This one drives me nuts. My life is conf calls yet when a call number in included in a meeting invite, IT'S NOT LINKED like phone number are EVERYWHERE else in the phone apps.
Well, at least you can copy and paste the phone number to be dialed..... Oh wait.. nevermind.
Have you noticed multi platform games look better on the Xbox 360 vs the PS3 or PS3 ones come out way later? The simple reason is you have to sweat blood and tears to get the same performance out of the PS3 to match the Xbox. (Hear those thousands of screams out in the night? Those are PS3 developer!:)
As a consumer, this is frustrating.
Years ago when I heard rumors about Microsoft getting into the video game console business, I knew this would put the console games into the crapper.
I knew that Microsoft would have enough capital to force their way in and create a rough situation for CONSUMERS. The playstation was the leading platform but developers wouldn't want to be ignorant of Microsoft's commitment to their console and their capital to make it happen. So the net result would be mediocre results on ALL platforms.
Here we are, years later, and I have lived confirmation of my fear for the console industry.
Video game companies would rather have a mediocre performing game on all platforms rather than pick one platform to develop for and maximize the platform for the benefit of the consumer's experience. This is because they will sell more copies world wide being on all platforms. So they think it makes the most sense for them.
The reality? The reality is in the past, serious gamers owned all the platforms. Sega Genesis, Nintendo Game Cube, PS1/PS2 and there was more exclusivity. So why don't game developers get some balls and write games tailored specifically what they want accomplished and focus 100% of their time on that platform. If they want power, goto the PS3, if they want quick time to delivery goto the XBOX, if they want fun low-quality stuff goto the Wii.
This would help developers focus on what they do, making amazing experiences for consumers and making people buy the console to play their game.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE, stop these cross-unified ports for all consoles.
Yah, that's exactly what we need. Huge solar panels out in space sitting out there just waiting to get hit by something and end up being smashed into pieces resulting in more orbiting space trash.
If we're going to do this, we need to re-invest in "StarWars" so we can vaporize any space trash that's out there. Or better yet create automated robots stay in orbit and clean up the orbiting trash for us and compact it and eject it towards earth to burn up (think Wall-E except in space instead of on earth).
Rabbit ears are back (at least in my house)! I am one who has realized that me and my family mostly watched "network shows". I am one who canceled my cable service and traded it for rabbit ears.
At this time DTV looks better than cable services. Digital Cable Services look worse then analog TV and tons worse than DTV, the compression is too high.
The power of television has been the ability to commercialize "free" entertainment. All you have to do is wait through the commercials during the show and you get the show for free.
In today's work-flow, everything is "choose your own adventure". Jobs these days are so cut-throat that people have to make intense business plans around everything and look for places to be more effective. We make hundreds of thousands of decisions every day. Look at starbucks. It's not just "cream or sugar", you have like 500 options.
Now with the internet TV, I get to choose and sort through hundreds of thousands of options again.
Major network television is a chance for people to not make decisions, pick a channel and veg.
Options are good, but I don't want to spend all my time looking at options when it comes to entertainment. Just let me plug in and VEG!
Wikipedia could thrive with benefits from both worlds.
Solid, intuitive research doesn't come free. Even research in colleges is based on funding. In fact, university professors spend most of their time finding funding for research projects. This is why they're not in the class rooms. It's the research project funding that keeps them at the university.
Researchers would post their studies of all different topics if they could see a financial benefit from doing so. Otherwise, they go around chasing publications who pay for the research.
I promise you, there are thousands of PHd level individuals working on projects that they intend to shop to major publishers. A majority of them will be rejected. They will hang onto their research for the rest of their lives looking for the next opportunity to sell it.
Give them the opportunity to post a topic with banners on articles and get royalties from it. If someone doesn't like what he's saying, then don't link to it! If someone disagrees with the research then write an article at how you disagree with the article.
I think putting banner ads on every page would be a bad idea, but letting the article creator decide would create a whole new level of article integrity.
Seriously. Class action suites against ANY company (even microsoft) are horrible!! The person with the "broken tv set" ends up getting $0.02 while the lawyers end up making $2 million+. Attorneys end up looking for smoking guns to make quick bucks. One could argue that the attorneys are fighting for the rights of the people and helping to protect us from further harm. But if this was the honest truth then everyone who had a broken TV or files part of the lawsuit should get a new TV out of it instead of giving all the money to the attorneys and pennies to those who were wrongfully harmed.
It looks like "if" it happens to stumble upon water there would most likely be mud causing the holes in the wheels to fill up with gunk. Also I could see rocks and things getting stuck on this holes causing it to weigh more and change how it operates.
http://www.astroday.net/Images/MKrovers/PISCES005.jpg
Do you really believe that nothing like this exists on Mac or Linux?
