Lenovo ultra-portable and I'm glad I did. The iPad is fine as a consumption device, but it's really not a lot more than that. Can I create on it? Sure, basic stuff can be done, but it's not fun. I'd much rather reach for my laptop and get it done faster and easier. As a sofa-browsing tool, the iPad is great, but it just can't cut it for a lot of the things I want to use it for. The cool factor wore off after only a few weeks using the iPad. I still use it daily and it's an effective organizing tool, but tablets or other "portable" computing devices are just NOT going to replace the PC any time soon.
Please do some research before you imply Hitler and Mussolini are not right-wing. Contrary to popular believe in the US, they were NOT leading socialist movements in any shape or form although they tried to disguise some of their activities under that false banner. They were nationalist right-wing extremists and fascists. They were absolutely not left-wing or socialist in any tangible way.
In the US it's more accurate to label politics as far right (republicans) or center right (democrats). There is no true left in popular US politics, even democrats are more right of center than in many other progressive countries (including many EU and all Nordic countries).
Please, not the same tired old population density excuse used in the mobile phone industry to defend why the US has such crappy service and coverage compared to, like, anywhere else.
How in the hell does a brand-new out-of-the-box hard drive contain a virus? You would think the hard drive manufacturers can easily prevent this from happening during manufacturing, so I have to assume ALDI are selling used drives? Is this common practice in Oz?
I've NEVER seen used anything-computer sold at a supermarket. Brand-new in-the-box USB hard drives, maybe, but not internal drives. And I certainly would not buy one if the package has been opened. Perhaps they are returns that have been infected by the first purchaser?
Seriously, I'm actually reading 1984 again, and the parallels are scary to what has been going on in the US post-9/11. And to imagine that Orwell came up with this in the late 40's and it's mirrored in today's USA, is literally unbelievable.
And... this is a good thing? Walmart simply has gotten too big and has far too much power in the consumer market. In fact, Walmart's squeezing of suppliers just means better profit margins for Walmart, not better prices for consumers. Why does nobody get this?
Absolutely. We wouldn't want "dangerous" words heard by our perfect little children who never do any wrong and whom we need to shield and protect from everything even slightly uncomfortable or otherwise known as the "real world". You know, the one where everybody behaves, follows the letter of the law and never does anything wrong.
Seriously, I don't shop at Walmart, because I just don't believe in their business practices, their presumed moral authority over what I as a consumer can buy and the way they treat their employees and suppliers. They really are destroying America in the name of "cheap prices", and the consuming public is mostly buying it.
I won't be getting a Google+ account. I don't care whether this is doing evil or sheer incompetence (I'm betting on the latter), but to lose access to all Google-related services especially Gmail, is complete and utter BS. The fact that a company the size of Google can get by without any sort of customer service is beyond me.
Pure marketing spin on this one, what they are really trying to do is roll out a subscription-based service where you pay-to-play. Stop paying your subscription? Sorry, you don't get to play our game anymore.
Did you not even understood the summary?... Sony is essentially coming out and saying "don't buy into the hype, just because it's 3D". As stated in the summary, 3D needs to be done technically and creatively correct in order to have an impact, something that 95% of today's content just doesn't do.
I totally agree with Sony on this point, and in fact I myself have not bought into 3D and currently have no plans to do it. For me, it just doesn't add anything meaningful that I'm willing to pay more for. I do buy movies on Blu-ray, partly for the video quality but mainly for the vastly improved multi-channel uncompressed audio. Adding 3D isn't going to improve my movie experience. To me, it's really just a gimmick today. In the long term, I'm sure we will end up with 3D, but today's implementations leave a lot to be desired in terms of convenience and immersion.
I'm on another equally large Finnish ISP (Sonera), and there is no blockage of TPB. I've not heard of any ISP's here blocking content, other than the failed attempt at a black list for child porn sites a few years ago.
100% correct. The pirate situation off the Somalian coast is not going to improve until the local people can earn a living and provide for their family. The current situation there is complete and utter disaster, and until it improves the attacks will continue. I'm not saying it is right and legal to attack passing ships as they have been doing, but until the economic and social issues are dealt with in their own country, it's just not going to change.
The fisheries issue is key, the local fish population is being totally devastated by foreign corporations that have no legal right to fish there. What would you do if a foreign entity just dropped in and started harvesting your primary food source then gave you nothing in return? This is precisely what is happening there.
