Does that mean Apple had no competition too? Then why did it almost die? What alternatives to Apple machines did people buy? Or did would-be Apple customers all turn into Luddites and stopped buying computers?
>For example, when you want to search for “dishwashers” on Amazon you can just enter “Dishwashers” in the Dash and a small line of “suggested items” from Amazon will appear.
>The same happens when you search for a local file or app from the Home Lens.
>So yes, you can expect to see self-help guides on compassion when trying to launch Empathy.
>‘More Suggestions’ is a strange turn of phrase; most people don’t tend to expect product suggestions when looking for their e-mail app. But I can cede that it’s a far better name than that used in development: ‘treat yourself’
Showing ads when you search locally seems a tad much and a waste of system resources. Isn't this equivalent to showing shopping ads based on keyword searches in Spotlight and the Windows Start menu?
Just realized that I sometimes type keywords to find local files matching filenames and content that's personal in nature. Does this mean all those keywords are sent to Amazon and perhaps data mined to show personalized results?
Showing latest available data. Rank Countries Amount
# 1 Nigeria: 7,145 US visa lottery winners
# 2 Ghana: 7,040 US visa lottery winners
# 3 Ethiopia: 6,353 US visa lottery winners
# 4 Kenya: 5,721 US visa lottery winners
# 5 Poland: 5,467 US visa lottery winners
# 6 Bangladesh: 5,126 US visa lottery winners
# 7 Morocco: 5,069 US visa lottery winners
# 8 Ukraine: 4,494 US visa lottery winners
# 9 Nepal: 4,259 US visa lottery winners
# 10 Egypt: 4,189 US visa lottery winners
No, the point is that everyone is suing everyone else. It's a clusterfuck of a mess and everyone is at it in one way or another. Wether you value a certain companies motivation higher than another is entirely irrelevant
No, everyone is not suing everyone else. Samsung is not suing Motorola or HTC or Nokia or RIM. HTC is not suing Samsung, or Motorola or RIM. RIM is not suing almost anyone(except they recently got hit by Nokia).
The point is that if a company chooses to sue another company, they cannot play the victim if they company they sued throws the book back at them. Apple started this particular fight by suing Android makers like Samsung, HTC, etc. If they hadn't, you think Samsung, HTC and Google would've taken Apple to court? It's possible but I highly doubt it.
Ok, I really meant to say successfully banned a few devices from one maker. None of those other things went anywhere.
Wait, so did Googorola successfully ban all Macs, iPhones and iPads according to the RTFA which is why you are getting so riled up about Google?
Not to mention that many of those Apple requests for injunctions are still pending and awaiting trials/judgements.
But that's being pedantic; fine, I'll say Apple is is attempting to ban every Android device form shipping just to make things easy.
So then, that puts them on parity with Google's level of evil.
Now can we complain about BOTH companies equally please an the patent law itself that enables this?
Sorry, no. Before Apple started suing the Android OEMs, there was a detente among them. Apple shot first, breaking the de facto peace between themselves and HTC/Samsung/Motorola.
If Microsoft sued Apple tomorrow over a kernel patent over iOS/OS X and Apple sued them back with 100 patents to retaliate because they think they might lose, you think they BOTH MS and Apple deserve equal blame because "the patent law itself enables this"?
I just think it's bullshit to complain about Apple's abuse of patents because they seek to ban SOME devices from ONE manufacturer, while Google seeks to prevent the sale of EVERY Apple computer and iOS device.
I was expecting more knowledge and intelligence from a prolific Apple fan follower and poster. Maybe I was wrong.
Not to take away from anything you said, but Google also very secretly invested in Intellectual Ventures(yes that Intellectual Ventures that Slashdot hates, founded by Paul Allen), which unfortunately for them, came out in a court filing
Microsoft fanboys? Anyone not rabidly hating Microsoft and loving has already left the site in the past few years in disgust over the posts and moderation here, haven't you noticed?
Every MS related story from the past few years has the same 100 people declaring MS'/(and recently Intel/AMD's) imminent deaths and gloating over Linux' and Android's ascendance in a circlejerking echo chamber, eventually those too will get bored and are leaving.
