Yeah, the memory limitations of the trio and other smartphones are one of the big things keeping me from getting one, but they DO support 3G and the iPhone doesn't.
The dynamics of the market for music players when the ipod was released is a LOT different than the current market for phones - you can't really compare the two. Lack of 3G, expandability, high price point and lack carrier choice are major issues that will hurt this phone.
Initially, I was thrilled. This phone is cool. Price isn't a huge factor, but I thought it was a little high to also require a 2 year agreement. Then I found it doesn't support 3G. And Cingular only, which doesn't have good coverage here. Then I started thinking that it will be difficult to use one-handed (get your minds out of the gutter) such as carrying a briefcase / bag. I also started wondering how open application development will be, and wondering how well email attachments are supported. Can I view a simple spreadsheet / word doc at all? Then I started thinking that 8G isn't enough - and there doesn't seem to be any slots. Is there a GPS chip to make google maps really cool / useful? Can I run a VoIP / SIP client on it when I'm in WiFi range? I also started thinking about the screen, and the actual XY pixel count isn't that great (it's awesome for an ipod, but not really any different compared to other smartphones.)
So I went from "buy one instantly" to "wait and see."
Back around 1998 or so, I remember getting an email from some wanker who claimed he trademarked the letter i in front of everything, and wanted big $$$ from us. Our company at the time had a domain name that began with "I", but the company name was longer. We just ignored the idiot and never heard from him again.
Frankly, I don't see why Apple is so hot for the iPhone name. ApplePhone is just fine. Everyone knows that Cisco was going to be a pit bull over this, so it should be no surprise. On the other hand, Cisco damn well knew that the iphone name fit apple better and that apple was going to market a phone. They were just being a bunch of pricks to release their iPhone's a few weeks before Macworld where they knew Apple was going to release it's phone. I'm sure they wanted to gouge Apple big time and were just asking way too much for the name.
I think this is important... You can ask questions like "Tell me about yourself" but it would be dangerous to ask "Tell me about your family / are you married" etc. One way of finding out about some of the "don't ask" questions is to volunteer your own info in an informal conversation, and see if that prompts them into releasing theirs on their own accord.
But in general, giving feed back is not a good idea due to the potential liability you mentioned. If you feel you must say something, keep it generic like: "we are not going to extend an employment offer to you at this time but will keep your resume on file for possible future positions." If they ask why, it's best to have something ready like: "Company policy prohibits us from discussing internal decisions and deliberations with people outside the company" (assuming that you have a company policy of course.)
The ATV ONLY supports HD, so unless you already have an HD set, you can't use it.
Here is Apple's market: People who buy music and Video on ITunes, and want to watch it on their TV / home theater setup. That's it. Personally, I think this is very short sighted, and that the device really should support DVR functionality (TV in) and standard def TV too. TV in can be added via the USB port, but since there is only one it seems like expansion is limited (yeah, you can add a hub but that is non-optimal.)
That's correct. What they want is a mac mini with video capture. What I would use the AppleTV for is for my second or third TV to get content off my main media system. BUT, AppleTV doesn't support svideo / composite, and my secondary and tertiary TV's are not HD, so it fails. Yes, converters do exist to convert component to svideo, but they cost a fortune.
I guess I don't understand the market for this device.
Re:With the introduction of AppleTV...
on
The Home Server Cometh
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
Yeah - I also like the idea of the appleTV but think that they missed the boat by not including at least a tuner or svideo input. Also, the HD output ONLY is a mistake too IMHO. If you have an HDTV, you are going to want more (and can spend a little more) than the appleTV can do. The fact that it doesn't have composite or svideo out either means that the low-end market in which this product fits better, is unserved.
Yes it is far fetched. Unlike the world of Windows, there is no monoculture in VoIP. In fact, it's a big jumble of crap right now, with many different competing protocols. With the sole exception of the abortion that is skype (being closed-source, closed protocol, encrypted PTP) you NEVER know what your victim will have for service / equipment. If they have vonage, what phone do they have? Probably just an ATA with a standard phone hooked up, and even then it can be one of 18 different models.
