So let me get this straight your biggest problem is that software designed for a different form factor that hasn't been ported but simply accessed though hacked interface provided by yet another piece of software doesn't work well? Then complain that your attempts at tablet computing using devices that ran an operating system designed for a different form factor didn't do the job either? Here's an idea...why not get a piece of hardware running an os designed for its form factor and run software designed for it as well...you will get much better results. You cant just shoehorn something into another device simply because the one thing it has in common is a freaking screen....it just doesn't work that way.
The thing is those people have had that option for years....and no one bought them. Look up the Motion Computing tablets or the HP Tc1100. Both had all the "something else" like usb ports, video out, memory card slots, all the crap that supposedly everyone wants...but they didn't sell for shit. I really wish the people who whine about their choices being too locked down had put their money where their mouth is but unfortunately all the whining in the world doesnt work if no one buys the products available so manufacturers get the idea that simple and stripped down is really more what people want.
Well at least we still have Bioware and Bethesda. I guess im in the minority but I find most multiplayer experiences shallow and completely lacking. I grew dissatisfied with console gaming mainly for this reason.
Several others have been posted recently as well, mainly pointing out that the current deals allowing streaming to piggyback on existing licensing will be mostly dried up by 2012 causing netflix to have to compete with the big boys like hbo and showtime on a more equal footing as far as costs go. The current deal with Starz for instance was signed for an amount that is barely more than what HBO pays for a handful of films from the major studios.
Thats kind of a huge deal if it includes streaming. Just yesterday there was an article about how Netflix was non-sustainable because its deals were not direct with the content providers but rather mostly 3rd party like Starz. Guess they are working to pre-emptively fix that issue.
My guess is the original PSP will stay zombified as it has been since a year or so after launch. The go is still fairly new but I cant see Sony maintaining 2 different handheld non-compatable systems, but you know that Sony isn't going to put out an android device that isn't locked down and wouldn't go through them for content...greed is too strong with that one.
My understanding is that the Nook is basically a loss leader, with the difference made up on book sales. With it rooted that opens it to kindle or whatever else...while its good for the end user (heck im thinking I need one now) B&N is likely going to completely freak out. The likely reaction is a swift essential "update" that blocks the current exploit.
Its surprising to see such backwards thinking from people that are normally regarded as futurists. If anything you would think they would recognize that perhaps releasing the older works into the public domain would actually increase interest in the authors who as they point are either still living or recently dead all but ensuring greatly increased royalties from later works. A vast majority of these older works have been all but forgotten. You would think that as a writer of speculative fiction Bear would be able to see the future dark void of lost art that the current copyright over-extensions are creating and would be at the forefront of working to prevent it. Even without that awareness you would think that typical heir greed would compel them to think about the potential windfall of sales from later works rather than the potential loss of future revenue from something like Chain Of Logic or Tomorrows Children which after 60+ likely does not result in enough revenue to buy a new hardback title.
Why doesn't Amazon allow Borders banner ads, why is there no Engadget section on Slashdot, and why cant I subscribe to Sony's Qore magazine on Xbox Live? Most companies dont care to cater to their competition, its not fear its logic.
I'm in the middle of converting a law firm from laptop's with docking stations to desktops and ipads. The whole process started when the senior partner with a gadget fetish picked up an ipad at launch. My job was to wrestle with what he wanted to do vs what it was capable of and find ways to make it work. The issue before had been that a lawyer would have to carry their laptop, charger, bag and usually some sort of 3g card or pray for wifi access, this is in addition to a briefcase with all the needed papers (legal is still one area where paperless is impossible) for the case. My job was to find out how to do all of the same stuff they normally do with just the ipad and a keyboard. I warned them that I didn't think it was possible, but managed to prove myself wrong.
It took 4 apps to get them up and running, iAnnotate for pdf editing, documents to go for normal word and excel stuff, iDictate for DSS compatible dictation and iTeleport for remote access if they really need to connect to their profile back in the office. The rest of the functionality is out of the box. Now they can send, receive, edit and review any documents or media related to the case directly without having to hassle with all the gear, security settings, etc. It may not be for everyone, but for some jobs its been a blessing.
Incidentally, he tried this about 5 years ago with an HP TX1100, thought the functionality was there (they were slates that ran XP) the lack of a touch or pen oriented interface made it clumsy at best, it had all the bells and whistles, it was upgradeable, had usb, memory card readers, etc...but due to its identity crisis it just wasn't comfortably useable as a tablet or as a notebook.
If it comes down to blanket censorship of websites simply to cater to the MPAA and RIAA why not respond in kind by black holing the content providers no one is required to forward DNS...if they want to make sure no one can get their content...we might as well assist in making that happen.
