I dunno... Maybe it's a resource problem. I mean, my laptop isn't an old piece of crap (obviously, it runs a 64bit OS and can handle a VM), but it's hardly a brand new powerhouse either. It's about 3.5 years old with one of the earlier consumer grade dual core CPUs, 1.5 GB of RAM, and a decent (for the time) Nvidia mobile card. Maybe the 64 bit Flash player just needs more than it can give... Which still isn't exactly an advertisement, but might explain things.
It probably depends on what you do with it. Some stuff seems to work OK: I never have trouble with Flash based navigation pages for instance (Err? Yay?). Sometimes games and such work fine, other times poorly or not at all. Videos seem universally bad. Lots of skips and pixelization on videos which play fine on my Windows Desktop or the previously mentioned VM.
Irix may be EOL, but lots of people still use it. It's a "choice". It's also still receiving (believe it or not) security updates. It has to, SGI continues to sell used Origin hardware. They actually make quite a bit of money off it. I used to work for SGI, and still have lots of friends inside.
I admitted in the first reply that I screwed up on Solaris. Well before anyone else pointed out my mistake. I'd edit the post, but, well, it's Slashdot.
64 bit Linux has an Alpha Flash player. It's been in Alpha for *years*. It's a piece of crap, even by the standards of Flash players. I mention in a post above (also pointing out the 64 bit Linux Player) that it's so bad that a Windows VM running on top of my Linux OS plays Flash video better than the natively running Flash player. That's not support.
The HPUX player (see my link above) is not supported by Adobe. Again, not a common OS, but that's not the point is it. Adobe wants anyone "regardless of what computer they have" to experience the web.
No way dude. It's Alpha. It's been Alpha for (literally) years. I have it installed on my laptop, it's barely functional. Videos that play perfectly in my Windows VM, are barely watchable in the native Firefox with that Plugin. Let me say that again with a little more explanation. Videos that run in Windows, inside a virtual machine running on TOP of the very Linux OS which runs Firefox, run better than the same videos running in Firefox natively in on that Linux OS.
Some of the more complicated Flash Apps, like some games, won't run at all. I basically keep in installed in case I have to use a website with a Flash based navigation system. It does work fine with most of those.
and the fact that it can't is solely due to Apple's need to make sure they get paid for every app their stupid devices can run.
Except for the thousands of free (as in beer) ones. Oh, and the web apps. And the ones corporations can distribute internally with that special license thing. Except for those...
I think you're missing the real reasons Apple restricts development on the iPhone to web apps and it's "walled garden". First, puts a severe limit on the number of viruses and exploits that can be installed on the phone. Second, it allows them a pretty significant level of control of the UI (since people mostly have to use their UI libraries). Third it allows them to go to the carriers and say "Look, we can prevent the things you don't want on your network."
Making a few buck on App sales is at best a secondary consideration, as the extremely reasonable and inexpensive terms under which you can release free apps to the App Store show. $100 a year per developer probably doesn't even cover hosting costs for all the free apps out there. $200 year allows companies to set up their own app depositories that Apple hosts no matter how large or widely used.
None of which is going to make you hate Apple any less, but at least hate them for the right reason. Selling apps is at best a 4th or 5th teir reason for the lock down on iPhones. You probably don't like the real reasons, either, but that's fine too.
I recently read your open letter to Apple and let me just say that I cannot agree more. I particularly liked this bit:
"We believe that consumers should be able to freely access their favorite content and applications, regardless of what computer they have, what browser they like, or what device suits their needs. No company -- no matter how big or how creative -- should dictate what you can create, how you create it, or what you can experience on the web."
Since my platform of choice is [64 bit Linux, Solaris, Irix, HPUX, any of the Various BSDs...] I cannot wait for your forthcoming (very soon I expect) release of Flash for this platform! I realize that my platform of choice is not the most popular one out there, but your message gives me hope! Given your support of openness, and in full understanding that my platform is rather obscure, perhaps you could simply release most of the slient code as open source and allow me to port it myself. That would be even better.
Thanks Users of various platforms that Adobe does not support.
It's a crime in a number of jurisdictions to fail to secure dangerous materials (firearms, poisons, etc). It's quite likely a violation of civil law in a number of jurisdictions to fail to secure even non-obvious dangers like swimming pools. People have been successfully sued because a kid drowned in their pool.