Let me see..... There's Solaris, AIX, NetBSD, FreeBSD, anything else! Sure, there are going to be holes in every OS but usually you have to get physically logged into the box to make use of it.
Windows seems to thrive with the use of an "open door" policy.
Microsoft has had something like this occur regularly enough that I found myself already skipping to the next story without even reading the complete heading.
I still cannot understand why major corporations run Windows of any version in enterprise server farms. They've had so many warning signs, so many high security breaches, so many alarms, and they're still very "ho-hum" about it.
If you read the post slowly and actually acknowledge what it says, it's saying that ever since the incarnation of Windows elite hackers from Russia (or anywhere else) have been able to steal files on any machine with no problem. The underground top hackers have exploits that they guard with top secrecy and keep in their box of tricks when nothing else "known" is working.
Come on, seriously! No other product provider on the planet would be allowed such leniency. Microsoft never feels any repercussions of any of these incredible security holes. They don't even loose business over it! When is enough, enough????
1) Business - for customers, partners, work colleagues, etc., this changes every time you change your job - switch it off during the night 2) Friends - you give the number to all your friends, in case anything goes wrong and you have to change your number it will be a pain to notify everyone - switch it off at work 3) Family - where you family knows they can reach you, for emergencies, etc Whenever I'm tired of everything and I go on vacation i only take #3 with me. In case something REALLY goes wrong everyone will be looking for me so my family can call me. Otherwise it's not a real emergency and I don't want partners/friends to bother me while I'm away. At work I can't be bothered by my friends who just call to brag about being at some bar. During the night I don't want to hear anything about work.
I thought this problem was solved with Caller ID.. Do you seriously need 3 phones to distinguish between friends and family?
You can get 866 numbers that can forward to your phone. I would rather have 3 different 866 numbers that forward to my phone rather than have three phones. That's insanity.
Actually it has spell check i just didnt use it because i was in a hurry:)
He made his point and clearly you missed it. Hilarious. The iphone spell checking happens and corrects AS you type. No need to go back and 'spell check' after you've typed something.
After I had the iPhone for a few days (and had departed on a trip to a client with marginal 3G coverage inside their building), I "turned off" 3G in the phone settings, forcing it to fall back to EDGE and stay there. It has worked great in that mode, and I've since left it that way.
That additional $10 per month for 3G (plus $5 for 200 text) sure is worth it, ain't it?
BAHAHAH... that's awesome...
I'm an apple fanboy, but some of this stuff is completely lame. MANDATORY $10 additional charge for 3G even if you don't have 3G in your area, or if you never will use it. No ability to send or receive pictures from the phone other than through email. No ability to change the orientation of the phone to wide width to type in EVERY CASE (sure, it works great for the browser, but almost everywhere else you're stuck with it one way). No CUT/PASTE features! The iPhone is almost the most amazing handheld device ever made, so stop screwing around and fix it! Just give the people what they want!
Paying for 3G in non-3G areas is just stupid. People should be able to do have the "benefits" of 3G or not. Shouldn't be mandatory. None of the other 3G phones have a $10 3G premium. Frankly, AT&T should be happy to offload bandwidth from the EDGE to the 3G network. They should actually offer a reduced price for 3G. The more bandwidth available, the quicker things are offloaded from the network. It's a proven fact. You utilize the network LESS if you just get people the stuff they want as quick as possible. The demand actually goes DOWN.
I would say that Game piracy and business applications live a completely separate life and have different economics around each, so it's smart to ask the question specifically about video game piracy.
One thing to consider, is the life of a 12 year old is at the mercy of whatever "mommy would buy". Obviously a kid can save up his pennies and buy things, but ultimately that doesn't happen all that fast so a kid can only get so many things with the saved money. So the next way a kid gets games is asking them from mom. These kids are hit by so much target marketing that there are tons of things these kids are asking their parents for. At the bottom of the list are the things the kid can get themselves.
Piracy lets kids get around parental censorship (not letting them play some games) and also enables them to play all the games that they feel like playing.
Vdeo game software piracy is very prevalent amongst teenagers. In a way it becomes their status symbol amongst their friends as "the guy" who can get all the warez. They build a sense of confidence that they can hook up all their "friends" (people who use them for warez). It gives them a sense of confidence that they can do something. Some of these kids never even play most of the games that comes through them. They end up just collecting and having it "on hand" incase anyone wants it.
As these kids grow up, they eventually get a life and start weighing time vs money. So then, any game that is super huge (4 x 8GB DVDs) they will weight whether or not they're going to actually play it. And if the media has hyped it up enough, they'll go buy it. But anything that remains convenient they will just "grab". As time moves on this same behavior changes from games to 'appz' as "their friends" are asking for different things.
