That's not entirely true. Windows CE code was available, but developers basically didn't use it much. cnet covered this at the time of launch, and in the end only around 50 games used it (out of over 700 created).
One of the Japanese launch titles, Sega Rally 2, used Windows CE, and it had a very inconsistent framerate. I believe the game was later re-released as a "native" game, which may have been the version released to the US. You can still fine some sites that mention some of the problems.
If you don't trust your LCD to do it (I don't blame you, some LCDs are better at scaling that others), that sounds like something that should be done automatically and transparently by the video driver instead of something the WM should have to manage.
I get it's useful. I know people love it. I've used it myself. I realize that may be 95% of what X has that Wayland doesn't that people are interested in.
My question is, what is that other 5%. He said "every advantage", I'm trying to find out if there is only one advantage or if there are others.
Seriously, though, the Wayland effort appears to be throwing out every advantage the X11 display had over the Windows display for a replacement that will probably never be quite as good as a Windows.
Emphasis is mine. Other than network transparency, what advantages did X11 have that Wayland doesn't? What other advantages did X11 have period?
Losing network transparency will effect some people, but there are some solutions to that. I'd wager the majority of linux GUIs deployed in the world don't use that feature (between embedded stuff like TiVos, normal desktops, TVs running Linux, etc). But I can tell you from more than 10 years of following Linux development that no one seems to actually like X11. From what I've read the various GUI developers seem to love Wayland compared X and can't wait for it to take over. X seems to be a giant ball of mud that's always getting in peoples way, hampering performance, and a pain in the ass to configure. The fact that it handles hardware setup, drawing, input, network transparency, fonts, 3D, and so much more it's clearly not following the unix philosophy of small tools doing one job.
Every time Wayland comes up, people come out of the woodwork to declare it a failure because it won't run over a network, but that's the only real gripe I've seen. You say there are others, I'm curious to know what they are.
I guess I was thinking of the iPad 1, although you might be able to get closer refurb. I still think the battery life is a big issue. An extra $50 to add another 4 or 5 hours of battery life would have easily been worth it.
Given that you can get generic "real" laptops for about that price, I'm still don't see a real compelling argument. The 3G is nice, but you don't get much data. At this point the average user has no idea these things exist, and I'm don't think this new model is really going to change that.
It feels more like a "we can make cheap computer and OS too!" kind of project than a real effort at making a dent in the market.
So it's slightly cheaper than an older iPad, but gets worse battery life. It has a fraction of the software of an iPad, and isn't as easy to whip out and use since you have to fold out the keyboard. It's less features than an netbook (which you could restrict down to be malware free) but at the same cost.
I'm just not sure about the value on these things.
For the record, I just Googled "Samsung Jelly Bean" and found that story. I wanted to choose a phone I knew was popular so there was a chance at having data. I didn't know it had compatibility issues, I simply recognized the name and figured it might make a decent comparison.
By "across all their devices" I simply meant that people were upgrading. I didn't mean that as a jab against the Android release process (which I know is a disaster due to the carriers, what isn't that carriers touch).
I simply meant "this well known Android phone got an update, in a similar time frame to Apple, how many people updated that phone"? I wasn't trying to compare the full platforms.
According to c|net, as of yesterday Verizon Galaxy Nexus users could download Jelly Bean. Within 24 hours, Apple had 15% penetration across all their devices. I wonder what the percentage is of Galaxy Nexus users?
Are there any very popular Android phones that have received an update in the last year or so that had the update adopted that fast?
I don't know what the Android process is like, but I can say that the iOS process is really slick. At this point, Apple has it down to a science. The update was trivial to install, didn't take too long, and was easily configured on first boot. The 5.1 update process (which was the first delta update, so it was only ~50 MB instead of 700+) was especially fast.
Some people will, because they always want the latest and the best. But there are a lot of people like me (with an iPhone 4) or my little sister (who has a 3GS) who are eligible for the full subsidy and for whom it's a major upgrade. For me it's much faster, includes Siri, and a much better camera. For my little sister it's vastly faster, includes a retina display, Siri, a vastly better camera, it's thinner, etc.
Not everyone ordering is coming off a 4S. I'd imagine most are coming from the 4 or below.
You too? I have to be quite careful around mine, but I always figured it was just because I'm using the ultra-cheap cable that came with my drive. Maybe it is the connector's design after all.