They're in the same boat as RIM but they get a pass for some reason.
I can only assume Microsoft is paying them to stay somehow? Maybe free phones?
Why support desktop Linux for anything? It has much less market share than Windows Phone. Does that make any sense? Perhaps Yahoo thinks it's good platform showing good promise in the future
Just Nokia sold 7 million Windows Phones in the last two quarters and the Lumia 920 is looking promising compared to others. While it may not seem like much compared to iPhone and Android it's not negligible.
Look at this comparison of phones and the poll underneath.
Which smartphone are you going to buy? Apple iPhone 5 22% (8152) Nokia Lumia 920 56% (21263) Samsung Galaxy S III 12% (4557) Samsung Galaxy Nexus 4% (1375) Other 3% (1170) I don't plan to buy a smartphone. 3% (1207) Total votes: 37724
I think I know why you think no one uses Windows Phone though, you get your news from Slashdot.
With a comparison like that, I guess there would no differences between C, C++, JavaScript, Objective C.
A few differences copied from a Stackoverflow post:
Generics are completely different between the two; Java generics are just a compile-time "trick" (but a useful one at that). In C# and.NET generics are maintained at execution time too, and work for value types as well as reference types, keeping the appropriate efficiency (e.g. a List as a byte[] backing it, rather than an array of boxed bytes.) C# doesn't have checked exceptions Java doesn't allow the creation of user-defined value types Java doesn't have operator and conversion overloading Java doesn't have iterator blocks for simple implemetation of iterators Java doesn't have anything like LINQ Partly due to not having delegates, Java doesn't have anything quite like anonymous methods and lambda expressions. Anonymous inner classes usually fill these roles, but clunkily. Java doesn't have expression trees C# doesn't have anonymous inner classes C# doesn't have Java's inner classes at all, in fact - all nested classes in C# are like Java's static nested classes Java doesn't have static classes (which don't have any instance constructors, and can't be used for variables, parameters etc) Java doesn't have any equivalent to the C# 3.0 anonymous types Java doesn't have implicitly typed local variables Java doesn't have extension methods Java doesn't have object and collection initializer expressions The access modifiers are somewhat different - in Java there's (currently) no direct equivalent of an assembly, so no idea of "internal" visibility; in C# there's no equivalent to the "default" visibility in Java which takes account of namespace (and inheritance) The order of initialization in Java and C# is subtly different (C# executes variable initializers before the chained call to the base type's constructor) Java doesn't have an equivalent of the using statement for simplified try/finally handling of resources Java doesn't have properties as part of the language; they're a convention of get/set/is methods Java doesn't have the equivalent of "unsafe" code Interop is easier in C# (and.NET in general) than Java's JNI Java and C# have somewhat different ideas of enums. Java's are much more object-oriented. Java has no preprocessor directives (#define, #if etc in C#). Java has no equivalent of C#'s ref and out for passing parameters by reference Java has no equivalent of partial types C# interfaces cannot declare fields Java has no unsigned integer types Java has no language support for a decimal type. (java.math.BigDecimal provides something like System.Decimal - with differences - but there's no language support) Java has no equivalent of nullable value types Boxing in Java uses predefined (but "normal") reference types with particular operations on them. Boxing in C# and.NET is a more transparent affair, with a reference type being created for boxing by the CLR for any value type.
This is not exhaustive, but it covers everything I can think of off-hand.
You tell us to forget about Google apps and app store and then bring it up again?
Perhaps you should read things completing before jumping the gun?
Forget about Google apps and the app store for a second.
If you read through all my post in less than a second, please consider applying for a Guiness record.
Google Play and Google Apps run on Android. They are not open, and no one has ever claimed otherwise. No one is forced to use them. You can use other large app stores like Amazon or getjar.
I didn't say they claimed otherwise. I just said that the fine print was so fine that it was missing on things like the "open" tweet.
