In time we'll likely see less powerful android phones.
Still the android data plan is "only" $300/yr which doesn't seem too shabby. In fact it's less than the data & messaging plans i have right now, so for me it does lower TCO.
I have a Windows Mobile phone with T-Mo. They cleared the simlock for me when I asked.
I can run any application, can tether to my laptop over bluetooth (though it tethers much more reliably to a linux host than a winxp one) and it just seems to work.
I couldn't get in-situ debugging to work from visual studio, but that's probably visual studio being useless.
I've got the HTC excalibur and it's got a decently tactile keyboard. The iphone one isn't bad and i'm sure you can get used to it, but i like a real one.
My impression of the android platform was that all apps were equal. If that's the case, is there anything stopping you from stripping off the google ones and replacing them?
If all the google apps turn out to be open source (which it sounded like they were going to do) then that'd be even easier.
I've seen a situation where a few major manufacturers dominate a field (which i wont name) but all have cross-licensing agreements with each other.
It'd be like Ford holding patents on wheels, doors and windows but GM holding streering wheels and brakes. Then they agree to cross license all their patent portfolios.
This effectively makes it nearly impossible for a newcomer to break into the field. They don't have the resources to challenge fords "wheels" patent, and all the people who are resourced to have that thrown out - aren't motivated to because they have a licensing agreement.
If something has single click unsubscribe then i'll happily use that.
However too many sites expect that you figure out what username and password you used to sign up and then somehow manage your subscriptions via their website.
If i cant get off a list in under 30 seconds, then i'll spam filter it in google
An I/O loan would be great if you were on a variable income - perhaps self-employed or on commission.
That way you can make IO payments in the leaner months and when you get a big check you can pay down your loan.
There's nothing inherently bad about ARMs either and even NegAms have a place.
The real problem here is that people signed things without reading them over and understanding them. What percentage of the general public could even work out a loan payment?
I had a slightly surreal experience buying a car. We negotiated $20k even with a 0% rate for 5 years while I was sitting with the finance guy at the dealership.
Me: "Ok, so that's $333 a month"
He shot me a strange look, and proceeded to punch the numbers into his calculator (including the 0% interest rate) and was surprised to get the same figure as i'd worked out in my head.
If the finance guy are a car dealership is that slow, i dread to imagine where the average person is.
Looks cool, but i'm guessing it's based of older Tiger data. My neighborhood doesn't show on there and the streets were built out here in 03 or 04. I can't imagine trying to navigate round a large city using 5 yr old data.
In the US they seem to virtually all be native Spanish speakers, and in the UK they have such poor grasp of their own language that most custom orders seem way above them.
I'm nearly convinced that the average Scandinavian high school student has a better grasp of English than those in the UK or US:(
Still, new products usually appear in English first and if there's demand for them; the localized versions appear later.
I expect the UK gets shafted because they seem to spread the cost of creating the "Euro Version" across all countries; even though it's practically a no-op to convert from US to UK english.
Support also adds to it. Most large software companies have UK support staff, and that adds to the cost.
Taxes add a little more. The UK has 17.5% VAT built into the price; if you have to pay sales tax in the US then it's added at checkout.
But mostly I think it's because they can and because the market bears it
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I once inherited a Win 3.x device driver that was written entirely in asm. Several hundred k of raw code.
At a first glance it looked good and well commented, in fact virtually every line was commented.
However on closer inspection i found lines like
djnz ax loop: ;; Decrement the register ax and jumpt to loop: if not zero
First and last x86 project i ever touched
Not really, email only went pull with the advent of pop3 and imap.
I remember my first ISP used STMP for end user delivery.
In time we'll likely see less powerful android phones.
Still the android data plan is "only" $300/yr which doesn't seem too shabby. In fact it's less than the data & messaging plans i have right now, so for me it does lower TCO.
I have a Windows Mobile phone with T-Mo. They cleared the simlock for me when I asked.
I can run any application, can tether to my laptop over bluetooth (though it tethers much more reliably to a linux host than a winxp one) and it just seems to work.
I couldn't get in-situ debugging to work from visual studio, but that's probably visual studio being useless.
The thing that really irked me was that i'll be out of contract by 10/22 (when it ships to me) but i still have to pay $299 if i pre-order now.
That was a little annoying, but i'll just wait it out and try to buy it locally on the launch day.
It's already due to be launched on T-Mo UK by the end of the year. Not to mention T-Mo US are normally great about unlocking the handset.
