Show me one proprietary connector on a modern Apple product (patented MagSafe power conn. excluded).
Dock connector. New dock connector. Ipod shuffle port.
And if you Google for five seconds, you will several third-party apps that can be used to "sync" to Apple's mobile devices.
So what? There are some hackers who reverse-engineered Apple's proprietary protocol, despite Apple's opposition. Oh, and those third-party apps still require iTunes to be installed or your device to be hacked. Where was I wrong?
Therefore, choosing Blu-ray as an "open" technology to show how good Sony is in using open technologies is just... let's call it a bad example
Let's put it this way. If you put your own stuff in a drm-free format inside a blu-ray disc authored by yourself, the PS3 will play it. There goes the openness. (At least I think so, because I don't own a blu-ray writer, and blu-ray discs are quite expensive, and much less comfortable to use than usb sticks.)
Because the PS3 is the only device Sony is selling?
Because the PS3 is the only Sony device I own and therefore I can speak of. Now that I think, I also have a Sony ebook reader, the PRS-350; if you're interested, it can read plain DRM-free PDFs, that you can load onto it by using a standard micro-USB cable, through the standard USB MSD protocol.
Where to all these sock-puppets come from? Can we block them at the door?
Dear Sony, after all the service I've done for you here on Slashdot, if when I get home I find a gift box full of PS vitas or tablets or cell phones or whatever you might consider appropriate to thank me, I wouldn't get offended.
Do DVDs, Blu-Rays, HDMI and DVI require digital restrictions? Last time I checked, they could all be used without it.
Yes, they require the DRM technologies (in that order) that the post I was responding to wanted Sony not to support. Some of them (DVD) allows them to be disabled. Some of them (HDMI) don't. All of them will require them in order to play back the media that you can actually buy in shops.
The supposed point of HDCP was to prevent people from getting really good quality video without using DRM (and prevent those evil pirates from pirating!!1!)
Correct. Fortunately it has been cracked.
Oh, so instead they inserted DRM into the "open" standard that governs television and multimedia playback. Besides, did I ever say I supported Google? Sorry, I don't.
But media playback is a traditionally DRM- and patent- infested territory, while the Web isn't (yet). I like the fact that you don't support Google when it's evil, let's meet on the next slashdot story about a Google evilness and then let's count how many we are there. But you'll have to post not anonymously, so you'll get the same downmods that I always get in those circumstances.
That's the point, come up with a frickin' format that does not use DRM and distribute movies in said format (Sony is a mayor distributor and user of DRM'd formats).
Great, when Hollywood will start distributing movies in any DRM-free form you'll be able to play them on the PS3. It supports a lot of DRM-free formats.
We know you love your PS3
Thanks for the ad-hominem attack. It's about the fifth one I've got today for posting a positive comment about a product of Sony.
but why do the rest of us have to put up with crippled discs we want to play elsewhere?
You don't have to. The PS3 is perfectly able to play uncrippled discs. That said, there are quite a lot of people around the world that actually like to pay an excessive amount of money to watch films, and here and today supporting DRM is the only way to have them as customers.
No, because they've already inserted their DRM everywhere that matters to them.
Interesting that you'd pick the one company by name that was the least weasel-worded about what it did and didn't use CarrieIQ for.
But curiously, Sony are the only ones that get bashed here on Slashdot. This is what I want to strike with my comments.
Even without mod points, you might try to actually respond to the facts that I put in my comment, instead of inciting the angry mobs against my person.
Who decides what standards are "proprietary" and what standards aren't? Can I implement HD-DVD without paying royalties to Toshiba? How come Blu-Ray "became a standard" after the PS3 was released?
Thanks for the ad-hominem hate attack. How about responding about the facts I mentioned in my post instead? By the way, if you look at my comment history, you'll find plenty of posts attacking most Multi-National Congolomerate, including Sony. You'll also see different moderation outcome depending on which particular Multi-National Conglomerate I was attacking at the time, but that's another story.