The place where software piracy ends is in user subscription services. If a kid could become a member of a 'free software group' for $20 a month, basically piracy ends. You take the power away from the kids to 'hook up their friends', and it empowers the kids to get anything they want, any time, and also allows parents the ability to censor and audit what they're doing.
Your software will always be pirated as long as it's fairly small (fits on 1 or 2 DVDs), not largely in the media as "the game of the year", and doesn't have a subscription policy.
ON THE FLIP SIDE, you have to consider that your piracy is 'free advertising'. And there is always a pool of 'rich kids with a life' that don't do 'warez'. So as the kids at school are talking about the things they are playing the rich kids want it too. So as long as you are writing great games and giving people a new experience, piracy can help. And eventually even a hardcore pirate will buy a game if it's something they keep going back to over and over again. I would say a MAJORITY of the software pirates have purchased software at one point.
One last thing to consider is that most software pirates are so busy collecting and distributing the warez that they don't use them. This is their game. This their fulfillment and excitement. They will extract a game, install it, play it for 15 minutes, then delete it and say, "huh huh, cool.." (in true bevis and butthead fashion). So unless you're the "most have game", locking down piracy won't really increase revenues. It will decrease distribution and awareness of the game resulting in an eventual complete lack of recognition of the game making you have to put more of your own money into advertising.
IF you want to increase your ultimate bottom line of more revenue, distribution, and awareness, here's what you do. Make a KILLER MUST HAVE GAME.
Re:Artists should make the most money, not the lab
on
Must a CD Cost $15.99?
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· Score: 1
$15.99 Retail sale price (Retailers mark distributor price up almost 2x to pay for air conditioning, shipping, shelve space, employees, stocking, etc) $8.45 Distributor price (Distributors mark the wholesale price up to cover their overhead [shipping, handling, sales team, etc.) $6.50 Wholesale price record label gets for each album
What makes up the $6.50 that record labels get: $1.50 - Packaging & Shipping the product to the distributor $1.14 - 12 songs * $0.095 writer royalties $3.86 - Left to split up between label and recording artists
Walmart is complaining that their measly $10 sales is at a "loss". Oh, boo, hoo... At $10 they're still making profits because they have their system totally controlled between their distributors to there shelves. They're trying to squeeze the labels to make less than $3.86 per album. Do you guys have any idea how much these albums cost to promote? Labels are investing hundreds of thousands to MILLIONS into each album. Not every album sells 35 million albums so asking labels to take even less is ridiculous. This doesn't hurt the big albums, but it does end up hurting everyone else. Sure it's easy to cut costs on an album that sells a few cool million albums, but on the albums that are solid that don't have huge budgets, every penny counts.
And as far as it goes with feeling sorry for the artists that they don't make money, get real. Artists make deals with labels with cash dangled in front of them. They have attorneys, they have managers, they have various other things to help them make a decision on what deals to make. The reality is artists don't have any ability to make money without the labels. They have no connections, no money, and nothing to give their music legs. So it's a love/hate relationship. They love the connections and money of the labels, but they hate that it costs them money in the end. Well, sorry charley, but the artists COULD find their own investors, hire their own producers, hire their own studios, and make the album themselves if they wanted to. I don't fell bad at all for them.
$15.99 Retail sale price (Retailers mark distributor price up almost 2x to pay for air conditioning, shipping, shelve space, employees, stocking, etc) $8.45 Distributor price (Distributors mark the wholesale price up to cover their overhead [shipping, handling, sales team, etc.) $6.50 Wholesale price record label gets for each album
What makes up the $6.50 that record labels get: $1.50 - Packaging & Shipping the product to the distributor $1.14 - 12 songs * $0.095 writer royalties $3.86 - Left to split up between label and recording artists
Walmart is complaining that their measly $10 sales is at a "loss". Oh, boo, hoo... At $10 they're still making profits because they have their system totally controlled between their distributors to there shelves. They're trying to squeeze the labels to make less than $3.86 per album. Do you guys have any idea how much these albums cost to promote? Labels are investing hundreds of thousands to MILLIONS into each album. Not every album sells 35 million albums so asking labels to take even less is ridiculous. This doesn't hurt the big albums, but it does end up hurting everyone else. Sure it's easy to cut costs on an album that sells a few cool million albums, but on the albums that are solid that don't have huge budgets, every penny counts.
And as far as it goes with feeling sorry for the artists that they don't make money, get real. Artists make deals with labels with cash dangled in front of them. They have attorneys, they have managers, they have various other things to help them make a decision on what deals to make. The reality is artists don't have any ability to make money without the labels. They have no connections, no money, and nothing to give their music legs. So it's a love/hate relationship. They love the connections and money of the labels, but they hate that it costs them money in the end. Well, sorry charley, but the artists COULD find their own investors, hire their own producers, hire their own studios, and make the album themselves if they wanted to. I don't fell bad at all for them.