>It's not as open as your pet project? Too bad. The Jelly Bean source code has been out for a while. No other major OEM has released a Jelly Bean device yet (well you can count Asus). Want to beat them to it? Go for it
Is that a joke? The Nexus 7 is not only out exclusively with Jelly Bean a few days after the source release, it is subsidized by Google's marketplace profits, which even Samsung, HTC, etc. cannot match in price. Why do you think there's no $199 7" tablet for that? Good luck trying to compete with Nexus 7. The deck is stacked against the competition. Why do you think the Galaxy Tab 7 is $250 and not $199 ?
Well, if we're going to play Microsoft analogies, you could say that Alibaba is attempting to play "embrace and extingush"
Very poor and wrong analogy. Aliyun has nothing to gain and everything to lose from extinguishing Android in the foreseeable future, like Microsoft did with Java(trying to break the run on all OSes mantra to get Windows a leg up). In fact it is Google that's trying to extinguish Aliyun by throwing Acer under a bus for supporting it.
They explicitly made and called Android "open". You know what? Forking is a core tenet of something "open". If you can't stomach it, stop the tweets calling Android "open" and place explicit restrictions on your code like Apple and Microsoft do. This passive-aggressive carrot and stick approach straddling open and closed strategies based on what is convenient at the time is going to harm both the hardware and software ecosystem.
So that means "Open" in this case is a loaded term and there is a scale of openness which Andy exploited to create the illusion of being open.
Forget about Google apps and the app store for a second.
Is Android as open as Firefox or Linux? No, development is done strictly behind closed doors, there is no way for anyone to submit patches or additional code and Google hasn't merged a single line of non-Google employee code. Where's the Android-dev mailing list?
There are not even beta releases of the Android versions so that smaller manufacturers and CyanogenMod can know what's coming. The code is thrown over a wall *after* or at the time of the release of the Nexus device, so the OEM making the Nexus like HTC or Samsung get exclusive early access and the rest are left scrambling to release new devices with the new OS or to update their old devices, why do you think it takes so long for OEMs to release updates? Contrast that with even Windows, which releases preview/beta/dev versions for everyone to use starting a year before release instead of playing favorites with one OEM.
Add to that the closed nature of Google apps and the app store and you end with something that can just barely be called "open".
>why is this slashdot article full of people who can't understand this
You must be new here. Google is the darling of Slashdot and can do no eveil.
Google says it's open, so everyone thinks Android is open and free to the OEMs. They don't know that OEMs have to license Google Apps and the app store commercially. Google has won the "open" PR war and arguments against Apple and Microsoft.
>Great, who's stopping anyone from releasing a phone that powers up with a big button that says "press here to download and install Android software on your phone"
The implied threat of a C&D and a lawsuit that will be upheld, because the license for Google Play, Google Maps, Gmail, etc. etc. are neither free as in beer nor free as in freedom. They're closed source copyrighted apps leaving no room for legal redistribution without paying or getting Google's explicit. This is like saying Windows is free to use because Microsoft doesn't go after individuals for piracy. Any company installing pirated windows on other machines or enabling it through their hardware/software will be targeted and taken down.
That's like saying a pirate copy of Windows just works because Microsoft didn't "decide" you shouldn't get it.
It's illegal for CM to bundle Google Play. That's why they don't provide it and you have to get it from somewhere else as an extra step after installing a CM ROM. Those sites are technically violating Google's copyright by distributing the gapps files.
The summary, folks here and the TFA(didn't read fully!) seem to be missing the point about why the internal Windows Version is 6.1 for Windows 7. The reason is that a LOT of software, drivers and other utilities have this kind of code in them:
if(first letter of Windows Version Number) is not 6 Print 'Error, OS not compatible'
Even though the software is fully compatible with the OS(because they didn't change the driver model from Vista), the non updated software from old CDs etc. throw up this error. To get around this issue, Windows internally names it 6.1, so the offending software thinks it's on some Vista service pack. Also, this is an *internal* version number compared to Apple's and Ubuntu's OSes which are the marketing names, so I don't even see why this was brought up except as flamebait.