Um... Every book ever written on security? Name a security instrument. I'll show you how to circumvent it. It may not be easy, it may not be practical, it may not even be more than theoretical, but there's probably a way. The question is merely a matter of whether the data you're protecting is worth the effort required to get through your security. For instance there's a trivial way to break full disk encryption, but most people won't use it due to it's violating a number of very serious laws. (Your porn collection may be excellent, but it isn't worth 25 to life)
I've often wondered about the value of looking for someone with expertise in "x" specific technology. Especially when "x" is a really uncommon skill, but even when it's not to some extent. I mean, maybe if you live in a tech Mecca like Silicon Valley or something you can make it work, but as a general use case I wonder about it.
I encountered this recently. I'm currently a government contractor, a senior system analyst with a government lab. I work primarily with Unix systems, and mostly with higher end Unix systems (high performance clusters, massively SMP systems, etc). I've done a fair amount of work with Windows as well, nearly everyone has, but I admit my "specialty" is high performance Unix systems.
Recently my company posted an opening for a junior level management position running a team of SA's. It was for a different division, and this particular project was mostly Windows (AD stuff mostly, seemed pretty straight forward and technically boring, but I was thinking to get "Manager" on my resume so eventually I could get a management level job in HPC systems). I sent the hiring manager a copy of my resume and talked to him pretty extensively. In the end he told me that while my technical background was excellent, and I had some management experience (I was an officer in the Army National Guard) he really needed a "Windows Guy" to hit the ground running.
I have no reason to think he was blowing smoke up my ass and just telling me this to get rid of me, so I'll take his statement at face value. He could have had me, pretty clearly knowledgeable and capable of learning what he needed (which after all was technically quite a bit simpler than what I do now), quickly. He could have made a few calls to my management to find out that I'm good at what I do (my manager knew I was looking into this and encouraged me to try for a management role). He could have had me now, or pretty close to it. No complicated hiring process, relocation, month's notice to the new hire's old company, transfer of security clearance, etc. Will the time he saves by getting a "Windows Guy" (who will still have to spend time learning the specifics of their setup and architecture) really be worth the time he could have saved by cutting a month off of his hiring and setup time?
Your situation is similar. Unless you live in an area where you know you can quickly get someone "who sleep[s] with the Intel CPU whitepaper under their pillow", might you not be better to hire someone who has a lot of development experience and maybe some time on an ARM ASM? It's easy enough to tell someone once you hire them, "Hey, your working life is now Intel ASM. Period. You have a month to become a subject matter expert." Even if it takes them 2 months, how long did it take to find your "premade expert"?
Now if you happen to have offices three blocks down from Intel's main headquarters, and know you can have an expert in a matter of days, my question is probably less valid. Most of the time when I see this sort of thing though, that's not the case.
As people have been trying (with varying degrees of clarity) to explain, the value of knowing C is not knowing C. It's in understanding how C relates to the theoretical underlying concepts of Computer Science. C is, in it's pure form, a VERY low level language, that can easily be used to demonstrate underlying Computer Science concepts. Start stacking layers of libraries on top, and C is no more or less abstract than any other language (well still a little more really). If you deliberately avoid using the high level libraries though, you can use C to teach about memory addressing (pointers), networking (without high level libraries, C can be used to work directly with sockets), operating systems (whee, semaphores!), all kinds of stuff. It's really close to the metal, and with it's fancier features stripped out it's metaphors nearly precisely overlap with the metaphors of the machine beneath it.
Learning C for programmers is a lot like learning Physics for Electrical Engineers. Sure, most of the time they can rely on established formulas to do their jobs. Most of the time an understanding of the underlying principles of electricity is almost an afterthought. Sometimes though, they find they have a need to know the why as well as the how; then they're glad they had to take Physics in school.
Pascal can also serve this purpose, but C has sort of a dual benefit. If you learn the underlying basics with Pascal, you learned theory. If you learn the underlying basics with C, you learned theory, plus a language that you may get a chance to use sometime. C is less common that it used to be in real world programming, but it's still infinitely more common than Pascal, and its basic syntax survives in C++, C#, Objective C, etc.