And guess who designed Blu-ray [wikipedia.org] and shoveled tons of money into the project to push it into the market [wikipedia.org] to destroy to rival HD DVD format [wikipedia.org]: Sony. Learn your history.
I don't understand what I have to learn. Both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray were proprietary, patent- and DRM-laden standards. The proposers of both standards (including the ultimately evil Microsoft) threw tons on money on the respective standards. For once, the technically best format (Blu-Ray) won. What's wrong with that exactly?
Also, comparing two very specific systems which are by definition very closed (gaming consoles)
I don't undertand this either. I'm comparing the two currently available game consoles (PS3 and XBox 360). Both are very closed, but one is a lot more open than the other (the PS3), in particular, in the fact that it uses standard formats and connection methods, whereas the post I was responding to was claiming that Sony uses proprietary formats.
and a music player (which I guess you're going for with that Apple jibe)
Did you read the comment I was responding to, that talked about ATRAC and minidisc, and therefore Sony's music players? No you didn't.
please stay in your mom's basement.
And here comes the ad-hominem insult. This actually proves my point about anti-Sony hate, thank you.
2. Stop supporting CSS, AACS, HDCP and other forms of DRM
That is, stop playing DVD, Blu-Rays, and drop the ability to connect to HDMI and DVI displays?
If you don't like the above mentioned technologies, you can play unprotected media and connect the PS3 via SCART, VGA or component cables anyway.
3. Apologise for installing rookits on people's computers without their knowledge
Done. Seven years ago. And by the way, did Apple and other phone manufacturers issue any apology for installing CarrierIQ, which had privacy implications several orders of magnitude greater, on millions of phones?
4. Apologise for taking legal action against people who circumvented their digital restrictions
They've stopped doing that years ago. The PS3 uses blu-ray, usb, bluetooth, has a plain user-removable sata hard drive, reads and writes data from whatever kind of media you can plug into it, will work with off-the-shelf usb and bluetooth controllers, keyboards, mice and webcams. Compare to Microsoft (hyper-expensive proprietary drives, proprietary controllers, limited media playback) or Apple (proprietary connectors, proprietary software required to sync).
Nerds only care about real benchmarks, not marketing speech.
Apple are just keeping their tradition of spectacularizing their keynotes (and their marketing material in general) with abundant use of superlatives and fancy names. Which impress ordinary people much more than nerds (cf. CmdrTaco's reaction to the iPod).
It's great to see alternatives to GNU tools gaining ground.
Great for whom? What do users gain with the alternatives to the GNU tools? I like being able to fix bugs in the software running on my routers, or to upgrade my Android phone even after its manufacturer stopped supporting it, and it's only possible because of the GPL.
It's the only logical choice for embedded systems due to licensing.
The vast majority of the embedded systems around me are running GPL code (Linux, busybox) and they seem to be doing fine. I've never seen anything running any *BSD. Am I an outlier?
The CPU of the camera? I don't think that the average MCU found in a camera would be enough to run Symbian.
The idea of this phone is to get the best possible camera inside a phone form factor, which is very different from the one of a "consumer level compact camera": try putting one in your pocket.
Nokia has never produced cameras, instead they're known for manufacturing the phones with the best embedded cameras (N8, N93), and this one is their attempt at keeping that title.
They used Symbian instead of Windows Phone probably because Windows Phone doesn't (currently) offer the flexibility that is needed to support specialized hardware.
Another phrase they might have a hard time "translating":
No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other; or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You can not serve both God and Mammon.
—Matthew 6:19-21,24
Throughout the centuries, it's always the same story, laws are applied to the poor and intepreted for the powerful.
I get the camping official site as the first result on Google. What more do they want? Remove the other results? Would that censorship be respectful towards the victims?
And by the way, why don't they just buy a sponsored link if they want to catch more searchers?
The important thing is the Internet, not the Web. As long as we have interconnected networks, everybody can use them for whatever they like, be it the HTTP protocol or some other alternative.