If you do, it's not micro-USB anymore. And if you wanted to call it "USB" then you have to get the standard committee to approve it. At that point you'd just have a non-proprietary Apple connector, but it still wouldn't be compatible with any other phones or cables without an adapter. Plus we already have USB A, B, micro-A, micro-B, micro-AB, 5 pin mini-B, 4 pin mini-B, USB 3 A, USB 3 B, and USB 3 micro-B.
They all have problems. USB A would be good, expect it's a perfect rectangle that can't be inserted in either direction. There is no way to tell if you have it right-side-up or not. Some of the later ones, like micro-B, are obviously keyed so they can't be inserted the wrong way, but they still have to be positioned correctly. Plus most of the micro ones are so short they don't feel like they're gripped very well by the device (at least in my limited experience).
FireWire 400 had a great connector. It only went in one way, but it was very easy to figure out which way it went either visually or by feel. The FireWire 800 connector is quite a bit worse. It has a small notch on top so can feel which end is up on the cable, but it's not visually distinct enough.
I think Apple actually came up with a very nice design. I haven't touched one yet (so it could turn out to feel terrible), but it seems well designed.
They have actually said they will be selling Lighting to HDMI and Lightning to VGA adapters. I'm interested in finding out what the pinout is. I doubt it carries pins dedicated to HDMI. The adapters could be active devices. One of the reasons for the $30 and $40 cost on the adapters (besides "they can") is that they have DACs for audio, since the new connector doesn't have analog audio pins.
The old connector had a few problems. It was big and bulky, that's certainly true. But it also had a ton of extra pins that aren't needed. It supported USB, USB charging, Firewire, Firewire charging (not supported on the iPhone 4 and beyond), analog audio out, analog audio in, and composite and s-video out.
In fact, that's one of the reasons for the $30 price. There are no analog out pins in the new connector. So those adapters have to include DACs to provide audio to whatever gets plugged in. If the adapter did nothing but charging and data it would probably be cheaper. I wonder how many adapters they'll end up selling. I need one for my car, but will many "normal" people bother to buy one?
Remember that Apple has been using that connector for 8 or 9 years. It used to be common (before other makers went to micro-USB) for each new phone model to have a new connector, requiring new power adapters. The iPod/iPhone universe has kind of spoiled us.
I would like wireless charging, I've wanted it ever since I saw the Palm Touchstone. Apple claims people are happy enough without it... it's not a big enough thing to stop me. Maybe having to set my phone down on a specific spot where I kept a special charging pad/device would annoy me. Since Nokia just put it in the new Lumia, I'm hoping it shows up later. There are also claims that NFC isn't in there because it would require a plastic back (less durable, feels cheaper) or an additional antenna.
I will say the gizmo-nerd in me was really hoping for NFC. It seems so perfect for Passbook, I thought that alone might do it. If NFC ever catches on, I'm sure Apple will include it. I was hoping Apple would because I figured that would cause an explosion in adoption.
Apple has been complying since that ruling was made, they give European buyers a little adapter.
The new Lightning connector (not a fan of that name, btw) has some benefits over micro-usb. Reports say that it plugs into the phone pretty securely. When I use micro-USB on my Kindle, I can tell you it doesn't feel like the most secure thing. More importantly from an ease of use perspective, the new connector doesn't have to be plugged in a specific way, there is no "up".
I'm curious to see what the pinout ends up being. Apple might have some surprises in store for us.
It could be from a 3rd party. Lots of applications were known to track UUIDs (and take phonebooks, etc). One of those companies could have given that data to the FBI (or had it taken as part of a search). Or the FBI could have gotten it from some criminal who obtained it by breaking into some company's computer. Or a rogue employee took it and gave it to someone.
Apple is hardly the only possible source of this kind of data.
I believe the new suggestion is to generate your own GUID on install and use that. It wouldn't identify the phone, but only the specific installation of your software on that device. If the device's owner deleted your application and then re-installed it, you'd have a new GUID.
It doesn't provide it over USB, it's provided over other pins on the cable. The 30 pin dock connector provides power (3.3v, 5v, and 12v during the FireWire days), stereo audio out, stereo audio in, composite video out, s-video out, serial (used for accessories), a pin to determine which mode to use or what the accessory is, FireWire, and USB.
Remember that connector came from 2003 or so, when having line level out was much cheaper than just expecting people to transfer digital audio. It's primary purpose was to allow people to use either USB or FireWire in one connector so they wouldn't have to put both connectors on the phone.
Oh, I didn't know that. I didn't see one at my local Best Buy when I was there last weekend, and I remembered it only being available online at first. I didn't remember seeing an announcement that had changed so I thought it was still online only. Thanks.