After reading Pandora's website I may have made an invalid assumption here. I was thinking Pandora was just another media player. Now I'm kinda curious about this, I'll have to look into it more.
But you can listen to the media player while reading e-mail. That's my point. The OS does multitask. All of the Apple provided Apps will run in the background while you do something else. The media player will run behind anything, the phone App will, the E-mail app does. It's just that you can't say, leave AIM open while you browse the web. Which seems bad, but there are also messaging libraries that will allow you to continue to get AIM messages, while you're browsing the web. You just have to reopen AIM to respond. Which, considering the small screen size and limited resources, is a modest sacrifice. Reopening doesn't really take much more time than switching between running Apps would have.
I don't have a 3GS, so I don't know much beyond what's on the page, but it appears to be supported.
I did grant that the battery thing was a semi-valid point, but only under fairly unusual circumstances. I've watched hours of video on my iPhone and still not had to recharge it till that night. It can go for about 2.5 days of light use without a charge, but even with heavy use it'll last 14-16 hours (no you won't get 14-16 hours of continual video, network, or phone use. That stops being "heavy" and becomes "continuous", and falls under the "unusual circumstances" clause)
No, my dear Anonymous, you misread his comment. He was sarcastically claiming that the iPhone (any iPhone, not just the first Gen) is a "prototype" for other, more recent, phones like the Blackberry Storm, The Palm Pre, or any of the various Android phones. Not that the current version is more advanced than the older versions.
So, leave it on someone's property for 3 days without their okay, and they can get title to it.
... If they "request [and submit] an application packet from the Special Title Section at an MVC Agency". I'd imagine that the MVC Agency doesn't just rubber stamp these things while you sit in the office. I bet they do things like, I dunno, check to see if the vehicle has been reported stolen? Do a quick title search? I'm pretty sure they don't just hand the car over to the property owner that same afternoon. But hey, believe what you want. It's still completely different than leaving your cell phone in a bar, regardless.
It's the same way in most states in the US to my knowledge. People are just making crazy crap up here. I mean, don't get me wrong. If you lose your wallet, and someone picks it up and takes the cash out, it's highly unlikely that anything will ever come of the matter. If someone picks it up and starts using the credit cards... that's a different matter. If someone picks it up, takes pictures of the credit cards puts them on a million hit a day blog, with special attention being called to the name, CC number, and expiration date.... I think they're likely to be in very serious trouble.
iPhones can be tethered without Jail Breaking now. Have been able to for some time.
were protected from the confusion of too much choice in applications
Yeah, because the 50,000 or so on the App Store last I checked is a terribly small number and indicates a horrible lack of choice::Eyeroll::
didn't have to deal with the hassle of replacing batteries
I'd grant you that this is a valid point, except it's never been a problem for me. The device lasts all day with heavy use. At the end of the day I can charge it. Under some unusual circumstances I guess I can see this one, but day to day it's hardly a major issue.
could concentrate on doing only one thing at a time and your phone supported this by not multitasking
The operating systems multitasks. It just doesn't run multiple custom apps at one. Given it's CPU and RAM footprint, and the size of the screen, not to mention the excellent message passing libraries, this isn't much of a hardship.
and when "(whatever memory is installed in the phone) is enough for everybody".
Again a valid point, but not one that really seems to affect me. I've never needed it to have more than 8GB of storage, and the new ones have twice that (or 4 times that if you pay for it).
All the legitimate problems with the iPhone (tied to AT&T, crappy networks in numerous major cities, underpowered (until the 3GS) for it's OS, crappy camera, etc) and you just gotta spout the same (often incorrect, rarely serious) spurious, stupid complaints.
I don't know this for a fact of course, never met the guy and don't work for or know anyone who works for Apple, but I read an article online by Woz talking about another Apple engineer who *had* been fired for something. As an aside in that article Woz mentioned that Gray had *not* been fired. It didn't sound like there was an implied "yet" in the article... he seemed to believe that Gray's job was safe.
Your car analogy is faulty. Let's say you have two cars; an Intel and an AMD. The Intel car cost 50% more and has 25% poorer gas milage. Also it's air conditioner doesn't work as well. It can, however, go 10% faster. Let's say the max speed of the AMD car is 150mph, but the Intel car can hit 165mph. Either speed is well above the speed limit, but it is undoubtedly true that the Intel car is faster.
