It may still be relevant. My wife has an iphone and it only gets updated when I do it. I dont keep up to date with apple news and it doesn't get plugged into the pc for any reason other than to charge it, or update it, and even when charging, we dont use itunes except to specifically update the phone...
so basically there are probably many apple devices that are only patched when the user initiates it, and there are a lot of users that wouldn't know they were supposed to even check for updates. If they use itunes, then they'll see the update notifications (but at a couple hundred MB, many wont download it). It took a few goes for my pc to download it last time, since apple's servers are often slow (or at least its slow for me to download from them, on a 12Mbps link).
None of this is meant to be a criticism - since the problem is often worse for other platforms anyway. I'm just giving examples for why the iOS security holes may not disappear from the wild immediately after apple issues a patch.
ie. a curated software store and the ability to side-load apps after pressing a button which pops up a big fat warning message.
I think Google should at the very least install automated checking of apps, and preferably start manually testing apps and "approving" them. Maybe another option would be to have all apps available, but those that have been tested have an icon next to them to show they are 'approved'.
I can only speak for myself but if I were to choose the GPL (and I haven't yet) for any of my projects, it would be intentional.
My default go to license is the BSD license...but I do have to say "each to their own".
If you really believe people only use the GPL as a default choice, then why not take up my suggestion and contact the copyright holders of whatever software you want to distribute a derivative of?...unless of course its the linux kernel and there are hundreds or even thousands of copyright holders...?
but for small projects I dont see too many developers objecting to another well-meaning and talented developer wanting to utilise their code.
Had you bought your iphone outright in australia, you would've spent almost the same over 2 years with a data plan as you would just going on a voice+data plan + free iphone. The difference is somewhere between $100 (over 2 years) and somewhere in the negatives (ie. cheaper to go on a plan).
pre-paid only works if you spend enough so that you can use your credit over a longer period, otherwise it expires after 30 days.
The carriers have thought of everything.
Even buying a $10 phone doesn't really advantage you when it comes to plans...you certainly wouldn't save more than $20 a month compared to a $50/$60 a month plan, which are the most common here.
$29 a month here will get you a 1yo smartphone on a 2 year contract. $50-$60 a month will usually get you a fairly recent smartphone on a 2 year contract, and normally with 6GB data and plenty of talk/text thrown in.
I did the sums when I bought my first smartphone - it was about $50 more over 2 years to just go on a plan rather than buy the phone outright, but way eaiser for cashflow.
So you dont need a smartphone. Then dont buy one. No one is forcing you to.
Did I miss something?
I'm pretty sure no one is claiming that everyone needs a smart phone. Just like not everyone needs anything that isn't food, clothing and shelter.
So what you're really saying is that you do not WANT a smartphone. And what everyone else is saying is that they DO want one, and they find them useful.
if your life is made up of you doing many things you dont want to do...why?
I understand work commitment etc being part of that, but if in your leisure time you are not in control of what you do, you really need to ask some questions.
Too many people are living the life that others expect of them, rather than the one they want.
Its time to stop and make a change. Start being the driving force in your own life, take the wheel and rather than people being offended because you dont meet their standards, they will quickly learn that you are not going to be manipulated and then they will adapt and respect you more. If any friend leaves you because you are who you want to be, then they probably weren't much of a friend...
anyway, I'm waffling...but I'm sure there is some truth in there...
Dont you understand that McDonalds is responsible for making people fat as well?
They drag people out of their homes and cars, kicking and screaming, and they force their mouths open and shove the food in. The person is held at gun-point until they have consumed every last piece...
or not.
People always like to blame other things or other people for their own weaknesses and failings. This seems to be one of those times.
sorry, I started off with sarcasm but got carried away and put some half serious content in there...sorry if you didn't pick up the transition. should've made that clearer.
The 1st line was mere sarcasm, the 2nd was tongue in cheek, and the 3rd was an exaggeration...
To paraphrase, you feel that the copyright owner should _not_ get a say in what you do with _their_ code?