There are serious economies of scale in doing that though. If you only produce on model, you can order a ton of each component. If each model has a different sized screen (for example) you can't order nearly as many. You also get economies of scale in marketing, because you don't have to try to push 10 different phones into people's minds, just one.
It's still in production. You have to remember that at this point the phone costs almost nothing to build, so building them for sale on AT&T isn't tough. More importantly, the 3GS is a very nice phone that (due to it's low cost) can be sold all over the world. The 4S, while a much better phone, is very expensive and wouldn't sell very well in poorer countries.
I have no doubt Android is here to stay. Apple has clearly responded to it in a few different way (notifications being an easy example). If the iPhone wasn't available, I would happily use an Android phone. I like all the experimentation that's been going on in Android, things like the Swipe keyboard and programs that do things iOS won't let you (i.e. turning notifications on/off when you arrive/leave various locations).
My post was to point out two things. One is that while Android is more common on phones, it's barely registers in the tablet space. The best selling Android tablets have been the Nook and the Fire, both of which hide their Android roots. The Nexus 7 is supposed to be great, but it won't fix the problem. I can go to Best Buy, Walmart, Target, or tons of other places an buy an iPad; but right now the Nexus 7 isn't available in stores so it couldn't begin to sell the same numbers. It's a great first step compared to previous Android tablets though.
Second is that while Android sells more handsets, there is a clear profit disparity between the two. They aim at different markets to some degree, but Apple is share of profits is more than merely disproportionate. This could mean Android phones can't sell at the same prices, that there are just tons more Android phones eating what used to be the feature phone market (my guess by far), or just that handset makers are cramming as much hardware as they can afford to differentiate themselves.
I have a hard time believing that Android will continue to be developed the way it is now if the profit share for Android phones doesn't change. Google may be getting benefits from having more smartphones out there, but at some point the smartphone market will be closer to saturation and the pace of Android development (unfunded by licenses) may start to look like a financial drag.
I don't know what will happen (Galaxy S3 takes off like a rocket in sales, Windows Phone 8 disrupts, Apple is forced to lower margins), but I don't think the market will stay the way it is too long.
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That's not entirely true. Windows CE code was available, but developers basically didn't use it much. cnet covered this at the time of launch, and in the end only around 50 games used it (out of over 700 created).
One of the Japanese launch titles, Sega Rally 2, used Windows CE, and it had a very inconsistent framerate. I believe the game was later re-released as a "native" game, which may have been the version released to the US. You can still fine some sites that mention some of the problems.
How many people who need them now don't get them because they can't afford $2k+ when they should be paying maybe $250?
I know that's the case for at least two of my relatives.
If you don't trust your LCD to do it (I don't blame you, some LCDs are better at scaling that others), that sounds like something that should be done automatically and transparently by the video driver instead of something the WM should have to manage.
I get it's useful. I know people love it. I've used it myself. I realize that may be 95% of what X has that Wayland doesn't that people are interested in.
My question is, what is that other 5%. He said "every advantage", I'm trying to find out if there is only one advantage or if there are others.
Emphasis is mine. Other than network transparency, what advantages did X11 have that Wayland doesn't? What other advantages did X11 have period?
Losing network transparency will effect some people, but there are some solutions to that. I'd wager the majority of linux GUIs deployed in the world don't use that feature (between embedded stuff like TiVos, normal desktops, TVs running Linux, etc). But I can tell you from more than 10 years of following Linux development that no one seems to actually like X11. From what I've read the various GUI developers seem to love Wayland compared X and can't wait for it to take over. X seems to be a giant ball of mud that's always getting in peoples way, hampering performance, and a pain in the ass to configure. The fact that it handles hardware setup, drawing, input, network transparency, fonts, 3D, and so much more it's clearly not following the unix philosophy of small tools doing one job.
Every time Wayland comes up, people come out of the woodwork to declare it a failure because it won't run over a network, but that's the only real gripe I've seen. You say there are others, I'm curious to know what they are.
I guess I was thinking of the iPad 1, although you might be able to get closer refurb. I still think the battery life is a big issue. An extra $50 to add another 4 or 5 hours of battery life would have easily been worth it.
Given that you can get generic "real" laptops for about that price, I'm still don't see a real compelling argument. The 3G is nice, but you don't get much data. At this point the average user has no idea these things exist, and I'm don't think this new model is really going to change that.
It feels more like a "we can make cheap computer and OS too!" kind of project than a real effort at making a dent in the market.