Which car is better? Unless you have a really good reason to need to go 165mph, I'd rather have the AMD car, honestly. Not for my race car obviously; but for most day to day travel needs the AMD car is cheaper to buy, cheaper to operate, more comfortable, and fast enough by a long margin.
It's called Iron Mountain. Nearly all big businesses and thousands of smaller one do just this. Every non-classified (the government apparently does not yet trust them this much) piece of paper I throw away goes into an Iron Mountain one-way container. All our corporate secrets, printed e-mail, contract info, all of it. Iron Mountain comes by and picks it all up for destruction once a week. They also archive all of the sensitive stuff that we DON'T throw away (that isn't on a computer). I work for a fairly small company I will grant you, but until recently I was a subcontractor working for Boeing. Guess where all our unclassified trash went?
This is *exactly* the same thing. A few other people are making "comparable" analogies, but this is literally huge companies trusting another huge company to archive, store, and even destroy their sensitive data. Happens every day, and I'm not aware of very many fortune 500s that don't use Iron Mountain.
No player is killing off mp3 support, you're just going to have a harder time getting new mp3s. aac is the new standard. Sure there are still plenty of places that sell mp3 (for now) so you can feel free to use one of them, but there's no particularly good reason *not* to buy aac either. Unless you happen to have a really old or particularity crappy player than can't handle it. In which case you're in the same position as a guy with a cassette tape player was in the 90's. Your old cassettes could still play, you could even find plenty of cassette tape players on the market (many that could handle both CDs and tapes). Slowly but surely though, you couldn't find any new music on cassette tape.
Seems I was partially wrong (Slashdot user admits to error! Film at 11!). aac is patent encumbered, just like mp3. On the bright side, the licensing requirements are considerably looser.
Slashdot Mirror
I dunno... Maybe it's a resource problem. I mean, my laptop isn't an old piece of crap (obviously, it runs a 64bit OS and can handle a VM), but it's hardly a brand new powerhouse either. It's about 3.5 years old with one of the earlier consumer grade dual core CPUs, 1.5 GB of RAM, and a decent (for the time) Nvidia mobile card. Maybe the 64 bit Flash player just needs more than it can give... Which still isn't exactly an advertisement, but might explain things.
It probably depends on what you do with it. Some stuff seems to work OK: I never have trouble with Flash based navigation pages for instance (Err? Yay?). Sometimes games and such work fine, other times poorly or not at all. Videos seem universally bad. Lots of skips and pixelization on videos which play fine on my Windows Desktop or the previously mentioned VM.
Irix may be EOL, but lots of people still use it. It's a "choice". It's also still receiving (believe it or not) security updates. It has to, SGI continues to sell used Origin hardware. They actually make quite a bit of money off it. I used to work for SGI, and still have lots of friends inside.
Here's the list of Adobe provided flash players: http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/alternates/ Find me BSD on there, I must have missed it.
I admitted in the first reply that I screwed up on Solaris. Well before anyone else pointed out my mistake. I'd edit the post, but, well, it's Slashdot.
64 bit Linux has an Alpha Flash player. It's been in Alpha for *years*. It's a piece of crap, even by the standards of Flash players. I mention in a post above (also pointing out the 64 bit Linux Player) that it's so bad that a Windows VM running on top of my Linux OS plays Flash video better than the natively running Flash player. That's not support.
The HPUX player (see my link above) is not supported by Adobe. Again, not a common OS, but that's not the point is it. Adobe wants anyone "regardless of what computer they have" to experience the web.
No way dude. It's Alpha. It's been Alpha for (literally) years. I have it installed on my laptop, it's barely functional. Videos that play perfectly in my Windows VM, are barely watchable in the native Firefox with that Plugin. Let me say that again with a little more explanation. Videos that run in Windows, inside a virtual machine running on TOP of the very Linux OS which runs Firefox, run better than the same videos running in Firefox natively in on that Linux OS.
Some of the more complicated Flash Apps, like some games, won't run at all. I basically keep in installed in case I have to use a website with a Flash based navigation system. It does work fine with most of those.
and the fact that it can't is solely due to Apple's need to make sure they get paid for every app their stupid devices can run.