To explain where I come from, I own an HDTV, have a PS3, and want an AppleTV.
I just realized something.. For YEARS TV broadcast quality was much better than VHS home entertainment. Came along DVD's and that leveled the playing field and actually made home entertainment better than broadcast quality.
HDTV is around now. Blu-ray is better than broadcast quality, but it's too expensive for the masses. The consumers of today want instant gratification and complete turnkey solutions. History shows us that a majority of consumers don't mind if home entertainment is less quality than broadcast quality. Before they would goto a video store and rent a VHS. These days people like the internet to instantly get everything. So I pick the winner as the "apple tv". I have been concerned about the quality not being as good as broadcast television, but the more and more I think about it, I don't care as much. Eventually the quality will be better.
Think about it, the best way to board the plane would be EXACT order from BACK to FRONT.
The reason is simple. People have carry-ons and coats and all kinds of things that go in the overhead compartment. People could be putting things in the overhead compartments without backing up the line. If you load FRONT to BACK then the next row wouldn't be able to enter without waiting for the previous row's overhead items to be put in. Loading BACK to FRONT everyone could enter the plane and put the things in the overhead compartments without backing up the line.
You have this theory, but do you have any evidence at all to back it up? I was around in the early 70's, and don't recall *any* road signs indicating a metric speed limit anywhere. This includes a couple of transcontinental trips on major interstates. The only ones I recall seeing were in Canada, which of course used the Metric System. Seeing something in kilometers in the US would have been so unusual I have little dobt I would have remembered it.
I saw several signs that went up that showed the metric system. The problem was it was never done "all the way". On the road inbetween california and arizona there were several.. but only 1 in 20 signs would have the metric system on them. What's the point of attempting a rollout if you're not going to fund the whole effort. I believe that the effort wasn't completely funded and nobody really cared. If we could put a man on the moon, we can do metric conversions and make dang sure they're posted on the stupid signs on the freeways. If there was enough money to do it, all the signs could have the metric system on them in the matter of 6 months all across the entire united states.
I know first hand that the iTunes sales are extremely strong. It also gives equal opportunity to every record label beyond the "top four labels", which is the real problem for the major labels. They're used to being able to throw their weight around and putting a can of spaghetti-o's on the shelves for 3 months and have it turn into gold. Things are different now. Music & Movies can be successful, but requires true talent and overall good entertainment value.
This guy is completely oblivious and ignorant of the current generation of consumers. The consumer market is still extremely strong, but the average consumer wants to be able to try before they buy, high quality, cheap, and they want it immediately. Overnight shipping is too expensive for this generation along with it's not immediate.
Ignoring the generation's desires along with the technology at the finger tips is completely ignorant. I don't mean to come across as a "fan boy" but Steve Jobs single handedly rescued the music industry. He had given the current generation the ability to satisfy all the needs of the current generation with technology of today.
I have always felt that piracy was the entertainment industry's excuse for making poor investment choices. Putting out bad bands and bad movies results in low sales. Piracy has always been around, and there have been people renting videos and copying them to VHS tapes for EVER. People used to make Mixed tapes for their friends. People used to sit around recording the radio onto tapes.
If you think about it, piracy is another form of "airplay". The record industry pays hundreds of thousands to get your song "radio airplay", because it helps create buzz and get your album noticed and then people buy it. This is the trend that has been going on for decades. There will always be people who buy albums and people who don't. There's a small group of consumers on the fence who don't buy music because it's too easy to get through some other means. I think this is a small group, because the larger group consists of people who had never bought an album, and never would buy an album, but have TONS of music because they enjoy music. But these people would rather listen to radio than buy music, but since they can download stuff for free, they do. You can find these types because they have gigs and gigs of music, and they have their music players on 'random' and don't care what is being played. You can identify a music "buyer" by their numbers of playlists and/or how frequently a specific album is played. These people are the "music buying" people.
The music industry is a tough one. But not impossible. You need spectacular talent and incredible foresight to work with musicians who are wanting to be their own thing and not ride the coattails of what is already popular. Individuality rewards a lot greater in this kind of market, where as being a "me too" band is a waste of time and money.
I have been running tiger for about a month now. I installed the OS fresh, no update from tiger and it works beautifully. I haven't had any crashes but I have found some qwerks with a few things here and there, but that's kinda' par for the course for being on the bleeding edge. Anyone who depends on an OS to be rock solid and doesn't have time to play with growing pains should wait for the second or third revision and make sure all their drivers for all their devices is compatible before going for it.