If you didn't write it, why do you feel entitled to distribute it under your own terms?
(btw, you can do what you like with GPL code, as the restrictions only apply when you want to distribute it, not simply use it).
So I'm not following your argument. For code you write, you can choose whatever license you want. And for code other people write, they can do the same.
If the copyright owner was really "happy with" you releasing their GPL'd code under your own terms, dont you think they would've used a different license?
The mere fact that the GPL disallows this would contradict your argument. If someone licenses their work under the GPL, it is likely intentional, and that intention is to NOT allow any derivative works except on the GPL's terms.
If you want to release something on your own terms, then either write your own code, or use code that is licensed under a more suitable (for you) license.
At the end of the day if you do _really_ want to create a derivative work of a GPL'd project, but want to release it under your own terms, then contact the copyright owner(s) and ask for permission. They may be willing to license it to you under a different license, on a one-off basis. If they are not willing to do this, then your problem is still back to the fact you want to use code that someone else wrote, against their wishes. This would seem unethical to me.
Apple invented a document stamping machine a while back which can take a stack of patent request forms and stamp "approved" on them.
I doubt it. The PTO itself has prior art on that.
true, but do you think they'd discover this?
Prior art is what the opponent shows the judge during a court case. The PTO dont have time to look for such silly stuff...
It seems to be the courts, and not the PTO that determine the validity of patents these days...and even then it depends on what mood the judge is in at the time.
Eclipse is not a bad tool. I can see why some would describe it as clunky, but really it is a decent tool for developing apps. It even does some of the coding for you.
I've tried XCode 4 and it crashed the first time I used it. I compiled the sample app and thought - cool...now what?
With eclipse and ADT I was able to create a fairly simply app in a day (with DB backend and search etc). Maybe I could've done the same with iOS, but the motivation wasn't there to learn objective C. I know C/C++, perl, python, and did not know java before developing for android...
I'm not saying that XCode is bad, since it obviously works for a lot of people.
However, Eclipse isn't too bad either. No one really cares that the UI isn't covered in lace and pretty flowers. It is perfectly functional and pretty easy to use. The GUI builder in ADT is now pretty good.
And java is pretty easy to learn if you're used to any modern programming language.
As for the other stuff, who cares if scammers repackage your stuff. They cant sign it with your key and it wont show up on the market under your account.
Then again, I'm only looking at it from the perspective of hobby developers looking to make some cash on the side. And I've done that - on Android.
I made thousands off a live wallpaper, in a couple of months. Just remember that for every article bashing Android there's a bunch of people laughing at how inaccurate it is. Just because the iTunes store is more successful, does not mean that Android Market is not successful at all.
Less successful yes, but you can still make good money from it:)
Flurry is a high-ranked choice for iOS developers, but not so popular among android developers.
That kind of upsets their metrics doesn't it...
Google provides fairly good metrics from android market (when the stats are working), meaning that many android developers dont normally add stuff like this.
contrast with apple who I'm told only really give basic numbers and less frequently, so iOS developers will turn to third parties for metric info.
It's a combination of non-GPU-accelerated interfaces on many Android devices and the fact that Android doesn't provide as robust or helpful a GUI API (transitions, effects, widgets, events, GUI management in general) as iOS.
It simply takes more work to make an app look good on Android, and even then it'll still "feel" worse because everything's being rendered in the CPU.
not true. Even on older devices not "everything" is being rendered in the CPU. transition animations in particular have always been hardware accelerated.
Further, in Android 3.x (honeycomb) apps could specify a flag to have all rendering hardware accelerated.
In Android 4.x (ICS) this flag is on by default.
However, iOS is undoubtedly smoother when it comes to animations, so maybe their use of OpenGL is just plain better, I dunno. I'm an android user so I dont have much experience beyond someone occasionally showing me something on an iphone...
bad analogy. When did you last receive an update for your TV?
The main problem I see is that you are only thinking about your situation and not realizing other people have different situations and have TVs that they can update.