Except for the thousands of free (as in beer) ones. Oh, and the web apps. And the ones corporations can distribute internally with that special license thing. Except for those...
I think you're missing the real reasons Apple restricts development on the iPhone to web apps and it's "walled garden". First, puts a severe limit on the number of viruses and exploits that can be installed on the phone. Second, it allows them a pretty significant level of control of the UI (since people mostly have to use their UI libraries). Third it allows them to go to the carriers and say "Look, we can prevent the things you don't want on your network."
Making a few buck on App sales is at best a secondary consideration, as the extremely reasonable and inexpensive terms under which you can release free apps to the App Store show. $100 a year per developer probably doesn't even cover hosting costs for all the free apps out there. $200 year allows companies to set up their own app depositories that Apple hosts no matter how large or widely used.
None of which is going to make you hate Apple any less, but at least hate them for the right reason. Selling apps is at best a 4th or 5th teir reason for the lock down on iPhones. You probably don't like the real reasons, either, but that's fine too.
Whoops. Looks like I shouldn't have included Solaris. Sorry.
Dear Adobe:
I recently read your open letter to Apple and let me just say that I cannot agree more. I particularly liked this bit:
"We believe that consumers should be able to freely access their favorite content and applications, regardless of what computer they have, what browser they like, or what device suits their needs. No company -- no matter how big or how creative -- should dictate what you can create, how you create it, or what you can experience on the web."
Since my platform of choice is [64 bit Linux, Solaris, Irix, HPUX, any of the Various BSDs...] I cannot wait for your forthcoming (very soon I expect) release of Flash for this platform! I realize that my platform of choice is not the most popular one out there, but your message gives me hope! Given your support of openness, and in full understanding that my platform is rather obscure, perhaps you could simply release most of the slient code as open source and allow me to port it myself. That would be even better.
Thanks
Users of various platforms that Adobe does not support.
It's a crime in a number of jurisdictions to fail to secure dangerous materials (firearms, poisons, etc). It's quite likely a violation of civil law in a number of jurisdictions to fail to secure even non-obvious dangers like swimming pools. People have been successfully sued because a kid drowned in their pool.
Um... Every book ever written on security? Name a security instrument. I'll show you how to circumvent it. It may not be easy, it may not be practical, it may not even be more than theoretical, but there's probably a way. The question is merely a matter of whether the data you're protecting is worth the effort required to get through your security. For instance there's a trivial way to break full disk encryption, but most people won't use it due to it's violating a number of very serious laws. (Your porn collection may be excellent, but it isn't worth 25 to life)
I've often wondered about the value of looking for someone with expertise in "x" specific technology. Especially when "x" is a really uncommon skill, but even when it's not to some extent. I mean, maybe if you live in a tech Mecca like Silicon Valley or something you can make it work, but as a general use case I wonder about it.
I encountered this recently. I'm currently a government contractor, a senior system analyst with a government lab. I work primarily with Unix systems, and mostly with higher end Unix systems (high performance clusters, massively SMP systems, etc). I've done a fair amount of work with Windows as well, nearly everyone has, but I admit my "specialty" is high performance Unix systems.
Recently my company posted an opening for a junior level management position running a team of SA's. It was for a different division, and this particular project was mostly Windows (AD stuff mostly, seemed pretty straight forward and technically boring, but I was thinking to get "Manager" on my resume so eventually I could get a management level job in HPC systems). I sent the hiring manager a copy of my resume and talked to him pretty extensively. In the end he told me that while my technical background was excellent, and I had some management experience (I was an officer in the Army National Guard) he really needed a "Windows Guy" to hit the ground running.
I have no reason to think he was blowing smoke up my ass and just telling me this to get rid of me, so I'll take his statement at face value. He could have had me, pretty clearly knowledgeable and capable of learning what he needed (which after all was technically quite a bit simpler than what I do now), quickly. He could have made a few calls to my management to find out that I'm good at what I do (my manager knew I was looking into this and encouraged me to try for a management role). He could have had me now, or pretty close to it. No complicated hiring process, relocation, month's notice to the new hire's old company, transfer of security clearance, etc. Will the time he saves by getting a "Windows Guy" (who will still have to spend time learning the specifics of their setup and architecture) really be worth the time he could have saved by cutting a month off of his hiring and setup time?