I made these recommendations back when I supported windows. I actually didn't recommend people leaving from Windows 95 to Windows 98 until Windows 98 SE. Windows 98 SE was rock solid. This is the same recommendation I give to people when they want to update from Adobe CS2 to Adobe CS3 for their print shops. If their lively hood depends on a product working a specific way, don't be the first ones out the gate to migrate to it. Let it solidify and become rock solid, then move to it. There is no way any developer can test their product in every scenario in their labs and beta programs.
Being this said, I would expect things to be pretty freaking rock solid 6 months after release no matter the product. In the past apple has kept an amazing track record of making consistent updates to the OS. Also of note, apple has been able to increase my hardware's life with each release of a new OS. I have some old G3 iBooks laying around that just keep getting faster and faster with each OS release. I was amazed at how they kept breathing new life into my old machines.
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Well, at least you can copy and paste the phone number to be dialed..... Oh wait.. nevermind.
This amount of money could have been used to buy everyone a new HDTV who watched tv over the air... Most people have cable, or satellite.
This is absolutely absurd to spend this kind of money on something that people should be figuring out on their own.
As a consumer, this is frustrating.
Years ago when I heard rumors about Microsoft getting into the video game console business, I knew this would put the console games into the crapper.
I knew that Microsoft would have enough capital to force their way in and create a rough situation for CONSUMERS. The playstation was the leading platform but developers wouldn't want to be ignorant of Microsoft's commitment to their console and their capital to make it happen. So the net result would be mediocre results on ALL platforms.
Here we are, years later, and I have lived confirmation of my fear for the console industry.
Video game companies would rather have a mediocre performing game on all platforms rather than pick one platform to develop for and maximize the platform for the benefit of the consumer's experience. This is because they will sell more copies world wide being on all platforms. So they think it makes the most sense for them.
The reality? The reality is in the past, serious gamers owned all the platforms. Sega Genesis, Nintendo Game Cube, PS1/PS2 and there was more exclusivity. So why don't game developers get some balls and write games tailored specifically what they want accomplished and focus 100% of their time on that platform. If they want power, goto the PS3, if they want quick time to delivery goto the XBOX, if they want fun low-quality stuff goto the Wii.
This would help developers focus on what they do, making amazing experiences for consumers and making people buy the console to play their game.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE, stop these cross-unified ports for all consoles.
Here's a good link demonstrating the capability of wireless power transmission.
http://www.spaceislandgroup.com/biz/NASAPowerP1.mov
Yah, that's exactly what we need. Huge solar panels out in space sitting out there just waiting to get hit by something and end up being smashed into pieces resulting in more orbiting space trash.
If we're going to do this, we need to re-invest in "StarWars" so we can vaporize any space trash that's out there. Or better yet create automated robots stay in orbit and clean up the orbiting trash for us and compact it and eject it towards earth to burn up (think Wall-E except in space instead of on earth).
You're absolutely WRONG.
Rabbit ears are back (at least in my house)! I am one who has realized that me and my family mostly watched "network shows". I am one who canceled my cable service and traded it for rabbit ears.
At this time DTV looks better than cable services. Digital Cable Services look worse then analog TV and tons worse than DTV, the compression is too high.
Rabbit ears are back baby..
Well, the main problem is that the options of today require lots of fussing around eating up all the time that I allocated for vegging out.
The power of television has been the ability to commercialize "free" entertainment. All you have to do is wait through the commercials during the show and you get the show for free.
In today's work-flow, everything is "choose your own adventure". Jobs these days are so cut-throat that people have to make intense business plans around everything and look for places to be more effective. We make hundreds of thousands of decisions every day. Look at starbucks. It's not just "cream or sugar", you have like 500 options.
Now with the internet TV, I get to choose and sort through hundreds of thousands of options again.
Major network television is a chance for people to not make decisions, pick a channel and veg.
Options are good, but I don't want to spend all my time looking at options when it comes to entertainment. Just let me plug in and VEG!
Wikipedia could thrive with benefits from both worlds.
Solid, intuitive research doesn't come free. Even research in colleges is based on funding. In fact, university professors spend most of their time finding funding for research projects. This is why they're not in the class rooms. It's the research project funding that keeps them at the university.
Researchers would post their studies of all different topics if they could see a financial benefit from doing so. Otherwise, they go around chasing publications who pay for the research.
I promise you, there are thousands of PHd level individuals working on projects that they intend to shop to major publishers. A majority of them will be rejected. They will hang onto their research for the rest of their lives looking for the next opportunity to sell it.
Give them the opportunity to post a topic with banners on articles and get royalties from it. If someone doesn't like what he's saying, then don't link to it! If someone disagrees with the research then write an article at how you disagree with the article.
I think putting banner ads on every page would be a bad idea, but letting the article creator decide would create a whole new level of article integrity.