Nope. I dont even own a TV. I sure have never heard of anyone updating their TV. Maybe you should apply your comment to yourself? What would an update to a TV even do?
This isn't about phones burning out. Its about people being upset that their phone cannot do something that the next model can do, despite that it couldn't do it when they bought it and no expectation was given that it should.
The only person I see that has any emotion here is you. Most people I know expect that a company supports their products after the sale. You call those people idiots. With Apple it is about 2 years worth of patches and sometimes new functionality. With Android the experience is not consistent with some models having great support and other models (sometimes from the same manufacturer) with almost no support.
Most people are barely aware of what a smartphone is. They know of the iPhone, and probably that you can get these HTC or samsung phones that do similar things, but most of these people are coming from "dumb" phones and there is certainly no expectation of a company supporting the phone after the sale, besides warranty. Apple is good in this regard, but my point is that it should not be expected, since there is only 1 phone manufacturer out of at least 10 that does what you're claiming is "expected". My point is that most people do NOT expect support in the form of updates.
Patching security holes is the only good reason for getting updates. but do you really think most users would care about that? most wouldn't even know what it was about.
Seriously, are you arguing that patching only matters if the end user knows the technical details of the bug and how it was fixed? Do you know the exact details of every patch applied to all your systems? Most users care that bugs are fixed; that's it.
In this case, you seem to try to twist their above average support of iOS users into a negative and then justify that with illogical reasoning. I suspect if Apple didn't provide that support, you would complain about it. There are many reasons to hate Apple; you don't have to make up new ones for no reason.
Wow, you're really defensive. Where did I mention anything bad about iOS? I didn't even mention iOS!
Find me a non IT person who even knows what a security hole is. or even what a bug is. Seriously, my wife has an iPhone and she only updates it when I get around to doing it for her. Unless the updates are being pushed onto the phone (via iTunes or OTA), most people (a) wouldn't bother to check for updates and (b) wouldn't know what to do if there were updates.
Ask any non-iPhone user if they have checked for updates recently. At least half (probably more) will respond with "how do I do that?".
This is a stupid argument. If everyone was like you're saying, then everyone would have an iPhone. but they dont. not even close. They will choose it based on what their friends/family have or recommend. I know this because I see it all the time. And being the IT person in the family I'm normally the one who is asked. I normally recommend the iPhone if someone wants "simple" or Android if someone wants "features/flexibility". Its never about updates. If you like your phone as is, what would you want an update to do?
Everyone gets a new phone every 2 years anyway...so if you get an update sometime along the way that's just a bonus.
bad analogy. When did you last receive an update for your TV?
This isn't about phones burning out. Its about people being upset that their phone cannot do something that the next model can do, despite that it couldn't do it when they bought it and no expectation was given that it should.
Patching security holes is the only good reason for getting updates. but do you really think most users would care about that? most wouldn't even know what it was about.
OSX/mac sales continue to rise...sure. I was even a contributing statistic, but sold the self-limiting piece of crap a month later. Windows can do so much more. Not to mention linux (my primary OS).
They must be up to at least 5% market share right now. Simply amazing...they'll be toppling Microsoft oh, around, say 2100? or was it 10 years after that?
Slashdot Mirror
It may still be relevant. My wife has an iphone and it only gets updated when I do it. I dont keep up to date with apple news and it doesn't get plugged into the pc for any reason other than to charge it, or update it, and even when charging, we dont use itunes except to specifically update the phone...
so basically there are probably many apple devices that are only patched when the user initiates it, and there are a lot of users that wouldn't know they were supposed to even check for updates. If they use itunes, then they'll see the update notifications (but at a couple hundred MB, many wont download it). It took a few goes for my pc to download it last time, since apple's servers are often slow (or at least its slow for me to download from them, on a 12Mbps link).
None of this is meant to be a criticism - since the problem is often worse for other platforms anyway. I'm just giving examples for why the iOS security holes may not disappear from the wild immediately after apple issues a patch.
why cant we have both?
ie. a curated software store and the ability to side-load apps after pressing a button which pops up a big fat warning message.