The only way you can do any kind of attack like the FUDish author claims is if you know exactly what your target uses for equipment / service / protocols / etc. Many IP phones don't even have a way of updating the local phonebook via any kind of network protocol, and there are what, 200 different softphones already???
About the only thing VoIP is vulnerable to at this point is voice-spam, and even THAT is a challenge to pull off.
Oh yeah - one more thing - who does the author of this article work for? Hmm. Panda. What do they do? Antivirus and security software. Self serving FUD is what this is.
Don't worry, this article is mostly FUD. For one, it assumes that all phones will be vulnerable to the same flaws. They won't - they run MANY different code bases. There is no mono-culture in VoIP like there is with desktop operating systems (well, except for the Skype example - I don't use skype anyway due to the closed/proprietary nature of it.) It also assumes that any security flaws won't be fixed or addressed. Anyone that deals with IP phones knows that new firmware comes out every few months. If you have a Vonage-like VoIP service, new firmware can be pushed out to you automagically. Lastly, I expect that VoIP proxies will becomes a standard feature in SOHO routers in the not-too-distant future to deal with multiple NATed phones and other issues. Probably something like a light version of SER. Expect them to be able to filter crap out like modern firewalls / web proxies do.
That is a good point - while I'm not personally a fan of Exchange, when comparing solutions you need to compare modern releases of software.
Frankly, I don't believe that most companies "need" a full Exchange solution. Most just want email and shared calenders. While there are some quasi open source alternatives out there, they usually do not have the simplicity of Exchange, and are missing the powerful client. Our company does not use Exchange, and we manage to function just fine without it.
Keep in mind that Exchange just got a whole lot more expensive for people not current with "Software Assurance" as the Outlook license is no longer included in the Exchange CAL's (What, you didn't think that MS wasn't going to lock you in and raise prices?)
The 4th solution is to get a $8 / month vserver hosting account and just run your own mail server there. Probably not much more expensive than the electricity costs for a home server. No worries about power going out, backups, etc. since the hosting company does everything for you.
I can tell you that most of the people that I have been around are already looking into upgrading.
Yep - pilot projects, and figuring out just how broken their enterprise applications will be. This year will be about figuring out the scope to fit into the next several years budgets. It will also be figuring out just exactly what Vista will do for them. Again, while there are a lot of little things that are better, there is no major compelling reason to upgrade. The cost is huge (it has nothing to do with license cost, and everything to do with deployment costs.) It's going to be a big deal, and I expect the move to Vista will be over at LEAST a 6 year schedule for most companies, with virtually no real activity until Vista stabilizes and proves itself. The drivers won't be the new features of Vista, it's the EOL schedule for 2000 and XP, and new needed applications that will only run on Vista.
But there is less different than there was between NT and 2000.
Well, yah. BUT, NT on the desktop was a rare thing. It was win 9x to 2000 for the most part, and there were major reasons to move from NT and 9X which were horrible from a security and stability standpoint, to 2000. Such is not the case today. If it wasn't for EOLing 2000, people wouldn't be still actively moving to XP.
New Corporate machines generally don't have any OS installed at all since under the volume agreements you use your corp licenses / media. That, and machines are imaged anyway, pre-loading all your apps. This fact makes the rest of your post moot.
Companies will upgrade, roughly, with their hardware refreshes
Yes and no. As anyone working in a larger environment knows, it can be a nightmare to support multiple versions of the OS over a long period of time. Many businesses are still running 2000 on brand new machines for this reason. For tax reasons, many refreshes (in the US) are on a 3 year cycle, 33% per year (after that, you lose depreciation and the old systems start costing you a LOT, and it's way too much work to do them all at once.)
there isn't going to be a rush, but they will upgrade much faster than "having" to have Vista.
Why? What would be the justification? From an enterprise standpoint, there are is nothing really compelling about Vista, and a lot to be concerned about. I really don't expect there to be any urgency at all. What enterprise applications is Vista going to be able to run that XP can't? Considering that there are many reports of enterprise applications having problems with Vista and the new activation crap, I would expect the speed of upgrades to be slower than 2000 to XP.
Companies have also learned a TON about OS deployments since 2000 -> XP, so I would imagine the upgrade path will be a bit quicker and easier.