Seriously. Class action suites against ANY company (even microsoft) are horrible!! The person with the "broken tv set" ends up getting $0.02 while the lawyers end up making $2 million+. Attorneys end up looking for smoking guns to make quick bucks. One could argue that the attorneys are fighting for the rights of the people and helping to protect us from further harm. But if this was the honest truth then everyone who had a broken TV or files part of the lawsuit should get a new TV out of it instead of giving all the money to the attorneys and pennies to those who were wrongfully harmed.
It looks like "if" it happens to stumble upon water there would most likely be mud causing the holes in the wheels to fill up with gunk. Also I could see rocks and things getting stuck on this holes causing it to weigh more and change how it operates. http://www.astroday.net/Images/MKrovers/PISCES005.jpg
Let me see ..... There's Solaris, AIX, NetBSD, FreeBSD, anything else! Sure, there are going to be holes in every OS but usually you have to get physically logged into the box to make use of it.
Windows seems to thrive with the use of an "open door" policy.
Microsoft has had something like this occur regularly enough that I found myself already skipping to the next story without even reading the complete heading.
I still cannot understand why major corporations run Windows of any version in enterprise server farms. They've had so many warning signs, so many high security breaches, so many alarms, and they're still very "ho-hum" about it.
If you read the post slowly and actually acknowledge what it says, it's saying that ever since the incarnation of Windows elite hackers from Russia (or anywhere else) have been able to steal files on any machine with no problem. The underground top hackers have exploits that they guard with top secrecy and keep in their box of tricks when nothing else "known" is working.
Come on, seriously! No other product provider on the planet would be allowed such leniency. Microsoft never feels any repercussions of any of these incredible security holes. They don't even loose business over it! When is enough, enough????
The daily history of breakfast, lunch and dinner.
I thought this problem was solved with Caller ID.. Do you seriously need 3 phones to distinguish between friends and family?
You can get 866 numbers that can forward to your phone. I would rather have 3 different 866 numbers that forward to my phone rather than have three phones. That's insanity.
He made his point and clearly you missed it. Hilarious. The iphone spell checking happens and corrects AS you type. No need to go back and 'spell check' after you've typed something.
BAHAHAH... that's awesome...
I'm an apple fanboy, but some of this stuff is completely lame. MANDATORY $10 additional charge for 3G even if you don't have 3G in your area, or if you never will use it. No ability to send or receive pictures from the phone other than through email. No ability to change the orientation of the phone to wide width to type in EVERY CASE (sure, it works great for the browser, but almost everywhere else you're stuck with it one way). No CUT/PASTE features! The iPhone is almost the most amazing handheld device ever made, so stop screwing around and fix it! Just give the people what they want!
Paying for 3G in non-3G areas is just stupid. People should be able to do have the "benefits" of 3G or not. Shouldn't be mandatory. None of the other 3G phones have a $10 3G premium. Frankly, AT&T should be happy to offload bandwidth from the EDGE to the 3G network. They should actually offer a reduced price for 3G. The more bandwidth available, the quicker things are offloaded from the network. It's a proven fact. You utilize the network LESS if you just get people the stuff they want as quick as possible. The demand actually goes DOWN.
I would say that Game piracy and business applications live a completely separate life and have different economics around each, so it's smart to ask the question specifically about video game piracy.
One thing to consider, is the life of a 12 year old is at the mercy of whatever "mommy would buy". Obviously a kid can save up his pennies and buy things, but ultimately that doesn't happen all that fast so a kid can only get so many things with the saved money. So the next way a kid gets games is asking them from mom. These kids are hit by so much target marketing that there are tons of things these kids are asking their parents for. At the bottom of the list are the things the kid can get themselves.
Piracy lets kids get around parental censorship (not letting them play some games) and also enables them to play all the games that they feel like playing.
Vdeo game software piracy is very prevalent amongst teenagers. In a way it becomes their status symbol amongst their friends as "the guy" who can get all the warez. They build a sense of confidence that they can hook up all their "friends" (people who use them for warez). It gives them a sense of confidence that they can do something. Some of these kids never even play most of the games that comes through them. They end up just collecting and having it "on hand" incase anyone wants it.
As these kids grow up, they eventually get a life and start weighing time vs money. So then, any game that is super huge (4 x 8GB DVDs) they will weight whether or not they're going to actually play it. And if the media has hyped it up enough, they'll go buy it. But anything that remains convenient they will just "grab". As time moves on this same behavior changes from games to 'appz' as "their friends" are asking for different things.
The place where software piracy ends is in user subscription services. If a kid could become a member of a 'free software group' for $20 a month, basically piracy ends. You take the power away from the kids to 'hook up their friends', and it empowers the kids to get anything they want, any time, and also allows parents the ability to censor and audit what they're doing.