I think Google should at the very least install automated checking of apps, and preferably start manually testing apps and "approving" them.
Maybe another option would be to have all apps available, but those that have been tested have an icon next to them to show they are 'approved'.
er, duckduckgo is powered by bing, so not really a search engine at all. just an interface to another one.
I can only speak for myself but if I were to choose the GPL (and I haven't yet) for any of my projects, it would be intentional.
My default go to license is the BSD license...but I do have to say "each to their own".
If you really believe people only use the GPL as a default choice, then why not take up my suggestion and contact the copyright holders of whatever software you want to distribute a derivative of?...unless of course its the linux kernel and there are hundreds or even thousands of copyright holders...?
but for small projects I dont see too many developers objecting to another well-meaning and talented developer wanting to utilise their code.
Had you bought your iphone outright in australia, you would've spent almost the same over 2 years with a data plan as you would just going on a voice+data plan + free iphone. The difference is somewhere between $100 (over 2 years) and somewhere in the negatives (ie. cheaper to go on a plan).
pre-paid only works if you spend enough so that you can use your credit over a longer period, otherwise it expires after 30 days.
The carriers have thought of everything.
Even buying a $10 phone doesn't really advantage you when it comes to plans...you certainly wouldn't save more than $20 a month compared to a $50/$60 a month plan, which are the most common here.
$29 a month here will get you a 1yo smartphone on a 2 year contract. $50-$60 a month will usually get you a fairly recent smartphone on a 2 year contract, and normally with 6GB data and plenty of talk/text thrown in.
I did the sums when I bought my first smartphone - it was about $50 more over 2 years to just go on a plan rather than buy the phone outright, but way eaiser for cashflow.
I'm not sure what point you are making.
So you dont need a smartphone. Then dont buy one. No one is forcing you to.
Did I miss something?
I'm pretty sure no one is claiming that everyone needs a smart phone. Just like not everyone needs anything that isn't food, clothing and shelter.
So what you're really saying is that you do not WANT a smartphone. And what everyone else is saying is that they DO want one, and they find them useful.
Everyone wins - yay!
You can try to read a book. A real book. A fiction book. You will be surprised.
A smart phone can provide more than just entertainment. A fiction book? maybe, but any non-entertainment benefit would be secondary at best.
exactly...
if your life is made up of you doing many things you dont want to do...why?
I understand work commitment etc being part of that, but if in your leisure time you are not in control of what you do, you really need to ask some questions.
Too many people are living the life that others expect of them, rather than the one they want.
Its time to stop and make a change. Start being the driving force in your own life, take the wheel and rather than people being offended because you dont meet their standards, they will quickly learn that you are not going to be manipulated and then they will adapt and respect you more. If any friend leaves you because you are who you want to be, then they probably weren't much of a friend...
anyway, I'm waffling...but I'm sure there is some truth in there...
Dont you understand that McDonalds is responsible for making people fat as well?
They drag people out of their homes and cars, kicking and screaming, and they force their mouths open and shove the food in. The person is held at gun-point until they have consumed every last piece...
or not.
People always like to blame other things or other people for their own weaknesses and failings. This seems to be one of those times.
Here in Australia, $29 a month will get you a reasonable smart phone on a 2 year contract.
Not paying for a contract is almost always more expensive - even if you get a cheap phone.
I'm a bit disturbed by the logic in the summary though.
Saving money is a reasonable goal, but not if it negatively impacts your quality of life.
sorry, I started off with sarcasm but got carried away and put some half serious content in there...sorry if you didn't pick up the transition. should've made that clearer.
The 1st line was mere sarcasm, the 2nd was tongue in cheek, and the 3rd was an exaggeration ...
To paraphrase, you feel that the copyright owner should _not_ get a say in what you do with _their_ code?
If you didn't write it, why do you feel entitled to distribute it under your own terms?
(btw, you can do what you like with GPL code, as the restrictions only apply when you want to distribute it, not simply use it).