>Google never, not once, told the public "hey JB is coming! It's awesome. Oh and we have an SDK, but your not allowed to use it"
That is related to the point that you wanted to gloss over because it doesn't fit with your perception of Android being more open in all aspects . Google keeps the release super secret from all people and OEMs except one till the last minute, so they needn't worry about leaks and can have a big announcement at the last minute, same with iOS. Prerelease versions of WP are given to all OEMs so they have to guard against leaks and release information earlier before it's leaked. Doesn't that make sense?
Perhaps you mean Windows Phone 8. Otherwise you're dead wrong.
>Regardless - we are actually talking (well I was, and I was who you were responding to) - Announcements. Google announces 4.1 and the SDK followed suit
So you had no idea till ICS was announced end of last year that ICS was coming?
Different companies reveal different things at various points of time depending on a bunch of factors. Just because Google chose to do it so late and close to the release of hardware and Microsoft chose to announce some features(there are a lot of other unrevealed features in WP8) earlier doesn't automatically mean that Google is better in that regard.
Slashdot Mirror
Does that mean Apple had no competition too? Then why did it almost die? What alternatives to Apple machines did people buy? Or did would-be Apple customers all turn into Luddites and stopped buying computers?
>Er, ah .. no. I'll use an actual brain and laugh at the fact that you couldn't name a single competitor
Is that the same actual brain that makes you assert that Apple was and is not a competitor to Microsoft because they sell hardware?
Now that's phenomenally clueless.
The fact that there was no good competitor says more about the competition than it says about Microsoft, at least till the mid nineties.
From the actual link:
http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2012/09/online-shopping-features-...
>For example, when you want to search for “dishwashers” on Amazon you can just enter “Dishwashers” in the Dash and a small line of “suggested items” from Amazon will appear.
>The same happens when you search for a local file or app from the Home Lens.
>So yes, you can expect to see self-help guides on compassion when trying to launch Empathy.
>‘More Suggestions’ is a strange turn of phrase; most people don’t tend to expect product suggestions when looking for their e-mail app. But I can cede that it’s a far better name than that used in development: ‘treat yourself’
Showing ads when you search locally seems a tad much and a waste of system resources. Isn't this equivalent to showing shopping ads based on keyword searches in Spotlight and the Windows Start menu?
Just realized that I sometimes type keywords to find local files matching filenames and content that's personal in nature. Does this mean all those keywords are sent to Amazon and perhaps data mined to show personalized results?
From http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/imm_us_vis_lot_win-immigration-us-visa-lottery-winners
Showing latest available data. Rank Countries Amount
# 1 Nigeria: 7,145 US visa lottery winners
# 2 Ghana: 7,040 US visa lottery winners
# 3 Ethiopia: 6,353 US visa lottery winners
# 4 Kenya: 5,721 US visa lottery winners
# 5 Poland: 5,467 US visa lottery winners
# 6 Bangladesh: 5,126 US visa lottery winners
# 7 Morocco: 5,069 US visa lottery winners
# 8 Ukraine: 4,494 US visa lottery winners
# 9 Nepal: 4,259 US visa lottery winners
# 10 Egypt: 4,189 US visa lottery winners
No, the point is that everyone is suing everyone else. It's a clusterfuck of a mess and everyone is at it in one way or another. Wether you value a certain companies motivation higher than another is entirely irrelevant
No, everyone is not suing everyone else. Samsung is not suing Motorola or HTC or Nokia or RIM.
HTC is not suing Samsung, or Motorola or RIM.
RIM is not suing almost anyone(except they recently got hit by Nokia).
The point is that if a company chooses to sue another company, they cannot play the victim if they company they sued throws the book back at them. Apple started this particular fight by suing Android makers like Samsung, HTC, etc. If they hadn't, you think Samsung, HTC and Google would've taken Apple to court? It's possible but I highly doubt it.
Ok, I really meant to say successfully banned a few devices from one maker. None of those other things went anywhere.
Wait, so did Googorola successfully ban all Macs, iPhones and iPads according to the RTFA which is why you are getting so riled up about Google?
Not to mention that many of those Apple requests for injunctions are still pending and awaiting trials/judgements.
But that's being pedantic; fine, I'll say Apple is is attempting to ban every Android device form shipping just to make things easy.
So then, that puts them on parity with Google's level of evil.