Your software will always be pirated as long as it's fairly small (fits on 1 or 2 DVDs), not largely in the media as "the game of the year", and doesn't have a subscription policy.
ON THE FLIP SIDE, you have to consider that your piracy is 'free advertising'. And there is always a pool of 'rich kids with a life' that don't do 'warez'. So as the kids at school are talking about the things they are playing the rich kids want it too. So as long as you are writing great games and giving people a new experience, piracy can help. And eventually even a hardcore pirate will buy a game if it's something they keep going back to over and over again. I would say a MAJORITY of the software pirates have purchased software at one point.
One last thing to consider is that most software pirates are so busy collecting and distributing the warez that they don't use them. This is their game. This their fulfillment and excitement. They will extract a game, install it, play it for 15 minutes, then delete it and say, "huh huh, cool.." (in true bevis and butthead fashion). So unless you're the "most have game", locking down piracy won't really increase revenues. It will decrease distribution and awareness of the game resulting in an eventual complete lack of recognition of the game making you have to put more of your own money into advertising.
IF you want to increase your ultimate bottom line of more revenue, distribution, and awareness, here's what you do. Make a KILLER MUST HAVE GAME.
$15.99 Retail sale price (Retailers mark distributor price up almost 2x to pay for air conditioning, shipping, shelve space, employees, stocking, etc)
$8.45 Distributor price (Distributors mark the wholesale price up to cover their overhead [shipping, handling, sales team, etc.)
$6.50 Wholesale price record label gets for each album
What makes up the $6.50 that record labels get:
$1.50 - Packaging & Shipping the product to the distributor
$1.14 - 12 songs * $0.095 writer royalties
$3.86 - Left to split up between label and recording artists
Walmart is complaining that their measly $10 sales is at a "loss". Oh, boo, hoo... At $10 they're still making profits because they have their system totally controlled between their distributors to there shelves. They're trying to squeeze the labels to make less than $3.86 per album. Do you guys have any idea how much these albums cost to promote? Labels are investing hundreds of thousands to MILLIONS into each album. Not every album sells 35 million albums so asking labels to take even less is ridiculous. This doesn't hurt the big albums, but it does end up hurting everyone else. Sure it's easy to cut costs on an album that sells a few cool million albums, but on the albums that are solid that don't have huge budgets, every penny counts.
And as far as it goes with feeling sorry for the artists that they don't make money, get real. Artists make deals with labels with cash dangled in front of them. They have attorneys, they have managers, they have various other things to help them make a decision on what deals to make. The reality is artists don't have any ability to make money without the labels. They have no connections, no money, and nothing to give their music legs. So it's a love/hate relationship. They love the connections and money of the labels, but they hate that it costs them money in the end. Well, sorry charley, but the artists COULD find their own investors, hire their own producers, hire their own studios, and make the album themselves if they wanted to. I don't fell bad at all for them.
$15.99 Retail sale price (Retailers mark distributor price up almost 2x to pay for air conditioning, shipping, shelve space, employees, stocking, etc)
$8.45 Distributor price (Distributors mark the wholesale price up to cover their overhead [shipping, handling, sales team, etc.)
$6.50 Wholesale price record label gets for each album
What makes up the $6.50 that record labels get:
$1.50 - Packaging & Shipping the product to the distributor
$1.14 - 12 songs * $0.095 writer royalties
$3.86 - Left to split up between label and recording artists
Walmart is complaining that their measly $10 sales is at a "loss". Oh, boo, hoo... At $10 they're still making profits because they have their system totally controlled between their distributors to there shelves. They're trying to squeeze the labels to make less than $3.86 per album. Do you guys have any idea how much these albums cost to promote? Labels are investing hundreds of thousands to MILLIONS into each album. Not every album sells 35 million albums so asking labels to take even less is ridiculous. This doesn't hurt the big albums, but it does end up hurting everyone else. Sure it's easy to cut costs on an album that sells a few cool million albums, but on the albums that are solid that don't have huge budgets, every penny counts.
And as far as it goes with feeling sorry for the artists that they don't make money, get real. Artists make deals with labels with cash dangled in front of them. They have attorneys, they have managers, they have various other things to help them make a decision on what deals to make. The reality is artists don't have any ability to make money without the labels. They have no connections, no money, and nothing to give their music legs. So it's a love/hate relationship. They love the connections and money of the labels, but they hate that it costs them money in the end. Well, sorry charley, but the artists COULD find their own investors, hire their own producers, hire their own studios, and make the album themselves if they wanted to. I don't fell bad at all for them.
To explain where I come from, I own an HDTV, have a PS3, and want an AppleTV.
I just realized something.. For YEARS TV broadcast quality was much better than VHS home entertainment. Came along DVD's and that leveled the playing field and actually made home entertainment better than broadcast quality.