Im all for equal access and equal opportunity but something really needs to be done about the damn ADA Trolls and the lawyers that feed their "pursuit" of money in the name of equality. I have known of 3 small businesses here in my area that have been basically attacked over non compliance even though there really isn't any real guidance provided in how to comply. Two of the businesses just decided to shut down rather than deal with the legal fees, the other is still fighting after 3 years over non-compliance issues he wasn't even aware of until being sued. I don't think many intentionally want to be seen as discriminatory and most would go out of their way to accommodate as they could afford to but the way the ADA is presented now does nothing but create hostility along with compliance, if half the time and effort put into litigation and enforcement was put into education and assistance for smaller businesses to get compliant it would go along way to giving both sides of the issue what they need without the animosity.
So if my medical records, credit history, personal and business email, not to mention record of everywhere I go is kept by google thats acceptable but somehow choosing to buy an idevice and agreeing to their terms of service is the worlds greatest threat to freedom? wow...
Nearly all PC gamers I know, like steam for the convenience, portability and even manageable drm. The extras that steam offers through its community cannot be matched by a retail store. I guess retailers figure it is better to have no sales than to have a smaller piece as the rest of the world goes online? This is like a retailer refusing to carry music because iTunes might sell more. Sounds to me like its the retailers loss.
It's not as if Gates's philanthropy is a mantra of MS as a whole. It answers directly to the shareholders most of which could care less what impact things like this have on the state...as long as it doesnt effect their net worth.
Definitely sounds intriguing, capable of highway speeds, incredibly short charge time (real gas station on the go type charging a reality) and amazing mileage between charges. I can't help but think that this will never develop into anything that will actually be a consumer ready product. The science may be there but something tells me that other interests will prevent this from going anywhere. I really think the only way we will ever see competitive advancements in alternative energies beyond research and press blurbs is if we really get conclusive proof that fossil fuels are running out.
I have never played farmville and have no interest in ever playing it. One of my kids plays it but doesn't spent ridiculous amounts of time with it. At first I was critical, but thinking about it, they think the games that I play are an equal waste of time. Are WoW or Sims really any "better" sure they are prettier but in the end its still just a time waster.
I used to watch SciFi Channel nearly all the time, but when all the psychic and ghostbuster wannabe shows started popping up I spent less and less time watching the channel. I made it through the first 2 seasons of BSG but then lost interest and since changing providers almost 2 years ago I still couldnt even tell you what channel # its on. Anyone remember SciFi friday? All evening it was good sci fi programming what in the hell made them loose focus on something that at least based on those around me had to be doing at least ok. Oh well at least there is still BBC America.
That wont matter the will just shift the blame to the next target, just as they focused on Limewire after Napster, as long as there is anything to pin blame on they don't have to actually have any real data to backup their claims. I fully expect that at an upcoming awards show we will see some digital holdout musician like Paul McCartney touting a new pay service calling itself Limewire attempting to live off past name recognition despite a poor business model.
Well you know what they say...A fool and his money are soon parted. I have never understood it myself, but evidently I didn't give fools enough credit...there are far more of them then there are people who actually think before spending. Its kind of shocking how many will play that stuff though, I signed up for facebook specifically at the request of my mother since according to her "all my relatives are on there". So far there is far less communication than there is updates on when aunt lisa got a new piggy for her virtual farm or when uncle charlie joined some lameass teabagger group. Anyone else hate those damn notices, I really don't care if you achieved a zillion points on some bejeweled game and I really doubt many others do. Its not that I am anti-social I'm just anti wasting my time and brain cells. im As for virtual currency, I do remember buying credits to pay for play time on Mechwarrior with CompuServe back in the day. BBS's used virtual currency for similar things as well. At least with those credits=time the way Zynga and others are doing it people are paying real money to buy things like virtual horses and extra virtual coins for a virtual casino game that pays out virtual prizes...I guess I'm just out of touch but I just cant see any logic to it at all.
Well not really...but I can say that its still much faster than the AT&T 3g dataplan I had. The average consumer doesn't know what 3g or 4g means anyway...they would be better off calling it something else but for joe average the only thing they really know is 3g has been a term pushed down their throats and its slow...anything else just sounds faster. While i'd love to have 100Mbps truthfully I get better speeds from my wimax connection now than I do from my cable connection at home much of the time so I really dont have much to complain about.