You would think so, but Vista is far more different from XP than XP was to 2000. XP is mostly just GUI changes. Vista changed a lot in the core. My guess is that it will be more difficult.
Outside of pilot projects to test the waters which most larger businesses should do, no competent CIO is going to do large scale deployments of anything from MS until it has been out in the market for a while and the kinks are worked out - sp1 or later. How can anyone be surprised about this? It sure as hell isn't news.
Frankly, I don't know why the consumer version wasn't out first. Let the general public (which is mostly clueless anyway) be the guinea pigs on their brand new Christmas machines. Then we will see just how bad the new flavors of activation / GA / DRM crap is to the average person. Why did MS think that businesses want to be the guinea pigs? Has the entire executive team at MS lost it?
Yeah, but most of them don't have powerful weapons, and live such a meager existence that they can't afford to buy or create them (not that they have the freedom to do either anyway...) Tell ya what, if you think it's easy, go over there and start spreading dissent and see how long it takes before you picked up, tortured, and thrown in prison to rot for the rest of your short life. Better yet, take you family along with, so you can watch your daughter and wife get raped and tortured because of what you did.
Oh wait, you were trying to be funny. Yeah, people living under those conditions is a hoot isn't it?
No, It means that your statement was so insanely stupid that there is no point wasting my time trying to educate you, and is why you were moderated down. Maybe some day you will figure it out, but I doubt it.
Most Apple fans are more than happy to give them $129 every year or so to upgrade.
They do seem to be on a two year cycle. Tiger was March 05, Leopard will be sometime this spring. With the $199 5-system family pack, the 4 macs in the house cost $25 / year each to keep updated. That's pretty damn reasonable. How many people that are on/. only have one computer? Heck, most of the non-computer field people I know have more than one.
I believe the company that manufactured that disk disagrees with you.
They do? Then where can I find a copy of this license agreement? It's not provided with my DVD's. In fact, the only legal language on the disk tells me that federal law prohibits me from making unauthorized reproductions. There certainly was no signed contract of any kind, or even a "shrink-wrap license".
You might not realize this but but your statement doesn't do anything to clarify what you own -- Do you actually own the disk? Yes.
Can that ownership be revoked? No.
Are you entitled to a copy of the disk if that disk is damaged or destroyed? In most cases I can return the original to get it replaced, but this has nothing to do with any kind of fictitious license. If I buy a product that is defective, I am entitled to replacement. If I break it myself, I'm not.
Do you own the contents of that disk? Absolutely. I own the bits that are on that disk. I don't own the bits on the original copy or any other copy , but the bits that exist on that disk are mine and mine alone. Much like if I buy a book, the ink on the paper is mine too.
Are you licensed to watch the contents of that disk? Are you no longer a licensed viewer of the contents of that disk when that disk is no longer viewable (destroyed/damaged)? Are you licensed to show the contents of that disk to non-licensed viewers? Can you charge non-licensed viewers for the privilege of viewing the contents of that disk? Can you derive profit from displaying ads from showing the contents of that disk? There is no license, so most of your questions are meaningless. As for public display of the movie, that is protected under copyright law and has nothing to do with any fictitious license.
Can you copy the contents of that disk? Can you copy and change the format of the contents of that disk? That depends on your interpretation of Fair Use. Some say yes, others say no, but that is irrelevant.
Can you destroy that disk? Can you resell that disk? Yes, and Yes.
Can you resell that disk after having made personal copies of that disk? Sure, but then I would be in violation of copyright law, not some license.
Can you copy portions of that disk to create derivative works? Can you distribute dirivative works from that disk? Can you charge people to watch works created from derivative works from that disk?
It's VERY clear that you have "license agreement" and "copyright law" mixed up. I suggest you educate yourself on the difference.
By the way... you're an idiot. Think harder in the future. Thanks.
Heh! Anonymous Coward Pot, meet the Kettle. I can see why you decided to post anonymously. Did you do that because you have mod points and wanted to mod yourself up? Hmm....
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah, the memory limitations of the trio and other smartphones are one of the big things keeping me from getting one, but they DO support 3G and the iPhone doesn't.