So, when is Apple going to adjust their pricing in the EU? Yes, I know we have VAT tax included in the listed price, but it still does not match up given the current weak US dollar compared to the Euro. Currently, 1 Euro is about 1.42 USD. Apple conveniently prices many if not all of their goods at the same numeric value, e.g. 99 USD and 99 Euros, when comparing US and European prices.
I'll give you a personal example. I recently bought an iPad 2 for work from the Apple Store in the EU. I bought the least expensive 16GB wifi-only model, as that's all I really need. Price: 499 Euro. Same iPad in the US: 499 USD. At the current exchange rate, I paid the equivalent of *709* USD, for the same iPad I can get in the US for 499+tax. And please, don't try to give me that old story that it costs *so much* to ship it halfway around the world, that's BS. When you ship product in large quantities, the cost per device is very small, in the order of a few dollars per device, perhaps 10 in the case of an iPad. In single digit quantities the shipping would be expensive, but not in bulk.
I'll also second the comments on Steam, Valve seem to follow the same rule.
In fact, I have noticed this is a common trend for US companies selling goods abroad, something to rake in a better margin on products sold overseas, whereas most European businesses that offer the same products in the US and Europe tend to even out the pricing according to the value of the currencies.
Um, no, the evidence suggests otherwise. There have already been a few instances where people have entered the security queue, refused the porno scan or invasive pat-down and have been ticketed or arrested for trying to leave the area without being groped or otherwise searched. I noticed on a recent trip that there is even a sign posted at the entrance of the queue warning you that you are subject to search BY LAW once you enter the queue. You cannot back-out.
How long will we let this continue? The TSA clearly is out of control, has no respect for the people and can get away with practically anything without repercussion. There seems to be NO oversight whatsoever, and no means of getting them under some kind of control. The TSA needs a severe smack-down and restricting or dismantling of the organization, to be replaced with something sane. Security theater has gone WAY too far.
I hope everyone is happy with their "freedom" now, because all of us have let this happen.
Slashdot Mirror
Not exactly 100% true, take pharmaceuticals for instance. I live in a country with a higher cost of living (and arguably better quality of life) than the US, but with MUCH lower pharmaceuticals costs. Yes, we have socialized healthcare, but I know for a fact the the _total_ drug cost is still significantly lower that even what the consumer pays in the US. Our co-pay is typically less than 10€ and there is even a maximum cap per annum, above which you pay nothing.
At least in the US, you seem to be willing to accept the highest pharmaceutical costs in the world while letting the drug companies make huge profits.
I disagree. The so-called "forced" warranties you quote are needed because companies have tried many times in the past to dump cheap crap on the consumer that breaks before it should. It does not increase the cost of quality, it means the company can't make crap that breaks easily and pawn it off on the unknowing consumer and then claim it's "out of warranty" when it breaks. When you buy something, you have a reasonable expectation that it will last X years. There is no reason a TV, computer or other electronic goods should not last at least 5-10 years if not more. Yes, defects happen and that is what the warranty is for and the consumer protection laws reinforce this if the product breaks during it's expected lifetime. I'm not implying that everything has to last forever, that would be silly. And of course companies should not be bound to excessive expectations of product lifetime. But I feel good that if my TV breaks one day out of official warranty, I can still make a claim with the manufacturer and they may be obligated by law to fix it. I also like the fact that most consumer electronics must carry a 2 year warranty in Europe.
Companies created this situation. If crap had not been pawned off on consumers in the past we would not NEED the current consumer protection laws.
Agree. It's something you see commonly done by US companies, I see it all the time and Apple is partaking in this practice wholesale. Take for example a Macbook. Goes for $999 in the US. Same laptop in the EU? 999€, despite the fact the US dollar to Euro exchange rate is much stronger in favor of the Euro (currently ~45% stronger). Yes, VAT is included in Europe, but how do you explain the extra 20-25% markup? It surely isn't import duties. I say it's fat profits for American companies doing business in Europe.
Funny enough, I don't see European companies doing this often. For example, something selling here for 319€ or 329€ would be $399 in the US. This is at least close to reality considering the different currency valuations.
Because for getting any real creation work done, you need a PC or laptop, it just can't be done on an iPad. That $600 is then ON TOP of the cost of a PC or laptop.