So I'm not following your argument. For code you write, you can choose whatever license you want. And for code other people write, they can do the same.
If the copyright owner was really "happy with" you releasing their GPL'd code under your own terms, dont you think they would've used a different license?
The mere fact that the GPL disallows this would contradict your argument. If someone licenses their work under the GPL, it is likely intentional, and that intention is to NOT allow any derivative works except on the GPL's terms.
If you want to release something on your own terms, then either write your own code, or use code that is licensed under a more suitable (for you) license.
At the end of the day if you do _really_ want to create a derivative work of a GPL'd project, but want to release it under your own terms, then contact the copyright owner(s) and ask for permission. They may be willing to license it to you under a different license, on a one-off basis. If they are not willing to do this, then your problem is still back to the fact you want to use code that someone else wrote, against their wishes. This would seem unethical to me.
Consumers dont always care who did it first...
or otherwise we'd all be driving fords...
Apple wont move to stop Google until Google has put a lot of effort into it and is making money from it.
You cant sue for damages if there aren't any damages.
There are a lot of people who avoid sony products, and for this reason.
Maybe, but eventually Apple will have enough enemies (as in, companies, not consumers) that they will eventually lose.
The consumers may not care about this, but it will affect Apple one way or another.
Apple invented a document stamping machine a while back which can take a stack of patent request forms and stamp "approved" on them.
I doubt it. The PTO itself has prior art on that.
true, but do you think they'd discover this?
Prior art is what the opponent shows the judge during a court case. The PTO dont have time to look for such silly stuff...
It seems to be the courts, and not the PTO that determine the validity of patents these days...and even then it depends on what mood the judge is in at the time.
Try 2 years ago. It got updated about 6 months ago.
It works. And its easy. It doesn't have to be the best, in order to be useful.
All I got from XCode was crashes. each to their own i guess.
Wow, it must be real dark and uncomfortable living under that rock.
ADT (eclipse plugin for android dev) has had a WYSIWYG editor for a long time now. Its looking pretty good these days.
Eclipse is not a bad tool. I can see why some would describe it as clunky, but really it is a decent tool for developing apps. It even does some of the coding for you.
I've tried XCode 4 and it crashed the first time I used it. I compiled the sample app and thought - cool...now what?
With eclipse and ADT I was able to create a fairly simply app in a day (with DB backend and search etc). Maybe I could've done the same with iOS, but the motivation wasn't there to learn objective C. I know C/C++, perl, python, and did not know java before developing for android...
I'm not saying that XCode is bad, since it obviously works for a lot of people.
However, Eclipse isn't too bad either. No one really cares that the UI isn't covered in lace and pretty flowers. It is perfectly functional and pretty easy to use. The GUI builder in ADT is now pretty good.
And java is pretty easy to learn if you're used to any modern programming language.
As for the other stuff, who cares if scammers repackage your stuff. They cant sign it with your key and it wont show up on the market under your account.
Then again, I'm only looking at it from the perspective of hobby developers looking to make some cash on the side. And I've done that - on Android.
I made thousands off a live wallpaper, in a couple of months. Just remember that for every article bashing Android there's a bunch of people laughing at how inaccurate it is. Just because the iTunes store is more successful, does not mean that Android Market is not successful at all.
Less successful yes, but you can still make good money from it :)
Flurry is a high-ranked choice for iOS developers, but not so popular among android developers.
That kind of upsets their metrics doesn't it...
Google provides fairly good metrics from android market (when the stats are working), meaning that many android developers dont normally add stuff like this.
contrast with apple who I'm told only really give basic numbers and less frequently, so iOS developers will turn to third parties for metric info.
It's a combination of non-GPU-accelerated interfaces on many Android devices and the fact that Android doesn't provide as robust or helpful a GUI API (transitions, effects, widgets, events, GUI management in general) as iOS.