The dynamics of the market for music players when the ipod was released is a LOT different than the current market for phones - you can't really compare the two. Lack of 3G, expandability, high price point and lack carrier choice are major issues that will hurt this phone.
Initially, I was thrilled. This phone is cool. Price isn't a huge factor, but I thought it was a little high to also require a 2 year agreement. Then I found it doesn't support 3G. And Cingular only, which doesn't have good coverage here. Then I started thinking that it will be difficult to use one-handed (get your minds out of the gutter) such as carrying a briefcase / bag. I also started wondering how open application development will be, and wondering how well email attachments are supported. Can I view a simple spreadsheet / word doc at all? Then I started thinking that 8G isn't enough - and there doesn't seem to be any slots. Is there a GPS chip to make google maps really cool / useful? Can I run a VoIP / SIP client on it when I'm in WiFi range? I also started thinking about the screen, and the actual XY pixel count isn't that great (it's awesome for an ipod, but not really any different compared to other smartphones.)
So I went from "buy one instantly" to "wait and see."
Back around 1998 or so, I remember getting an email from some wanker who claimed he trademarked the letter i in front of everything, and wanted big $$$ from us. Our company at the time had a domain name that began with "I", but the company name was longer. We just ignored the idiot and never heard from him again.
Frankly, I don't see why Apple is so hot for the iPhone name. ApplePhone is just fine. Everyone knows that Cisco was going to be a pit bull over this, so it should be no surprise. On the other hand, Cisco damn well knew that the iphone name fit apple better and that apple was going to market a phone. They were just being a bunch of pricks to release their iPhone's a few weeks before Macworld where they knew Apple was going to release it's phone. I'm sure they wanted to gouge Apple big time and were just asking way too much for the name.
I think this is important... You can ask questions like "Tell me about yourself" but it would be dangerous to ask "Tell me about your family / are you married" etc. One way of finding out about some of the "don't ask" questions is to volunteer your own info in an informal conversation, and see if that prompts them into releasing theirs on their own accord.
But in general, giving feed back is not a good idea due to the potential liability you mentioned. If you feel you must say something, keep it generic like: "we are not going to extend an employment offer to you at this time but will keep your resume on file for possible future positions." If they ask why, it's best to have something ready like: "Company policy prohibits us from discussing internal decisions and deliberations with people outside the company" (assuming that you have a company policy of course.)
No, it doesn't. Look at the specs. It has component and HDMI ONLY.
I don't care about HD right now
The ATV ONLY supports HD, so unless you already have an HD set, you can't use it.
Here is Apple's market: People who buy music and Video on ITunes, and want to watch it on their TV / home theater setup. That's it. Personally, I think this is very short sighted, and that the device really should support DVR functionality (TV in) and standard def TV too.
TV in can be added via the USB port, but since there is only one it seems like expansion is limited (yeah, you can add a hub but that is non-optimal.)
That's correct. What they want is a mac mini with video capture. What I would use the AppleTV for is for my second or third TV to get content off my main media system. BUT, AppleTV doesn't support svideo / composite, and my secondary and tertiary TV's are not HD, so it fails. Yes, converters do exist to convert component to svideo, but they cost a fortune.
I guess I don't understand the market for this device.
Yeah - I also like the idea of the appleTV but think that they missed the boat by not including at least a tuner or svideo input. Also, the HD output ONLY is a mistake too IMHO. If you have an HDTV, you are going to want more (and can spend a little more) than the appleTV can do. The fact that it doesn't have composite or svideo out either means that the low-end market in which this product fits better, is unserved.
I pity those without a Scottish education.
Yeah, because no other educational institution in the world has any kind of sex-ed...
WTF?
Yes it is far fetched. Unlike the world of Windows, there is no monoculture in VoIP. In fact, it's a big jumble of crap right now, with many different competing protocols. With the sole exception of the abortion that is skype (being closed-source, closed protocol, encrypted PTP) you NEVER know what your victim will have for service / equipment. If they have vonage, what phone do they have? Probably just an ATA with a standard phone hooked up, and even then it can be one of 18 different models.