I learned this myself, I own an iPad. After the cool factor wears off and you get down to business with it, you will discover its limitations pretty quickly. It is a tool and it has its uses, but a replacement for a PC or laptop, it is not. I can think of very few business cases where an iPad-only equipped employee is capable of using it for real work in the absence of a proper computer. Yes, there are some very narrow vertical segments where it can be used alone, but not in a general office workplace.
I didn't read TFA, that would be blasphemy, but as a long-time PC advocate and a more recent iPad user, I do agree with a lot of the comments here. The iPad is a relatively good tool for consumption and as an organizing aid. It's great to take to meetings and have access to my calendar and contacts and it's reasonably ok to take notes on. For light email use it's ok, but the mail client is missing a LOT of features compared to a full-featured mail client like Outlook, Thunderbird or Evolution.
For any real creation work it becomes tedious very quickly. Also, if text entry requires anything more than the normal A-Z, it is EXTREMELY tedious, especially if you need to enter special characters. Just entering the paragraph end tag requires an ungodly number of taps and finger dancing (it's 10, I just checked). The available special characters are also quite limited, for example there is no degree symbol.
Given a choice between a normal laptop and the iPad, if I was forced to take one over the other, it would be a laptop. But used in combination with a laptop the iPad is a useful tool for some tasks.
Sorry, BS. Yet another idiot predicting the end of the PC. Why does this story pop up once a year or so? It never goes anywhere. It's just someone pushing their own agenda.
I'd like to relate something that happened to me recently. I am a long-time computer guy going back to the original PC-XT and DOS. I have multiple PC's and various reclaimed business laptops at home. I needed to get an iPad for work-related stuff this summer, so I bought one (company paid, not personal). I have also been looking for a good ultra-portable laptop for taking on vacation, to be able to check email, web surfing, run dive software and do a little light some content creation work. I did NOT want a netbook, too slow and too limited. I really expected that after getting the iPad, I would no longer want a small laptop and would probably get an iPad for personal use. I used the work iPad for the past couple months, and while it has perfectly valid uses and it's good at some things, I felt it was just too limited for what I needed personally. I ended up buying a small Lenovo ultra-portable and I'm glad I did. The iPad is fine as a consumption device, but it's really not a lot more than that. Can I create on it? Sure, basic stuff can be done, but it's not fun. I'd much rather reach for my laptop and get it done faster and easier. As a sofa-browsing tool, the iPad is great, but it just can't cut it for a lot of the things I want to use it for. The cool factor wore off after only a few weeks using the iPad. I still use it daily and it's an effective organizing tool, but tablets or other "portable" computing devices are just NOT going to replace the PC any time soon.
Please do some research before you imply Hitler and Mussolini are not right-wing. Contrary to popular believe in the US, they were NOT leading socialist movements in any shape or form although they tried to disguise some of their activities under that false banner. They were nationalist right-wing extremists and fascists. They were absolutely not left-wing or socialist in any tangible way.
In the US it's more accurate to label politics as far right (republicans) or center right (democrats). There is no true left in popular US politics, even democrats are more right of center than in many other progressive countries (including many EU and all Nordic countries).
Please, not the same tired old population density excuse used in the mobile phone industry to defend why the US has such crappy service and coverage compared to, like, anywhere else.
Please don't ask difficult questions, citizen.
How in the hell does a brand-new out-of-the-box hard drive contain a virus? You would think the hard drive manufacturers can easily prevent this from happening during manufacturing, so I have to assume ALDI are selling used drives? Is this common practice in Oz?
I've NEVER seen used anything-computer sold at a supermarket. Brand-new in-the-box USB hard drives, maybe, but not internal drives. And I certainly would not buy one if the package has been opened. Perhaps they are returns that have been infected by the first purchaser?
1984 is NOT an instruction manual.
Seriously, I'm actually reading 1984 again, and the parallels are scary to what has been going on in the US post-9/11. And to imagine that Orwell came up with this in the late 40's and it's mirrored in today's USA, is literally unbelievable.
How much longer do you let this continue?
... for yet another game to add to my "do not buy" list.
Walmart is only going to ensure fatter profits for themselves, what makes you think it will benefit consumers or competitors?
Walmart already sensors the media you buy, so why not?
And... this is a good thing? Walmart simply has gotten too big and has far too much power in the consumer market. In fact, Walmart's squeezing of suppliers just means better profit margins for Walmart, not better prices for consumers. Why does nobody get this?
Absolutely. We wouldn't want "dangerous" words heard by our perfect little children who never do any wrong and whom we need to shield and protect from everything even slightly uncomfortable or otherwise known as the "real world". You know, the one where everybody behaves, follows the letter of the law and never does anything wrong.