Only if "there's an app for that".
Second, the usability of the web apps simply sucks, because the web wasn't designed for them.
It wasn't designed to let you read emails, view videos, listen to music, consult maps, play games, talk to your friends, buy books, either.
But since it was designed to be open and extensible, it was improved over the years and now you can do all that stuff pretty well. Can't see why this process of extension and improvement should be halted now, and left to proprietary architectures.
I think he regrets that with an official app store in place, he either has to accept being subject to the rules dictated by whoever runs the one official app store, or suffer the competitive disadvantage of not being on the one official app store where his potential customers will probably look first.
The one where you have to take your cousin to the billiards continuously or he'll get offended? Geeze, I'd get bored to death by having to do it in real life, let alone inside a videogame! Pursuit of realism is OK as long as games keep being funny.
Slashdot Mirror
Dock connector. New dock connector. Ipod shuffle port.
So what? There are some hackers who reverse-engineered Apple's proprietary protocol, despite Apple's opposition. Oh, and those third-party apps still require iTunes to be installed or your device to be hacked. Where was I wrong?
Let's put it this way. If you put your own stuff in a drm-free format inside a blu-ray disc authored by yourself, the PS3 will play it. There goes the openness. (At least I think so, because I don't own a blu-ray writer, and blu-ray discs are quite expensive, and much less comfortable to use than usb sticks.)
Because the PS3 is the only Sony device I own and therefore I can speak of. Now that I think, I also have a Sony ebook reader, the PRS-350; if you're interested, it can read plain DRM-free PDFs, that you can load onto it by using a standard micro-USB cable, through the standard USB MSD protocol.
Dear Sony, after all the service I've done for you here on Slashdot, if when I get home I find a gift box full of PS vitas or tablets or cell phones or whatever you might consider appropriate to thank me, I wouldn't get offended.
Yes, they require the DRM technologies (in that order) that the post I was responding to wanted Sony not to support. Some of them (DVD) allows them to be disabled. Some of them (HDMI) don't. All of them will require them in order to play back the media that you can actually buy in shops.
Correct. Fortunately it has been cracked.
But media playback is a traditionally DRM- and patent- infested territory, while the Web isn't (yet). I like the fact that you don't support Google when it's evil, let's meet on the next slashdot story about a Google evilness and then let's count how many we are there. But you'll have to post not anonymously, so you'll get the same downmods that I always get in those circumstances.
Great, when Hollywood will start distributing movies in any DRM-free form you'll be able to play them on the PS3. It supports a lot of DRM-free formats.
Thanks for the ad-hominem attack. It's about the fifth one I've got today for posting a positive comment about a product of Sony.
You don't have to. The PS3 is perfectly able to play uncrippled discs. That said, there are quite a lot of people around the world that actually like to pay an excessive amount of money to watch films, and here and today supporting DRM is the only way to have them as customers.
But curiously, Sony are the only ones that get bashed here on Slashdot. This is what I want to strike with my comments.
That sucks. I'll only buy game consoles that distribute games on non-proprietary storage. Which one can I buy?
Even without mod points, you might try to actually respond to the facts that I put in my comment, instead of inciting the angry mobs against my person.
Who decides what standards are "proprietary" and what standards aren't? Can I implement HD-DVD without paying royalties to Toshiba? How come Blu-Ray "became a standard" after the PS3 was released?
Thanks for the ad-hominem hate attack. How about responding about the facts I mentioned in my post instead? By the way, if you look at my comment history, you'll find plenty of posts attacking most Multi-National Congolomerate, including Sony. You'll also see different moderation outcome depending on which particular Multi-National Conglomerate I was attacking at the time, but that's another story.
I don't understand what I have to learn. Both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray were proprietary, patent- and DRM-laden standards. The proposers of both standards (including the ultimately evil Microsoft) threw tons on money on the respective standards. For once, the technically best format (Blu-Ray) won. What's wrong with that exactly?