Now can we complain about BOTH companies equally please an the patent law itself that enables this?
Sorry, no. Before Apple started suing the Android OEMs, there was a detente among them. Apple shot first, breaking the de facto peace between themselves and HTC/Samsung/Motorola.
If Microsoft sued Apple tomorrow over a kernel patent over iOS/OS X and Apple sued them back with 100 patents to retaliate because they think they might lose, you think they BOTH MS and Apple deserve equal blame because "the patent law itself enables this"?
I just think it's bullshit to complain about Apple's abuse of patents because they seek to ban SOME devices from ONE manufacturer, while Google seeks to prevent the sale of EVERY Apple computer and iOS device.
I was expecting more knowledge and intelligence from a prolific Apple fan follower and poster. Maybe I was wrong.
http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/02/apple-sues-htc-for-infringing-20-iphone-patents/
http://www.ibtimes.com/apple-sues-htc-again-iphone-maker-scared-android-smartphone-makers-210931
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-20090552-17/apple-sues-motorola-over-xoom-design-report-says/
http://apple.slashdot.org/story/10/06/24/013245/apple-sues-htc-again-over-patents
Have you been sleeping under a rock or does facts not favorable to Apple just don't penetrate the thick RDF?
Not to take away from anything you said, but Google also very secretly invested in Intellectual Ventures(yes that Intellectual Ventures that Slashdot hates, founded by Paul Allen), which unfortunately for them, came out in a court filing
http://gametimeip.com/2011/05/19/the-intellectual-ventures-investment-list-an-unwelcome-revelation/
Microsoft fanboys? Anyone not rabidly hating Microsoft and loving has already left the site in the past few years in disgust over the posts and moderation here, haven't you noticed?
Every MS related story from the past few years has the same 100 people declaring MS'/(and recently Intel/AMD's) imminent deaths and gloating over Linux' and Android's ascendance in a circlejerking echo chamber, eventually those too will get bored and are leaving.
While I think it's a troll rather a shill, here's some surveys:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/235986/Windows_Phone_7_Edges_Android_in_User_Satisfaction.html
http://www.neowin.net/news/windows-phone-tops-in-user-satisfaction#
http://blog.amplifiedanalytics.com/2012/07/customer-satisfaction-with-windows-smart-phones-rise-by-18/
No one buys Microsoft phones.
They're in the same boat as RIM but they get a pass for some reason.
I can only assume Microsoft is paying them to stay somehow? Maybe free phones?
Why support desktop Linux for anything? It has much less market share than Windows Phone. Does that make any sense? Perhaps Yahoo thinks it's good platform showing good promise in the future
Just Nokia sold 7 million Windows Phones in the last two quarters and the Lumia 920 is looking promising compared to others. While it may not seem like much compared to iPhone and Android it's not negligible.
Look at this comparison of phones and the poll underneath.
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/09/iphone5-spec-showdown/
Which smartphone are you going to buy?
Apple iPhone 5 22% (8152)
Nokia Lumia 920 56% (21263)
Samsung Galaxy S III 12% (4557)
Samsung Galaxy Nexus 4% (1375)
Other 3% (1170)
I don't plan to buy a smartphone. 3% (1207)
Total votes: 37724
I think I know why you think no one uses Windows Phone though, you get your news from Slashdot.
I am calling troll trying to look like a shill.(a very successful one based on responses).
With a comparison like that, I guess there would no differences between C, C++, JavaScript, Objective C.
A few differences copied from a Stackoverflow post:
Generics are completely different between the two; Java generics are just a compile-time "trick" (but a useful one at that). In C# and .NET generics are maintained at execution time too, and work for value types as well as reference types, keeping the appropriate efficiency (e.g. a List as a byte[] backing it, rather than an array of boxed bytes.) .NET in general) than Java's JNI .NET is a more transparent affair, with a reference type being created for boxing by the CLR for any value type.
C# doesn't have checked exceptions
Java doesn't allow the creation of user-defined value types
Java doesn't have operator and conversion overloading
Java doesn't have iterator blocks for simple implemetation of iterators
Java doesn't have anything like LINQ
Partly due to not having delegates, Java doesn't have anything quite like anonymous methods and lambda expressions. Anonymous inner classes usually fill these roles, but clunkily.