So it's slightly cheaper than an older iPad, but gets worse battery life. It has a fraction of the software of an iPad, and isn't as easy to whip out and use since you have to fold out the keyboard. It's less features than an netbook (which you could restrict down to be malware free) but at the same cost.
I'm just not sure about the value on these things.
For the record, I just Googled "Samsung Jelly Bean" and found that story. I wanted to choose a phone I knew was popular so there was a chance at having data. I didn't know it had compatibility issues, I simply recognized the name and figured it might make a decent comparison.
By "across all their devices" I simply meant that people were upgrading. I didn't mean that as a jab against the Android release process (which I know is a disaster due to the carriers, what isn't that carriers touch).
I simply meant "this well known Android phone got an update, in a similar time frame to Apple, how many people updated that phone"? I wasn't trying to compare the full platforms.
According to c|net, as of yesterday Verizon Galaxy Nexus users could download Jelly Bean. Within 24 hours, Apple had 15% penetration across all their devices. I wonder what the percentage is of Galaxy Nexus users?
Are there any very popular Android phones that have received an update in the last year or so that had the update adopted that fast?
I don't know what the Android process is like, but I can say that the iOS process is really slick. At this point, Apple has it down to a science. The update was trivial to install, didn't take too long, and was easily configured on first boot. The 5.1 update process (which was the first delta update, so it was only ~50 MB instead of 700+) was especially fast.
Some people will, because they always want the latest and the best. But there are a lot of people like me (with an iPhone 4) or my little sister (who has a 3GS) who are eligible for the full subsidy and for whom it's a major upgrade. For me it's much faster, includes Siri, and a much better camera. For my little sister it's vastly faster, includes a retina display, Siri, a vastly better camera, it's thinner, etc.
Not everyone ordering is coming off a 4S. I'd imagine most are coming from the 4 or below.
You too? I have to be quite careful around mine, but I always figured it was just because I'm using the ultra-cheap cable that came with my drive. Maybe it is the connector's design after all.
If you do, it's not micro-USB anymore. And if you wanted to call it "USB" then you have to get the standard committee to approve it. At that point you'd just have a non-proprietary Apple connector, but it still wouldn't be compatible with any other phones or cables without an adapter. Plus we already have USB A, B, micro-A, micro-B, micro-AB, 5 pin mini-B, 4 pin mini-B, USB 3 A, USB 3 B, and USB 3 micro-B.
They all have problems. USB A would be good, expect it's a perfect rectangle that can't be inserted in either direction. There is no way to tell if you have it right-side-up or not. Some of the later ones, like micro-B, are obviously keyed so they can't be inserted the wrong way, but they still have to be positioned correctly. Plus most of the micro ones are so short they don't feel like they're gripped very well by the device (at least in my limited experience).
FireWire 400 had a great connector. It only went in one way, but it was very easy to figure out which way it went either visually or by feel. The FireWire 800 connector is quite a bit worse. It has a small notch on top so can feel which end is up on the cable, but it's not visually distinct enough.
I think Apple actually came up with a very nice design. I haven't touched one yet (so it could turn out to feel terrible), but it seems well designed.
You can't patent a pin out.
Now the physical design of the connector... we all know that's patented to hell.
They have actually said they will be selling Lighting to HDMI and Lightning to VGA adapters. I'm interested in finding out what the pinout is. I doubt it carries pins dedicated to HDMI. The adapters could be active devices. One of the reasons for the $30 and $40 cost on the adapters (besides "they can") is that they have DACs for audio, since the new connector doesn't have analog audio pins.
The old connector had a few problems. It was big and bulky, that's certainly true. But it also had a ton of extra pins that aren't needed. It supported USB, USB charging, Firewire, Firewire charging (not supported on the iPhone 4 and beyond), analog audio out, analog audio in, and composite and s-video out.
In fact, that's one of the reasons for the $30 price. There are no analog out pins in the new connector. So those adapters have to include DACs to provide audio to whatever gets plugged in. If the adapter did nothing but charging and data it would probably be cheaper. I wonder how many adapters they'll end up selling. I need one for my car, but will many "normal" people bother to buy one?
Remember that Apple has been using that connector for 8 or 9 years. It used to be common (before other makers went to micro-USB) for each new phone model to have a new connector, requiring new power adapters. The iPod/iPhone universe has kind of spoiled us.
I would like wireless charging, I've wanted it ever since I saw the Palm Touchstone. Apple claims people are happy enough without it... it's not a big enough thing to stop me. Maybe having to set my phone down on a specific spot where I kept a special charging pad/device would annoy me. Since Nokia just put it in the new Lumia, I'm hoping it shows up later. There are also claims that NFC isn't in there because it would require a plastic back (less durable, feels cheaper) or an additional antenna.