I don't undertand this either. I'm comparing the two currently available game consoles (PS3 and XBox 360). Both are very closed, but one is a lot more open than the other (the PS3), in particular, in the fact that it uses standard formats and connection methods, whereas the post I was responding to was claiming that Sony uses proprietary formats.
Did you read the comment I was responding to, that talked about ATRAC and minidisc, and therefore Sony's music players? No you didn't.
And here comes the ad-hominem insult. This actually proves my point about anti-Sony hate, thank you.
That is, stop playing DVD, Blu-Rays, and drop the ability to connect to HDMI and DVI displays? If you don't like the above mentioned technologies, you can play unprotected media and connect the PS3 via SCART, VGA or component cables anyway.
It's not that Sony, like Google, is plotting to insert DRM into the open standard that governs the Web.
Done. Seven years ago. And by the way, did Apple and other phone manufacturers issue any apology for installing CarrierIQ, which had privacy implications several orders of magnitude greater, on millions of phones?
Do Google apologise when they do just that?
They've stopped doing that years ago. The PS3 uses blu-ray, usb, bluetooth, has a plain user-removable sata hard drive, reads and writes data from whatever kind of media you can plug into it, will work with off-the-shelf usb and bluetooth controllers, keyboards, mice and webcams. Compare to Microsoft (hyper-expensive proprietary drives, proprietary controllers, limited media playback) or Apple (proprietary connectors, proprietary software required to sync).
Apple are just keeping their tradition of spectacularizing their keynotes (and their marketing material in general) with abundant use of superlatives and fancy names. Which impress ordinary people much more than nerds (cf. CmdrTaco's reaction to the iPod).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weasel_word
You're conveniently omitting to consider the consequences of their "choice".
Great for whom? What do users gain with the alternatives to the GNU tools? I like being able to fix bugs in the software running on my routers, or to upgrade my Android phone even after its manufacturer stopped supporting it, and it's only possible because of the GPL.
The vast majority of the embedded systems around me are running GPL code (Linux, busybox) and they seem to be doing fine. I've never seen anything running any *BSD. Am I an outlier?
What? Methane cars and buses are quite common, and have been for years.
The idea of this phone is to get the best possible camera inside a phone form factor, which is very different from the one of a "consumer level compact camera": try putting one in your pocket.
Nokia has never produced cameras, instead they're known for manufacturing the phones with the best embedded cameras (N8, N93), and this one is their attempt at keeping that title.
They used Symbian instead of Windows Phone probably because Windows Phone doesn't (currently) offer the flexibility that is needed to support specialized hardware.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_of_a_needle
Another phrase they might have a hard time "translating":
Throughout the centuries, it's always the same story, laws are applied to the poor and intepreted for the powerful.
And by the way, why don't they just buy a sponsored link if they want to catch more searchers?
Spot on.
The important thing is the Internet, not the Web. As long as we have interconnected networks, everybody can use them for whatever they like, be it the HTTP protocol or some other alternative.
Only if "there's an app for that".
Second, the usability of the web apps simply sucks, because the web wasn't designed for them.
It wasn't designed to let you read emails, view videos, listen to music, consult maps, play games, talk to your friends, buy books, either.
But since it was designed to be open and extensible, it was improved over the years and now you can do all that stuff pretty well. Can't see why this process of extension and improvement should be halted now, and left to proprietary architectures.
I think he regrets that with an official app store in place, he either has to accept being subject to the rules dictated by whoever runs the one official app store, or suffer the competitive disadvantage of not being on the one official app store where his potential customers will probably look first.
The one where you have to take your cousin to the billiards continuously or he'll get offended? Geeze, I'd get bored to death by having to do it in real life, let alone inside a videogame! Pursuit of realism is OK as long as games keep being funny.
Warning: finding yourself saying "in my time, things were better" is the first symptom of getting old ;-) .
That said, games were obviously better back then.