Java doesn't have expression trees
C# doesn't have anonymous inner classes
C# doesn't have Java's inner classes at all, in fact - all nested classes in C# are like Java's static nested classes
Java doesn't have static classes (which don't have any instance constructors, and can't be used for variables, parameters etc)
Java doesn't have any equivalent to the C# 3.0 anonymous types
Java doesn't have implicitly typed local variables
Java doesn't have extension methods
Java doesn't have object and collection initializer expressions
The access modifiers are somewhat different - in Java there's (currently) no direct equivalent of an assembly, so no idea of "internal" visibility; in C# there's no equivalent to the "default" visibility in Java which takes account of namespace (and inheritance)
The order of initialization in Java and C# is subtly different (C# executes variable initializers before the chained call to the base type's constructor)
Java doesn't have an equivalent of the using statement for simplified try/finally handling of resources
Java doesn't have properties as part of the language; they're a convention of get/set/is methods
Java doesn't have the equivalent of "unsafe" code
Interop is easier in C# (and
Java and C# have somewhat different ideas of enums. Java's are much more object-oriented.
Java has no preprocessor directives (#define, #if etc in C#).
Java has no equivalent of C#'s ref and out for passing parameters by reference
Java has no equivalent of partial types
C# interfaces cannot declare fields
Java has no unsigned integer types
Java has no language support for a decimal type. (java.math.BigDecimal provides something like System.Decimal - with differences - but there's no language support)
Java has no equivalent of nullable value types
Boxing in Java uses predefined (but "normal") reference types with particular operations on them. Boxing in C# and
This is not exhaustive, but it covers everything I can think of off-hand.
You tell us to forget about Google apps and app store and then bring it up again?
Perhaps you should read things completing before jumping the gun?
Forget about Google apps and the app store for a second.
If you read through all my post in less than a second, please consider applying for a Guiness record.
Google Play and Google Apps run on Android. They are not open, and no one has ever claimed otherwise. No one is forced to use them. You can use other large app stores like Amazon or getjar.
I didn't say they claimed otherwise. I just said that the fine print was so fine that it was missing on things like the "open" tweet.
>It's not as open as your pet project? Too bad. The Jelly Bean source code has been out for a while. No other major OEM has released a Jelly Bean device yet (well you can count Asus). Want to beat them to it? Go for it
Is that a joke? The Nexus 7 is not only out exclusively with Jelly Bean a few days after the source release, it is subsidized by Google's marketplace profits, which even Samsung, HTC, etc. cannot match in price. Why do you think there's no $199 7" tablet for that? Good luck trying to compete with Nexus 7. The deck is stacked against the competition. Why do you think the Galaxy Tab 7 is $250 and not $199 ?
Well, if we're going to play Microsoft analogies, you could say that Alibaba is attempting to play "embrace and extingush"
Very poor and wrong analogy. Aliyun has nothing to gain and everything to lose from extinguishing Android in the foreseeable future, like Microsoft did with Java(trying to break the run on all OSes mantra to get Windows a leg up). In fact it is Google that's trying to extinguish Aliyun by throwing Acer under a bus for supporting it.
They explicitly made and called Android "open". You know what? Forking is a core tenet of something "open". If you can't stomach it, stop the tweets calling Android "open" and place explicit restrictions on your code like Apple and Microsoft do. This passive-aggressive carrot and stick approach straddling open and closed strategies based on what is convenient at the time is going to harm both the hardware and software ecosystem.
So that means "Open" in this case is a loaded term and there is a scale of openness which Andy exploited to create the illusion of being open.
Forget about Google apps and the app store for a second.
Is Android as open as Firefox or Linux? No, development is done strictly behind closed doors, there is no way for anyone to submit patches or additional code and Google hasn't merged a single line of non-Google employee code. Where's the Android-dev mailing list?