Your situation is similar. Unless you live in an area where you know you can quickly get someone "who sleep[s] with the Intel CPU whitepaper under their pillow", might you not be better to hire someone who has a lot of development experience and maybe some time on an ARM ASM? It's easy enough to tell someone once you hire them, "Hey, your working life is now Intel ASM. Period. You have a month to become a subject matter expert." Even if it takes them 2 months, how long did it take to find your "premade expert"?
Now if you happen to have offices three blocks down from Intel's main headquarters, and know you can have an expert in a matter of days, my question is probably less valid. Most of the time when I see this sort of thing though, that's not the case.
As people have been trying (with varying degrees of clarity) to explain, the value of knowing C is not knowing C. It's in understanding how C relates to the theoretical underlying concepts of Computer Science. C is, in it's pure form, a VERY low level language, that can easily be used to demonstrate underlying Computer Science concepts. Start stacking layers of libraries on top, and C is no more or less abstract than any other language (well still a little more really). If you deliberately avoid using the high level libraries though, you can use C to teach about memory addressing (pointers), networking (without high level libraries, C can be used to work directly with sockets), operating systems (whee, semaphores!), all kinds of stuff. It's really close to the metal, and with it's fancier features stripped out it's metaphors nearly precisely overlap with the metaphors of the machine beneath it.
Learning C for programmers is a lot like learning Physics for Electrical Engineers. Sure, most of the time they can rely on established formulas to do their jobs. Most of the time an understanding of the underlying principles of electricity is almost an afterthought. Sometimes though, they find they have a need to know the why as well as the how; then they're glad they had to take Physics in school.
Pascal can also serve this purpose, but C has sort of a dual benefit. If you learn the underlying basics with Pascal, you learned theory. If you learn the underlying basics with C, you learned theory, plus a language that you may get a chance to use sometime. C is less common that it used to be in real world programming, but it's still infinitely more common than Pascal, and its basic syntax survives in C++, C#, Objective C, etc.
After reading Pandora's website I may have made an invalid assumption here. I was thinking Pandora was just another media player. Now I'm kinda curious about this, I'll have to look into it more.
http://www.apple.com/iphone/iphone-3gs/tethering.html
From the horse's mouth.
But you can listen to the media player while reading e-mail. That's my point. The OS does multitask. All of the Apple provided Apps will run in the background while you do something else. The media player will run behind anything, the phone App will, the E-mail app does. It's just that you can't say, leave AIM open while you browse the web. Which seems bad, but there are also messaging libraries that will allow you to continue to get AIM messages, while you're browsing the web. You just have to reopen AIM to respond. Which, considering the small screen size and limited resources, is a modest sacrifice. Reopening doesn't really take much more time than switching between running Apps would have.
As to tethering: http://www.apple.com/iphone/iphone-3gs/tethering.html
I don't have a 3GS, so I don't know much beyond what's on the page, but it appears to be supported.
I did grant that the battery thing was a semi-valid point, but only under fairly unusual circumstances. I've watched hours of video on my iPhone and still not had to recharge it till that night. It can go for about 2.5 days of light use without a charge, but even with heavy use it'll last 14-16 hours (no you won't get 14-16 hours of continual video, network, or phone use. That stops being "heavy" and becomes "continuous", and falls under the "unusual circumstances" clause)
No, my dear Anonymous, you misread his comment. He was sarcastically claiming that the iPhone (any iPhone, not just the first Gen) is a "prototype" for other, more recent, phones like the Blackberry Storm, The Palm Pre, or any of the various Android phones. Not that the current version is more advanced than the older versions.
Bah, I completely misread that somehow, you're right. His comment *should* have been directed at HTC, and somehow in my head it was.
...
So, leave it on someone's property for 3 days without their okay, and they can get title to it.
...
If they "request [and submit] an application packet from the Special Title Section at an MVC Agency". I'd imagine that the MVC Agency doesn't just rubber stamp these things while you sit in the office. I bet they do things like, I dunno, check to see if the vehicle has been reported stolen? Do a quick title search? I'm pretty sure they don't just hand the car over to the property owner that same afternoon. But hey, believe what you want. It's still completely different than leaving your cell phone in a bar, regardless.
