A huge reason the iPhone app store has taken off is because it contains only all apps that were written for exactly one platform, just like console games. That doesn't mean that they're all great, but they'll all run on the hardware and they'll all fit on the screen. There's no question of incompatible drivers, not enough VRAM, etc etc etc. (Outside of those that are iPhone-only or 3G-only but those are clearly marked and that's a short list of requirements to check.) Users can buy with confidence knowing that if nothing else, the app will at least function 100%. That is why the iPhone app store is doing so well. That, and it's the only game in town--unlike for general-purpose computers, where there are many ways to get apps.
Thanks for the info. I know you think I'm dense but I just saw this story a couple hours ago (and I'm at work, so I didn't have time to scour teh entire intarweb) and I'm not a frequent phone buyer in general (before the iPhone, it was 2 phones in 7 years) so I didn't know the details. The funny thing is, I DID buy my first iPhone after the initial price cut--though, come to think of it, I guess that was just Apple cutting the price, not AT&T subsidizing it.
Still though, just like the way banks used to have great introductory offers, I've always hated seeing existing customers getting a worse deal than new customers. (I've been w/ AT&T/Cingular/AT&T wireless since 1997.)
That said, I'd do it all again. The camera is a bit nicer overall, video being the biggest feature, but if I had to choose, I'd still say that GPS was a more worthwhile upgrade than video recording, variable focus, and a compass. Faster CPU and apps (especially Safari) would be nice, but it is by no means unusable now.
That said, if the revolt works and AT&T makes it reasonable* to upgrade, I'll be there.
This is weird, though, because I bought an original iPhone in August 2007 and I bought a 3G in October 2008 and I just paid $199 the second time, along with renewing my contract for another two years. Has something changed? I was planning to upgrade again.
PS: AT&T, what is wrong with you? I can understand not wanting to let people tether, but NO MMS UNTIL THE END OF SUMMER? WHAT THE FUCK?!?!?
On a serious note, I'd like to hear from some really picky (but sane) people about how the browser compares to Safari. Does it support iPhone optimizations (viewport) and handle CSS/JS well? If you go to facebook or google do you automatically get the iPhone version? How is the speed?
When Chrome came out, I was excited. Being a Mac user, though, I knew I'd have to wait. Then Safari 4 Beta came out, and it is quite fast (my main desire) and overall it kicks quite a bit of ass. You should check it out. I just hope these hidden preferences are still available in the final build.
Hmm... will Safari 4 (final) be announced at next weeks' WWDC?
Back on topic, John Gruber has covered this pretty well here and here.
"But is it illegal? And would it be illegal for Apple to take countermeasures against it? My guess is "no" to both questions... I don't think WebOS's media sync is a mistake on Palm's part because it is wrong, I think it's a mistake because it is risky and unnecessary."
This is super cool and I'm really looking forward to what will come of it, partly because I can see this has miles of potential and partly because the results at the moment can be unintentionally comical. Searching for 'planets' yields 7: Earth, Jupiter, Pluto, Saturn, Mercury, Ceres, and Venus. And in the "description" column for Venus it says "Only at Venus, find the sexiest women's swimwear and clothing. Shop online or request a catalog for sizzling hot clothing.":-) And Pluto, evidently, has a giant sign on it--the pic comes from a random blog. When I created my own list, they all came in better but still not perfect. The "Mercury" and "Saturn" descriptions are for the car companies and Pluto's picture, this time, was the cartoon dog. Still, very cool, and TONS of potential.
HOLY CRAP! This post started out as a joke but then I then typed 'measurements' into the 'Add columns' box and it effing worked! Then click in the 'Add items' in the lower left, add the 5 suggestions, do that a few more times, and BAM, you've got a good amount of data. Holy crap, this is neat. There goes the rest of my day. I could see using this for actual work, like bridge lengths and building heights and such.
And it's FUN! Data appears instantly, as if by magic, complete with pictures. I've never said this in my 10+ years on Slashdot, but everyone, GO RTFA! Actually, skip TFA, just go visit the site!
... the Internet truly would be a series of tubes.
Also, little known fact: Gordon Moore's father was a mechanical engineer who predicted that the size of hydraulic valves would shrink 50% every 18 months.
(The other fatal flaw is that the video tag makes it easy for people to download the original video file - something none of the big content providers want. Yes, everyone knows how to do this with Flash videos, but the illusion of content protection is there.)
OTOH, there are "content providers" out there who won't mind this at all, and have large enough audiences that something good may indeed come from the <video> tag. Wikipedia comes to mind.
Wouldn't it be sweet if the new compass UI (since it's software-based, and could get location from the GPS) could show the difference between magnetic north and true north?
... the iPhone's keyboard isn't perfect and even less so when the iPhone assumes you're a moron that can't type and "corrects" what you meant to type with a completely different word...
Well, maybe your phone is right about you being a moron, because you can go to Settings -> General -> Keyboard and turn off auto-correction.
Owning a BlackBerry (work) and an iPhone (mine) I infinitely prefer the iPhone's keyboard. (And before my iPhone I had two Nokias with physical QWERTY keyboards so I'm not just preferring the iPhone's because it was my first exposure to a full keyboard on a phone.) You can type faster and with a lighter touch since you don't have to physically press each key, and holding the phone with one hand and typing with that thumb is a whole lot easier. And whoever thought of putting keys in anything but a straight line (BlackBerry Curve 8830, Palm Pre, and the number pads on my old Nokias) should be shot.