Slashdot Mirror
So let me get this straight your biggest problem is that software designed for a different form factor that hasn't been ported but simply accessed though hacked interface provided by yet another piece of software doesn't work well? Then complain that your attempts at tablet computing using devices that ran an operating system designed for a different form factor didn't do the job either? Here's an idea...why not get a piece of hardware running an os designed for its form factor and run software designed for it as well...you will get much better results. You cant just shoehorn something into another device simply because the one thing it has in common is a freaking screen....it just doesn't work that way.
The thing is those people have had that option for years....and no one bought them. Look up the Motion Computing tablets or the HP Tc1100. Both had all the "something else" like usb ports, video out, memory card slots, all the crap that supposedly everyone wants...but they didn't sell for shit. I really wish the people who whine about their choices being too locked down had put their money where their mouth is but unfortunately all the whining in the world doesnt work if no one buys the products available so manufacturers get the idea that simple and stripped down is really more what people want.
Well at least we still have Bioware and Bethesda. I guess im in the minority but I find most multiplayer experiences shallow and completely lacking. I grew dissatisfied with console gaming mainly for this reason.
No actually you just assumed the wrong article. What I was referring to was this...
http://gawker.com/5471943/why-netflix-wont-be-the-hbo-of-the-21st-century
Several others have been posted recently as well, mainly pointing out that the current deals allowing streaming to piggyback on existing licensing will be mostly dried up by 2012 causing netflix to have to compete with the big boys like hbo and showtime on a more equal footing as far as costs go. The current deal with Starz for instance was signed for an amount that is barely more than what HBO pays for a handful of films from the major studios.
Thats kind of a huge deal if it includes streaming. Just yesterday there was an article about how Netflix was non-sustainable because its deals were not direct with the content providers but rather mostly 3rd party like Starz. Guess they are working to pre-emptively fix that issue.
My guess is the original PSP will stay zombified as it has been since a year or so after launch. The go is still fairly new but I cant see Sony maintaining 2 different handheld non-compatable systems, but you know that Sony isn't going to put out an android device that isn't locked down and wouldn't go through them for content...greed is too strong with that one.
We're one step closer to people tubes....
My understanding is that the Nook is basically a loss leader, with the difference made up on book sales. With it rooted that opens it to kindle or whatever else...while its good for the end user (heck im thinking I need one now) B&N is likely going to completely freak out. The likely reaction is a swift essential "update" that blocks the current exploit.
Its surprising to see such backwards thinking from people that are normally regarded as futurists. If anything you would think they would recognize that perhaps releasing the older works into the public domain would actually increase interest in the authors who as they point are either still living or recently dead all but ensuring greatly increased royalties from later works. A vast majority of these older works have been all but forgotten. You would think that as a writer of speculative fiction Bear would be able to see the future dark void of lost art that the current copyright over-extensions are creating and would be at the forefront of working to prevent it. Even without that awareness you would think that typical heir greed would compel them to think about the potential windfall of sales from later works rather than the potential loss of future revenue from something like Chain Of Logic or Tomorrows Children which after 60+ likely does not result in enough revenue to buy a new hardback title.
Is that realistic though? I have seen areas that had only DSL and no cable available but I have never seen an area that had cable and no DSL.
Why doesn't Amazon allow Borders banner ads, why is there no Engadget section on Slashdot, and why cant I subscribe to Sony's Qore magazine on Xbox Live? Most companies dont care to cater to their competition, its not fear its logic.
Both are nearly forgotten but both were fundamental in establishing the genre.
I'm in the middle of converting a law firm from laptop's with docking stations to desktops and ipads. The whole process started when the senior partner with a gadget fetish picked up an ipad at launch. My job was to wrestle with what he wanted to do vs what it was capable of and find ways to make it work. The issue before had been that a lawyer would have to carry their laptop, charger, bag and usually some sort of 3g card or pray for wifi access, this is in addition to a briefcase with all the needed papers (legal is still one area where paperless is impossible) for the case. My job was to find out how to do all of the same stuff they normally do with just the ipad and a keyboard. I warned them that I didn't think it was possible, but managed to prove myself wrong.
It took 4 apps to get them up and running, iAnnotate for pdf editing, documents to go for normal word and excel stuff, iDictate for DSS compatible dictation and iTeleport for remote access if they really need to connect to their profile back in the office. The rest of the functionality is out of the box. Now they can send, receive, edit and review any documents or media related to the case directly without having to hassle with all the gear, security settings, etc. It may not be for everyone, but for some jobs its been a blessing.
Incidentally, he tried this about 5 years ago with an HP TX1100, thought the functionality was there (they were slates that ran XP) the lack of a touch or pen oriented interface made it clumsy at best, it had all the bells and whistles, it was upgradeable, had usb, memory card readers, etc...but due to its identity crisis it just wasn't comfortably useable as a tablet or as a notebook.