HDTV is around now. Blu-ray is better than broadcast quality, but it's too expensive for the masses. The consumers of today want instant gratification and complete turnkey solutions. History shows us that a majority of consumers don't mind if home entertainment is less quality than broadcast quality. Before they would goto a video store and rent a VHS. These days people like the internet to instantly get everything. So I pick the winner as the "apple tv". I have been concerned about the quality not being as good as broadcast television, but the more and more I think about it, I don't care as much. Eventually the quality will be better.
Think about it, the best way to board the plane would be EXACT order from BACK to FRONT.
The reason is simple. People have carry-ons and coats and all kinds of things that go in the overhead compartment. People could be putting things in the overhead compartments without backing up the line. If you load FRONT to BACK then the next row wouldn't be able to enter without waiting for the previous row's overhead items to be put in. Loading BACK to FRONT everyone could enter the plane and put the things in the overhead compartments without backing up the line.
Pretty simple.
I saw several signs that went up that showed the metric system. The problem was it was never done "all the way". On the road inbetween california and arizona there were several.. but only 1 in 20 signs would have the metric system on them. What's the point of attempting a rollout if you're not going to fund the whole effort. I believe that the effort wasn't completely funded and nobody really cared. If we could put a man on the moon, we can do metric conversions and make dang sure they're posted on the stupid signs on the freeways. If there was enough money to do it, all the signs could have the metric system on them in the matter of 6 months all across the entire united states.
I know first hand that the iTunes sales are extremely strong. It also gives equal opportunity to every record label beyond the "top four labels", which is the real problem for the major labels. They're used to being able to throw their weight around and putting a can of spaghetti-o's on the shelves for 3 months and have it turn into gold. Things are different now. Music & Movies can be successful, but requires true talent and overall good entertainment value.
This guy is completely oblivious and ignorant of the current generation of consumers. The consumer market is still extremely strong, but the average consumer wants to be able to try before they buy, high quality, cheap, and they want it immediately. Overnight shipping is too expensive for this generation along with it's not immediate.
Ignoring the generation's desires along with the technology at the finger tips is completely ignorant. I don't mean to come across as a "fan boy" but Steve Jobs single handedly rescued the music industry. He had given the current generation the ability to satisfy all the needs of the current generation with technology of today.
I have always felt that piracy was the entertainment industry's excuse for making poor investment choices. Putting out bad bands and bad movies results in low sales. Piracy has always been around, and there have been people renting videos and copying them to VHS tapes for EVER. People used to make Mixed tapes for their friends. People used to sit around recording the radio onto tapes.
If you think about it, piracy is another form of "airplay". The record industry pays hundreds of thousands to get your song "radio airplay", because it helps create buzz and get your album noticed and then people buy it. This is the trend that has been going on for decades. There will always be people who buy albums and people who don't. There's a small group of consumers on the fence who don't buy music because it's too easy to get through some other means. I think this is a small group, because the larger group consists of people who had never bought an album, and never would buy an album, but have TONS of music because they enjoy music. But these people would rather listen to radio than buy music, but since they can download stuff for free, they do. You can find these types because they have gigs and gigs of music, and they have their music players on 'random' and don't care what is being played. You can identify a music "buyer" by their numbers of playlists and/or how frequently a specific album is played. These people are the "music buying" people.
The music industry is a tough one. But not impossible. You need spectacular talent and incredible foresight to work with musicians who are wanting to be their own thing and not ride the coattails of what is already popular. Individuality rewards a lot greater in this kind of market, where as being a "me too" band is a waste of time and money.
I have been running tiger for about a month now. I installed the OS fresh, no update from tiger and it works beautifully. I haven't had any crashes but I have found some qwerks with a few things here and there, but that's kinda' par for the course for being on the bleeding edge. Anyone who depends on an OS to be rock solid and doesn't have time to play with growing pains should wait for the second or third revision and make sure all their drivers for all their devices is compatible before going for it.
I made these recommendations back when I supported windows. I actually didn't recommend people leaving from Windows 95 to Windows 98 until Windows 98 SE. Windows 98 SE was rock solid. This is the same recommendation I give to people when they want to update from Adobe CS2 to Adobe CS3 for their print shops. If their lively hood depends on a product working a specific way, don't be the first ones out the gate to migrate to it. Let it solidify and become rock solid, then move to it. There is no way any developer can test their product in every scenario in their labs and beta programs.
Being this said, I would expect things to be pretty freaking rock solid 6 months after release no matter the product. In the past apple has kept an amazing track record of making consistent updates to the OS. Also of note, apple has been able to increase my hardware's life with each release of a new OS. I have some old G3 iBooks laying around that just keep getting faster and faster with each OS release. I was amazed at how they kept breathing new life into my old machines.