The only way you can do any kind of attack like the FUDish author claims is if you know exactly what your target uses for equipment / service / protocols / etc. Many IP phones don't even have a way of updating the local phonebook via any kind of network protocol, and there are what, 200 different softphones already???
About the only thing VoIP is vulnerable to at this point is voice-spam, and even THAT is a challenge to pull off.
Oh yeah - one more thing - who does the author of this article work for? Hmm. Panda. What do they do? Antivirus and security software. Self serving FUD is what this is.
Don't worry, this article is mostly FUD. For one, it assumes that all phones will be vulnerable to the same flaws. They won't - they run MANY different code bases. There is no mono-culture in VoIP like there is with desktop operating systems (well, except for the Skype example - I don't use skype anyway due to the closed/proprietary nature of it.) It also assumes that any security flaws won't be fixed or addressed. Anyone that deals with IP phones knows that new firmware comes out every few months. If you have a Vonage-like VoIP service, new firmware can be pushed out to you automagically. Lastly, I expect that VoIP proxies will becomes a standard feature in SOHO routers in the not-too-distant future to deal with multiple NATed phones and other issues. Probably something like a light version of SER. Expect them to be able to filter crap out like modern firewalls / web proxies do.
That is a good point - while I'm not personally a fan of Exchange, when comparing solutions you need to compare modern releases of software.
Frankly, I don't believe that most companies "need" a full Exchange solution. Most just want email and shared calenders. While there are some quasi open source alternatives out there, they usually do not have the simplicity of Exchange, and are missing the powerful client. Our company does not use Exchange, and we manage to function just fine without it.
Keep in mind that Exchange just got a whole lot more expensive for people not current with "Software Assurance" as the Outlook license is no longer included in the Exchange CAL's (What, you didn't think that MS wasn't going to lock you in and raise prices?)
That whooshing sound is the joke flying over your head...
The 4th solution is to get a $8 / month vserver hosting account and just run your own mail server there. Probably not much more expensive than the electricity costs for a home server. No worries about power going out, backups, etc. since the hosting company does everything for you.
I can tell you that most of the people that I have been around are already looking into upgrading.
Yep - pilot projects, and figuring out just how broken their enterprise applications will be. This year will be about figuring out the scope to fit into the next several years budgets. It will also be figuring out just exactly what Vista will do for them. Again, while there are a lot of little things that are better, there is no major compelling reason to upgrade. The cost is huge (it has nothing to do with license cost, and everything to do with deployment costs.) It's going to be a big deal, and I expect the move to Vista will be over at LEAST a 6 year schedule for most companies, with virtually no real activity until Vista stabilizes and proves itself. The drivers won't be the new features of Vista, it's the EOL schedule for 2000 and XP, and new needed applications that will only run on Vista.
But there is less different than there was between NT and 2000.
Well, yah. BUT, NT on the desktop was a rare thing. It was win 9x to 2000 for the most part, and there were major reasons to move from NT and 9X which were horrible from a security and stability standpoint, to 2000. Such is not the case today. If it wasn't for EOLing 2000, people wouldn't be still actively moving to XP.
New Corporate machines generally don't have any OS installed at all since under the volume agreements you use your corp licenses / media. That, and machines are imaged anyway, pre-loading all your apps. This fact makes the rest of your post moot.
Companies will upgrade, roughly, with their hardware refreshes
Yes and no. As anyone working in a larger environment knows, it can be a nightmare to support multiple versions of the OS over a long period of time. Many businesses are still running 2000 on brand new machines for this reason. For tax reasons, many refreshes (in the US) are on a 3 year cycle, 33% per year (after that, you lose depreciation and the old systems start costing you a LOT, and it's way too much work to do them all at once.)
there isn't going to be a rush, but they will upgrade much faster than "having" to have Vista.
Why? What would be the justification? From an enterprise standpoint, there are is nothing really compelling about Vista, and a lot to be concerned about. I really don't expect there to be any urgency at all. What enterprise applications is Vista going to be able to run that XP can't? Considering that there are many reports of enterprise applications having problems with Vista and the new activation crap, I would expect the speed of upgrades to be slower than 2000 to XP.
Companies have also learned a TON about OS deployments since 2000 -> XP, so I would imagine the upgrade path will be a bit quicker and easier.