Why would they care as long as you pay out your contract?
I've got the HTC excalibur and it's got a decently tactile keyboard. The iphone one isn't bad and i'm sure you can get used to it, but i like a real one.
The google guy claimed in the press conference today that gmail would be push-based as well :)
I've never had issues getting T-mo to unlock my phones, even when they are inside of their contract.
T-Mo uk bitched about it for a while but eventually caved. T-Mo US are awesome, they'll send you the unlock codes with a single phone call.
The key is to ask if you can put a T-Mobile UK SIM in the phone while on vacation. The answer is no, you'll need to get it unlocked...
My impression of the android platform was that all apps were equal. If that's the case, is there anything stopping you from stripping off the google ones and replacing them?
If all the google apps turn out to be open source (which it sounded like they were going to do) then that'd be even easier.
I think you are doing it wrong.
You don't have 1/100th of the bytes in a file, you have 1/100th of the information needed to reconstruct it.
Unless law enforcement can find enough of the other parts, then what you've got it just garbage random data.
I've used t-mobile in the UK and US for about 8 years and i've been consistently impressed with their customer service.
They've been head and shoulders above people like Verizon or Qwest
I've seen a situation where a few major manufacturers dominate a field (which i wont name) but all have cross-licensing agreements with each other.
It'd be like Ford holding patents on wheels, doors and windows but GM holding streering wheels and brakes. Then they agree to cross license all their patent portfolios.
This effectively makes it nearly impossible for a newcomer to break into the field. They don't have the resources to challenge fords "wheels" patent, and all the people who are resourced to have that thrown out - aren't motivated to because they have a licensing agreement.
If something has single click unsubscribe then i'll happily use that.
However too many sites expect that you figure out what username and password you used to sign up and then somehow manage your subscriptions via their website.
If i cant get off a list in under 30 seconds, then i'll spam filter it in google
No it was a while before the gas hike.
It was a model from the previous year, which despite looking nearly identical to the 07, was laden with incentives.
An I/O loan would be great if you were on a variable income - perhaps self-employed or on commission.
That way you can make IO payments in the leaner months and when you get a big check you can pay down your loan.
There's nothing inherently bad about ARMs either and even NegAms have a place.
The real problem here is that people signed things without reading them over and understanding them. What percentage of the general public could even work out a loan payment?
I had a slightly surreal experience buying a car. We negotiated $20k even with a 0% rate for 5 years while I was sitting with the finance guy at the dealership.
Me: "Ok, so that's $333 a month"
He shot me a strange look, and proceeded to punch the numbers into his calculator (including the 0% interest rate) and was surprised to get the same figure as i'd worked out in my head.
If the finance guy are a car dealership is that slow, i dread to imagine where the average person is.
Looks cool, but i'm guessing it's based of older Tiger data. My neighborhood doesn't show on there and the streets were built out here in 03 or 04. I can't imagine trying to navigate round a large city using 5 yr old data.
I heard your DVD-ROM drives spin the opposite direction because you are in the southern hemisphere.
Whats the state of navigation for linux in car systems? It'd be fun to homebrew one, but without decent navigation it's not a whole lot of use.
I'm sure i should have some BSOD joke in here too, but i haven't had my coffee yet
In the US they seem to virtually all be native Spanish speakers, and in the UK they have such poor grasp of their own language that most custom orders seem way above them.
I'm nearly convinced that the average Scandinavian high school student has a better grasp of English than those in the UK or US :(
You also overlook the additional download sizes that all our superfluous vowels create.
I've seen a bit of a mix. In finland there seemed to be lots of english software, but in france the majority seemed to be localized.
Of course finlands probably the only country in the world where all the mcdonalds employees speak english
At least it'll be a little easier to breathe than in Beijing
Still, new products usually appear in English first and if there's demand for them; the localized versions appear later.
I expect the UK gets shafted because they seem to spread the cost of creating the "Euro Version" across all countries; even though it's practically a no-op to convert from US to UK english.
Support also adds to it. Most large software companies have UK support staff, and that adds to the cost.
Taxes add a little more. The UK has 17.5% VAT built into the price; if you have to pay sales tax in the US then it's added at checkout.
But mostly I think it's because they can and because the market bears it
The big win for me was that I could put my LaTeX docs in subversion and track them that way.
Then i could ask subversion:
"What changes did i make to my dissertation last week?"
Can't really do that with plain old word documents and i'm not sure if there's a workaround now that they are pseudo-html