I will say the gizmo-nerd in me was really hoping for NFC. It seems so perfect for Passbook, I thought that alone might do it. If NFC ever catches on, I'm sure Apple will include it. I was hoping Apple would because I figured that would cause an explosion in adoption.
Apple has been complying since that ruling was made, they give European buyers a little adapter.
The new Lightning connector (not a fan of that name, btw) has some benefits over micro-usb. Reports say that it plugs into the phone pretty securely. When I use micro-USB on my Kindle, I can tell you it doesn't feel like the most secure thing. More importantly from an ease of use perspective, the new connector doesn't have to be plugged in a specific way, there is no "up".
I'm curious to see what the pinout ends up being. Apple might have some surprises in store for us.
It could be from a 3rd party. Lots of applications were known to track UUIDs (and take phonebooks, etc). One of those companies could have given that data to the FBI (or had it taken as part of a search). Or the FBI could have gotten it from some criminal who obtained it by breaking into some company's computer. Or a rogue employee took it and gave it to someone.
Apple is hardly the only possible source of this kind of data.
I believe the new suggestion is to generate your own GUID on install and use that. It wouldn't identify the phone, but only the specific installation of your software on that device. If the device's owner deleted your application and then re-installed it, you'd have a new GUID.
Or, it could simply mean that the FBI didn't get the information from Apple, but from some 3rd party.
It doesn't provide it over USB, it's provided over other pins on the cable. The 30 pin dock connector provides power (3.3v, 5v, and 12v during the FireWire days), stereo audio out, stereo audio in, composite video out, s-video out, serial (used for accessories), a pin to determine which mode to use or what the accessory is, FireWire, and USB.
Remember that connector came from 2003 or so, when having line level out was much cheaper than just expecting people to transfer digital audio. It's primary purpose was to allow people to use either USB or FireWire in one connector so they wouldn't have to put both connectors on the phone.
But you can challenge the judge's ruling that barred the evidence / testimony, asking the appeals court to rule that it should have been allowed in.
Oh, I didn't know that. I didn't see one at my local Best Buy when I was there last weekend, and I remembered it only being available online at first. I didn't remember seeing an announcement that had changed so I thought it was still online only. Thanks.
There are serious economies of scale in doing that though. If you only produce on model, you can order a ton of each component. If each model has a different sized screen (for example) you can't order nearly as many. You also get economies of scale in marketing, because you don't have to try to push 10 different phones into people's minds, just one.
It's still in production. You have to remember that at this point the phone costs almost nothing to build, so building them for sale on AT&T isn't tough. More importantly, the 3GS is a very nice phone that (due to it's low cost) can be sold all over the world. The 4S, while a much better phone, is very expensive and wouldn't sell very well in poorer countries.
I have no doubt Android is here to stay. Apple has clearly responded to it in a few different way (notifications being an easy example). If the iPhone wasn't available, I would happily use an Android phone. I like all the experimentation that's been going on in Android, things like the Swipe keyboard and programs that do things iOS won't let you (i.e. turning notifications on/off when you arrive/leave various locations).
My post was to point out two things. One is that while Android is more common on phones, it's barely registers in the tablet space. The best selling Android tablets have been the Nook and the Fire, both of which hide their Android roots. The Nexus 7 is supposed to be great, but it won't fix the problem. I can go to Best Buy, Walmart, Target, or tons of other places an buy an iPad; but right now the Nexus 7 isn't available in stores so it couldn't begin to sell the same numbers. It's a great first step compared to previous Android tablets though.
Second is that while Android sells more handsets, there is a clear profit disparity between the two. They aim at different markets to some degree, but Apple is share of profits is more than merely disproportionate. This could mean Android phones can't sell at the same prices, that there are just tons more Android phones eating what used to be the feature phone market (my guess by far), or just that handset makers are cramming as much hardware as they can afford to differentiate themselves.
I have a hard time believing that Android will continue to be developed the way it is now if the profit share for Android phones doesn't change. Google may be getting benefits from having more smartphones out there, but at some point the smartphone market will be closer to saturation and the pace of Android development (unfunded by licenses) may start to look like a financial drag.
I don't know what will happen (Galaxy S3 takes off like a rocket in sales, Windows Phone 8 disrupts, Apple is forced to lower margins), but I don't think the market will stay the way it is too long.