It's the same way in most states in the US to my knowledge. People are just making crazy crap up here. I mean, don't get me wrong. If you lose your wallet, and someone picks it up and takes the cash out, it's highly unlikely that anything will ever come of the matter. If someone picks it up and starts using the credit cards... that's a different matter. If someone picks it up, takes pictures of the credit cards puts them on a million hit a day blog, with special attention being called to the name, CC number, and expiration date.... I think they're likely to be in very serious trouble.
But HTC wants to sell him a new phone. Since his comment was directed at HTC, it makes perfect sense.
you weren't bothered with having to tether
iPhones can be tethered without Jail Breaking now. Have been able to for some time.
were protected from the confusion of too much choice in applications
Yeah, because the 50,000 or so on the App Store last I checked is a terribly small number and indicates a horrible lack of choice ::Eyeroll::
didn't have to deal with the hassle of replacing batteries
I'd grant you that this is a valid point, except it's never been a problem for me. The device lasts all day with heavy use. At the end of the day I can charge it. Under some unusual circumstances I guess I can see this one, but day to day it's hardly a major issue.
could concentrate on doing only one thing at a time and your phone supported this by not multitasking
The operating systems multitasks. It just doesn't run multiple custom apps at one. Given it's CPU and RAM footprint, and the size of the screen, not to mention the excellent message passing libraries, this isn't much of a hardship.
and when "(whatever memory is installed in the phone) is enough for everybody".
Again a valid point, but not one that really seems to affect me. I've never needed it to have more than 8GB of storage, and the new ones have twice that (or 4 times that if you pay for it).
All the legitimate problems with the iPhone (tied to AT&T, crappy networks in numerous major cities, underpowered (until the 3GS) for it's OS, crappy camera, etc) and you just gotta spout the same (often incorrect, rarely serious) spurious, stupid complaints.
I don't know this for a fact of course, never met the guy and don't work for or know anyone who works for Apple, but I read an article online by Woz talking about another Apple engineer who *had* been fired for something. As an aside in that article Woz mentioned that Gray had *not* been fired. It didn't sound like there was an implied "yet" in the article... he seemed to believe that Gray's job was safe.
Your car analogy is faulty. Let's say you have two cars; an Intel and an AMD. The Intel car cost 50% more and has 25% poorer gas milage. Also it's air conditioner doesn't work as well. It can, however, go 10% faster. Let's say the max speed of the AMD car is 150mph, but the Intel car can hit 165mph. Either speed is well above the speed limit, but it is undoubtedly true that the Intel car is faster.
Which car is better? Unless you have a really good reason to need to go 165mph, I'd rather have the AMD car, honestly. Not for my race car obviously; but for most day to day travel needs the AMD car is cheaper to buy, cheaper to operate, more comfortable, and fast enough by a long margin.
It's called Iron Mountain. Nearly all big businesses and thousands of smaller one do just this. Every non-classified (the government apparently does not yet trust them this much) piece of paper I throw away goes into an Iron Mountain one-way container. All our corporate secrets, printed e-mail, contract info, all of it. Iron Mountain comes by and picks it all up for destruction once a week. They also archive all of the sensitive stuff that we DON'T throw away (that isn't on a computer). I work for a fairly small company I will grant you, but until recently I was a subcontractor working for Boeing. Guess where all our unclassified trash went?
This is *exactly* the same thing. A few other people are making "comparable" analogies, but this is literally huge companies trusting another huge company to archive, store, and even destroy their sensitive data. Happens every day, and I'm not aware of very many fortune 500s that don't use Iron Mountain.
No player is killing off mp3 support, you're just going to have a harder time getting new mp3s. aac is the new standard. Sure there are still plenty of places that sell mp3 (for now) so you can feel free to use one of them, but there's no particularly good reason *not* to buy aac either. Unless you happen to have a really old or particularity crappy player than can't handle it. In which case you're in the same position as a guy with a cassette tape player was in the 90's. Your old cassettes could still play, you could even find plenty of cassette tape players on the market (many that could handle both CDs and tapes). Slowly but surely though, you couldn't find any new music on cassette tape.
Seems I was partially wrong (Slashdot user admits to error! Film at 11!). aac is patent encumbered, just like mp3. On the bright side, the licensing requirements are considerably looser.