You would think so, but Vista is far more different from XP than XP was to 2000. XP is mostly just GUI changes. Vista changed a lot in the core. My guess is that it will be more difficult.
Outside of pilot projects to test the waters which most larger businesses should do, no competent CIO is going to do large scale deployments of anything from MS until it has been out in the market for a while and the kinks are worked out - sp1 or later. How can anyone be surprised about this? It sure as hell isn't news.
Frankly, I don't know why the consumer version wasn't out first. Let the general public (which is mostly clueless anyway) be the guinea pigs on their brand new Christmas machines. Then we will see just how bad the new flavors of activation / GA / DRM crap is to the average person.
Why did MS think that businesses want to be the guinea pigs? Has the entire executive team at MS lost it?
Yeah, but most of them don't have powerful weapons, and live such a meager existence that they can't afford to buy or create them (not that they have the freedom to do either anyway...) Tell ya what, if you think it's easy, go over there and start spreading dissent and see how long it takes before you picked up, tortured, and thrown in prison to rot for the rest of your short life. Better yet, take you family along with, so you can watch your daughter and wife get raped and tortured because of what you did.
Oh wait, you were trying to be funny. Yeah, people living under those conditions is a hoot isn't it?
No, It means that your statement was so insanely stupid that there is no point wasting my time trying to educate you, and is why you were moderated down. Maybe some day you will figure it out, but I doubt it.
Most Apple fans are more than happy to give them $129 every year or so to upgrade.
/. only have one computer? Heck, most of the non-computer field people I know have more than one.
They do seem to be on a two year cycle. Tiger was March 05, Leopard will be sometime this spring. With the $199 5-system family pack, the 4 macs in the house cost $25 / year each to keep updated. That's pretty damn reasonable. How many people that are on
I believe the company that manufactured that disk disagrees with you.
They do? Then where can I find a copy of this license agreement? It's not provided with my DVD's. In fact, the only legal language on the disk tells me that federal law prohibits me from making unauthorized reproductions. There certainly was no signed contract of any kind, or even a "shrink-wrap license".
You might not realize this but but your statement doesn't do anything to clarify what you own -- Do you actually own the disk?
Yes.
Can that ownership be revoked?
No.
Are you entitled to a copy of the disk if that disk is damaged or destroyed?
In most cases I can return the original to get it replaced, but this has nothing to do with any kind of fictitious license. If I buy a product that is defective, I am entitled to replacement. If I break it myself, I'm not.
Do you own the contents of that disk?
Absolutely. I own the bits that are on that disk. I don't own the bits on the original copy or any other copy , but the bits that exist on that disk are mine and mine alone. Much like if I buy a book, the ink on the paper is mine too.
Are you licensed to watch the contents of that disk? Are you no longer a licensed viewer of the contents of that disk when that disk is no longer viewable (destroyed/damaged)? Are you licensed to show the contents of that disk to non-licensed viewers? Can you charge non-licensed viewers for the privilege of viewing the contents of that disk? Can you derive profit from displaying ads from showing the contents of that disk?
There is no license, so most of your questions are meaningless. As for public display of the movie, that is protected under copyright law and has nothing to do with any fictitious license.
Can you copy the contents of that disk? Can you copy and change the format of the contents of that disk?
That depends on your interpretation of Fair Use. Some say yes, others say no, but that is irrelevant.
Can you destroy that disk? Can you resell that disk?
Yes, and Yes.
Can you resell that disk after having made personal copies of that disk?
Sure, but then I would be in violation of copyright law, not some license.
Can you copy portions of that disk to create derivative works? Can you distribute dirivative works from that disk? Can you charge people to watch works created from derivative works from that disk?
It's VERY clear that you have "license agreement" and "copyright law" mixed up. I suggest you educate yourself on the difference.
By the way... you're an idiot. Think harder in the future. Thanks.
Heh! Anonymous Coward Pot, meet the Kettle. I can see why you decided to post anonymously. Did you do that because you have mod points and wanted to mod yourself up? Hmm....
My Xerox 19's take 38W each, and my IBM is 37W. With his IP phone numbers which are 3X too high, I'm starting to believe his meter is borked.