There are not even beta releases of the Android versions so that smaller manufacturers and CyanogenMod can know what's coming. The code is thrown over a wall *after* or at the time of the release of the Nexus device, so the OEM making the Nexus like HTC or Samsung get exclusive early access and the rest are left scrambling to release new devices with the new OS or to update their old devices, why do you think it takes so long for OEMs to release updates? Contrast that with even Windows, which releases preview/beta/dev versions for everyone to use starting a year before release instead of playing favorites with one OEM.
Add to that the closed nature of Google apps and the app store and you end with something that can just barely be called "open".
>why is this slashdot article full of people who can't understand this
You must be new here. Google is the darling of Slashdot and can do no eveil.
Google says it's open, so everyone thinks Android is open and free to the OEMs. They don't know that OEMs have to license Google Apps and the app store commercially. Google has won the "open" PR war and arguments against Apple and Microsoft.
http://www.androidtablets.net/forum/android-tablet-discussions/28274-why-many-chinese-tablets-supplied-without-market-access.html
>Great, who's stopping anyone from releasing a phone that powers up with a big button that says "press here to download and install Android software on your phone"
The implied threat of a C&D and a lawsuit that will be upheld, because the license for Google Play, Google Maps, Gmail, etc. etc. are neither free as in beer nor free as in freedom. They're closed source copyrighted apps leaving no room for legal redistribution without paying or getting Google's explicit. This is like saying Windows is free to use because Microsoft doesn't go after individuals for piracy. Any company installing pirated windows on other machines or enabling it through their hardware/software will be targeted and taken down.
That's like saying a pirate copy of Windows just works because Microsoft didn't "decide" you shouldn't get it.
It's illegal for CM to bundle Google Play. That's why they don't provide it and you have to get it from somewhere else as an extra step after installing a CM ROM. Those sites are technically violating Google's copyright by distributing the gapps files.
The summary, folks here and the TFA(didn't read fully!) seem to be missing the point about why the internal Windows Version is 6.1 for Windows 7. The reason is that a LOT of software, drivers and other utilities have this kind of code in them:
if(first letter of Windows Version Number) is not 6 Print 'Error, OS not compatible'
Even though the software is fully compatible with the OS(because they didn't change the driver model from Vista), the non updated software from old CDs etc. throw up this error. To get around this issue, Windows internally names it 6.1, so the offending software thinks it's on some Vista service pack. Also, this is an *internal* version number compared to Apple's and Ubuntu's OSes which are the marketing names, so I don't even see why this was brought up except as flamebait.
Not true when kernel.org itself gets hacked.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/08/31/linux_kernel_security_breach/
>Google never, not once, told the public "hey JB is coming! It's awesome. Oh and we have an SDK, but your not allowed to use it"
That is related to the point that you wanted to gloss over because it doesn't fit with your perception of Android being more open in all aspects . Google keeps the release super secret from all people and OEMs except one till the last minute, so they needn't worry about leaks and can have a big announcement at the last minute, same with iOS. Prerelease versions of WP are given to all OEMs so they have to guard against leaks and release information earlier before it's leaked. Doesn't that make sense?
How is the iPhone icon interface much different from this? http://img.tfd.com/cde/_PROGMN2.GIF
Give a half decent team of engineers to make the above work with capacitive touch, and you can easily end up with the iPhone homescreen swipes.
The only mobile interface to claim to be really unique among UIs is Microsoft's Metro http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=locNEna0of4&feature=plcp
Shame on Apple for trying to enforce basic touchscreen actions like multitouch and the jury not able to debate that because of the numbnut foreman. How is this not prior art from the 80s? http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=dmmxVA5xhuo#t=267s
>Microsoft announced Windows 8 - nothing
Perhaps you mean Windows Phone 8. Otherwise you're dead wrong.
>Regardless - we are actually talking (well I was, and I was who you were responding to) - Announcements. Google announces 4.1 and the SDK followed suit
So you had no idea till ICS was announced end of last year that ICS was coming?
Different companies reveal different things at various points of time depending on a bunch of factors. Just because Google chose to do it so late and close to the release of hardware and Microsoft chose to announce some features(there are a lot of other unrevealed features in WP8) earlier doesn't automatically mean that Google is better in that regard.