If it comes down to blanket censorship of websites simply to cater to the MPAA and RIAA why not respond in kind by black holing the content providers no one is required to forward DNS...if they want to make sure no one can get their content...we might as well assist in making that happen.
Im all for equal access and equal opportunity but something really needs to be done about the damn ADA Trolls and the lawyers that feed their "pursuit" of money in the name of equality. I have known of 3 small businesses here in my area that have been basically attacked over non compliance even though there really isn't any real guidance provided in how to comply. Two of the businesses just decided to shut down rather than deal with the legal fees, the other is still fighting after 3 years over non-compliance issues he wasn't even aware of until being sued. I don't think many intentionally want to be seen as discriminatory and most would go out of their way to accommodate as they could afford to but the way the ADA is presented now does nothing but create hostility along with compliance, if half the time and effort put into litigation and enforcement was put into education and assistance for smaller businesses to get compliant it would go along way to giving both sides of the issue what they need without the animosity.
So if my medical records, credit history, personal and business email, not to mention record of everywhere I go is kept by google thats acceptable but somehow choosing to buy an idevice and agreeing to their terms of service is the worlds greatest threat to freedom? wow...
Nearly all PC gamers I know, like steam for the convenience, portability and even manageable drm. The extras that steam offers through its community cannot be matched by a retail store. I guess retailers figure it is better to have no sales than to have a smaller piece as the rest of the world goes online? This is like a retailer refusing to carry music because iTunes might sell more. Sounds to me like its the retailers loss.
It's not as if Gates's philanthropy is a mantra of MS as a whole. It answers directly to the shareholders most of which could care less what impact things like this have on the state...as long as it doesnt effect their net worth.
Definitely sounds intriguing, capable of highway speeds, incredibly short charge time (real gas station on the go type charging a reality) and amazing mileage between charges. I can't help but think that this will never develop into anything that will actually be a consumer ready product. The science may be there but something tells me that other interests will prevent this from going anywhere. I really think the only way we will ever see competitive advancements in alternative energies beyond research and press blurbs is if we really get conclusive proof that fossil fuels are running out.
I have never played farmville and have no interest in ever playing it. One of my kids plays it but doesn't spent ridiculous amounts of time with it. At first I was critical, but thinking about it, they think the games that I play are an equal waste of time. Are WoW or Sims really any "better" sure they are prettier but in the end its still just a time waster.
I used to watch SciFi Channel nearly all the time, but when all the psychic and ghostbuster wannabe shows started popping up I spent less and less time watching the channel. I made it through the first 2 seasons of BSG but then lost interest and since changing providers almost 2 years ago I still couldnt even tell you what channel # its on. Anyone remember SciFi friday? All evening it was good sci fi programming what in the hell made them loose focus on something that at least based on those around me had to be doing at least ok. Oh well at least there is still BBC America.
That wont matter the will just shift the blame to the next target, just as they focused on Limewire after Napster, as long as there is anything to pin blame on they don't have to actually have any real data to backup their claims. I fully expect that at an upcoming awards show we will see some digital holdout musician like Paul McCartney touting a new pay service calling itself Limewire attempting to live off past name recognition despite a poor business model.
I wouldnt know...mine is unlimited and actually cheaper than my cable connection by around $15.
Well you know what they say...A fool and his money are soon parted. I have never understood it myself, but evidently I didn't give fools enough credit...there are far more of them then there are people who actually think before spending. Its kind of shocking how many will play that stuff though, I signed up for facebook specifically at the request of my mother since according to her "all my relatives are on there". So far there is far less communication than there is updates on when aunt lisa got a new piggy for her virtual farm or when uncle charlie joined some lameass teabagger group. Anyone else hate those damn notices, I really don't care if you achieved a zillion points on some bejeweled game and I really doubt many others do. Its not that I am anti-social I'm just anti wasting my time and brain cells.
im
As for virtual currency, I do remember buying credits to pay for play time on Mechwarrior with CompuServe back in the day. BBS's used virtual currency for similar things as well. At least with those credits=time the way Zynga and others are doing it people are paying real money to buy things like virtual horses and extra virtual coins for a virtual casino game that pays out virtual prizes...I guess I'm just out of touch but I just cant see any logic to it at all.
Well not really...but I can say that its still much faster than the AT&T 3g dataplan I had. The average consumer doesn't know what 3g or 4g means anyway...they would be better off calling it something else but for joe average the only thing they really know is 3g has been a term pushed down their throats and its slow...anything else just sounds faster. While i'd love to have 100Mbps truthfully I get better speeds from my wimax connection now than I do from my cable connection at home much of the time so I really dont have much to complain about.