Seriously, I don't shop at Walmart, because I just don't believe in their business practices, their presumed moral authority over what I as a consumer can buy and the way they treat their employees and suppliers. They really are destroying America in the name of "cheap prices", and the consuming public is mostly buying it.
Because Apple's lobby is well paid by this 30%, you don't need to worry about any investigation. You may return to work now, citizen.
Yeah, funny how this popped up only days after the FXAA announcement last week.
I won't be getting a Google+ account. I don't care whether this is doing evil or sheer incompetence (I'm betting on the latter), but to lose access to all Google-related services especially Gmail, is complete and utter BS. The fact that a company the size of Google can get by without any sort of customer service is beyond me.
Pure marketing spin on this one, what they are really trying to do is roll out a subscription-based service where you pay-to-play. Stop paying your subscription? Sorry, you don't get to play our game anymore.
No thanks EA.
Did you not even understood the summary?... Sony is essentially coming out and saying "don't buy into the hype, just because it's 3D". As stated in the summary, 3D needs to be done technically and creatively correct in order to have an impact, something that 95% of today's content just doesn't do.
I totally agree with Sony on this point, and in fact I myself have not bought into 3D and currently have no plans to do it. For me, it just doesn't add anything meaningful that I'm willing to pay more for. I do buy movies on Blu-ray, partly for the video quality but mainly for the vastly improved multi-channel uncompressed audio. Adding 3D isn't going to improve my movie experience. To me, it's really just a gimmick today. In the long term, I'm sure we will end up with 3D, but today's implementations leave a lot to be desired in terms of convenience and immersion.
I'm on another equally large Finnish ISP (Sonera), and there is no blockage of TPB. I've not heard of any ISP's here blocking content, other than the failed attempt at a black list for child porn sites a few years ago.
100% correct. The pirate situation off the Somalian coast is not going to improve until the local people can earn a living and provide for their family. The current situation there is complete and utter disaster, and until it improves the attacks will continue. I'm not saying it is right and legal to attack passing ships as they have been doing, but until the economic and social issues are dealt with in their own country, it's just not going to change.
The fisheries issue is key, the local fish population is being totally devastated by foreign corporations that have no legal right to fish there. What would you do if a foreign entity just dropped in and started harvesting your primary food source then gave you nothing in return? This is precisely what is happening there.
So, when is Apple going to adjust their pricing in the EU? Yes, I know we have VAT tax included in the listed price, but it still does not match up given the current weak US dollar compared to the Euro. Currently, 1 Euro is about 1.42 USD. Apple conveniently prices many if not all of their goods at the same numeric value, e.g. 99 USD and 99 Euros, when comparing US and European prices.
I'll give you a personal example. I recently bought an iPad 2 for work from the Apple Store in the EU. I bought the least expensive 16GB wifi-only model, as that's all I really need. Price: 499 Euro. Same iPad in the US: 499 USD. At the current exchange rate, I paid the equivalent of *709* USD, for the same iPad I can get in the US for 499+tax. And please, don't try to give me that old story that it costs *so much* to ship it halfway around the world, that's BS. When you ship product in large quantities, the cost per device is very small, in the order of a few dollars per device, perhaps 10 in the case of an iPad. In single digit quantities the shipping would be expensive, but not in bulk.
I'll also second the comments on Steam, Valve seem to follow the same rule.
In fact, I have noticed this is a common trend for US companies selling goods abroad, something to rake in a better margin on products sold overseas, whereas most European businesses that offer the same products in the US and Europe tend to even out the pricing according to the value of the currencies.
Um, no, the evidence suggests otherwise. There have already been a few instances where people have entered the security queue, refused the porno scan or invasive pat-down and have been ticketed or arrested for trying to leave the area without being groped or otherwise searched. I noticed on a recent trip that there is even a sign posted at the entrance of the queue warning you that you are subject to search BY LAW once you enter the queue. You cannot back-out.
How long will we let this continue? The TSA clearly is out of control, has no respect for the people and can get away with practically anything without repercussion. There seems to be NO oversight whatsoever, and no means of getting them under some kind of control. The TSA needs a severe smack-down and restricting or dismantling of the organization, to be replaced with something sane. Security theater has gone WAY too far.
I hope everyone is happy with their "freedom" now, because all of us have let this happen.