It simply takes more work to make an app look good on Android, and even then it'll still "feel" worse because everything's being rendered in the CPU.
not true. Even on older devices not "everything" is being rendered in the CPU. transition animations in particular have always been hardware accelerated.
https://plus.google.com/105051985738280261832/posts/2FXDCz8x93s
Further, in Android 3.x (honeycomb) apps could specify a flag to have all rendering hardware accelerated.
In Android 4.x (ICS) this flag is on by default.
However, iOS is undoubtedly smoother when it comes to animations, so maybe their use of OpenGL is just plain better, I dunno. I'm an android user so I dont have much experience beyond someone occasionally showing me something on an iphone...
bad analogy. When did you last receive an update for your TV?
The main problem I see is that you are only thinking about your situation and not realizing other people have different situations and have TVs that they can update.
Nope. I dont even own a TV. I sure have never heard of anyone updating their TV. Maybe you should apply your comment to yourself? What would an update to a TV even do?
This isn't about phones burning out. Its about people being upset that their phone cannot do something that the next model can do, despite that it couldn't do it when they bought it and no expectation was given that it should.
The only person I see that has any emotion here is you. Most people I know expect that a company supports their products after the sale. You call those people idiots. With Apple it is about 2 years worth of patches and sometimes new functionality. With Android the experience is not consistent with some models having great support and other models (sometimes from the same manufacturer) with almost no support.
Most people are barely aware of what a smartphone is. They know of the iPhone, and probably that you can get these HTC or samsung phones that do similar things, but most of these people are coming from "dumb" phones and there is certainly no expectation of a company supporting the phone after the sale, besides warranty. Apple is good in this regard, but my point is that it should not be expected, since there is only 1 phone manufacturer out of at least 10 that does what you're claiming is "expected". My point is that most people do NOT expect support in the form of updates.
Patching security holes is the only good reason for getting updates. but do you really think most users would care about that? most wouldn't even know what it was about.
Seriously, are you arguing that patching only matters if the end user knows the technical details of the bug and how it was fixed? Do you know the exact details of every patch applied to all your systems? Most users care that bugs are fixed; that's it.
In this case, you seem to try to twist their above average support of iOS users into a negative and then justify that with illogical reasoning. I suspect if Apple didn't provide that support, you would complain about it. There are many reasons to hate Apple; you don't have to make up new ones for no reason.
Wow, you're really defensive. Where did I mention anything bad about iOS? I didn't even mention iOS!
Find me a non IT person who even knows what a security hole is. or even what a bug is. Seriously, my wife has an iPhone and she only updates it when I get around to doing it for her. Unless the updates are being pushed onto the phone (via iTunes or OTA), most people (a) wouldn't bother to check for updates and (b) wouldn't know what to do if there were updates.
Ask any non-iPhone user if they have checked for updates recently. At least half (probably more) will respond with "how do I do that?".
This is a stupid argument. If everyone was like you're saying, then everyone would have an iPhone. but they dont. not even close. They will choose it based on what their friends/family have or recommend. I know this because I see it all the time. And being the IT person in the family I'm normally the one who is asked. I normally recommend the iPhone if someone wants "simple" or Android if someone wants "features/flexibility". Its never about updates. If you like your phone as is, what would you want an update to do?
Everyone gets a new phone every 2 years anyway...so if you get an update sometime along the way that's just a bonus.
bad analogy. When did you last receive an update for your TV?
This isn't about phones burning out. Its about people being upset that their phone cannot do something that the next model can do, despite that it couldn't do it when they bought it and no expectation was given that it should.
Patching security holes is the only good reason for getting updates. but do you really think most users would care about that? most wouldn't even know what it was about.
Your username appears to be working for you :P
yeah right, take the blinkers off.
OSX/mac sales continue to rise...sure. I was even a contributing statistic, but sold the self-limiting piece of crap a month later. Windows can do so much more. Not to mention linux (my primary OS).
They must be up to at least 5% market share right now. Simply amazing...they'll be toppling Microsoft oh, around, say 2100? or was it 10 years after that?
Microsoft should be _really_ worried...not!