That said, I really hope Apple allows background apps soon, if for nothing other than Undercover. The Pre looks nice and they're doing some cool things but I won't be getting one since a) I don't have any worthwhile contacts in social sites that I need my phone to automagically gather and b) I don't need to carry around a calendar. Mainly, I'm happy that the Pre is out to give Apple some much-needed competition and force issues like MMS, video recording, background apps, etc.
Once upon a time it was possible to make a living by being the only literate person in town, reading and writing letters for people and the like. Universal literacy killed that business model.
The Web was never designed nor intended as a tool for commercial enterprises--it was intended to allow academics to share information, and however far it evolves under commercial pressure, there is not much that can be done about that fundamental aspect of its architecture. To try to use the Web, which was designed for free and open information sharing, as a tool for restricted information sales is probably going to fail.
Thanks for one of the best, most concise explanations every posted to Slashdot. That has been printed and is now up on my cube wall.
I know it doesn't have a built-in 720p display. I was replying to this comment which said "It's a winner in my book, even though I still wish the screen itself was 720p." Nested view is your friend.:-)
Slashdot Mirror
The cutaway scenes in Family Guy represent the first departure from classical comedy I've ever been aware of.
Six words: "And now for something completely different."
A huge reason the iPhone app store has taken off is because it contains only all apps that were written for exactly one platform, just like console games. That doesn't mean that they're all great, but they'll all run on the hardware and they'll all fit on the screen. There's no question of incompatible drivers, not enough VRAM, etc etc etc. (Outside of those that are iPhone-only or 3G-only but those are clearly marked and that's a short list of requirements to check.) Users can buy with confidence knowing that if nothing else, the app will at least function 100%. That is why the iPhone app store is doing so well. That, and it's the only game in town--unlike for general-purpose computers, where there are many ways to get apps.
...maybe even offer an option to filter any app with "fart" in the name...
Ah, so it would only show fart apps? Brilliant! ;-)
Thanks for the info. I know you think I'm dense but I just saw this story a couple hours ago (and I'm at work, so I didn't have time to scour teh entire intarweb) and I'm not a frequent phone buyer in general (before the iPhone, it was 2 phones in 7 years) so I didn't know the details. The funny thing is, I DID buy my first iPhone after the initial price cut--though, come to think of it, I guess that was just Apple cutting the price, not AT&T subsidizing it.
Still though, just like the way banks used to have great introductory offers, I've always hated seeing existing customers getting a worse deal than new customers. (I've been w/ AT&T/Cingular/AT&T wireless since 1997.)
That said, I'd do it all again. The camera is a bit nicer overall, video being the biggest feature, but if I had to choose, I'd still say that GPS was a more worthwhile upgrade than video recording, variable focus, and a compass. Faster CPU and apps (especially Safari) would be nice, but it is by no means unusable now.
That said, if the revolt works and AT&T makes it reasonable* to upgrade, I'll be there.
* Reasonable for me, not them. ;-)
This is weird, though, because I bought an original iPhone in August 2007 and I bought a 3G in October 2008 and I just paid $199 the second time, along with renewing my contract for another two years. Has something changed? I was planning to upgrade again.
PS: AT&T, what is wrong with you? I can understand not wanting to let people tether, but NO MMS UNTIL THE END OF SUMMER? WHAT THE FUCK?!?!?
A guy walks into a bar with a tiny piano and a 7-inch Android...
1,261,440,000 is the new 946,080,000.
... with a block of cheese?
On a serious note, I'd like to hear from some really picky (but sane) people about how the browser compares to Safari. Does it support iPhone optimizations (viewport) and handle CSS/JS well? If you go to facebook or google do you automatically get the iPhone version? How is the speed?
When Chrome came out, I was excited. Being a Mac user, though, I knew I'd have to wait. Then Safari 4 Beta came out, and it is quite fast (my main desire) and overall it kicks quite a bit of ass. You should check it out. I just hope these hidden preferences are still available in the final build.
Hmm... will Safari 4 (final) be announced at next weeks' WWDC?
Reader: Knock, knock
Slashdot: Who's there?
Reader: Unicode.
Slashdot: Fuck off.
Back on topic, John Gruber has covered this pretty well here and here.
"But is it illegal? And would it be illegal for Apple to take countermeasures against it? My guess is "no" to both questions... I don't think WebOS's media sync is a mistake on Palm's part because it is wrong, I think it's a mistake because it is risky and unnecessary."
This is super cool and I'm really looking forward to what will come of it, partly because I can see this has miles of potential and partly because the results at the moment can be unintentionally comical. Searching for 'planets' yields 7: Earth, Jupiter, Pluto, Saturn, Mercury, Ceres, and Venus. And in the "description" column for Venus it says "Only at Venus, find the sexiest women's swimwear and clothing. Shop online or request a catalog for sizzling hot clothing." :-) And Pluto, evidently, has a giant sign on it--the pic comes from a random blog. When I created my own list, they all came in better but still not perfect. The "Mercury" and "Saturn" descriptions are for the car companies and Pluto's picture, this time, was the cartoon dog. Still, very cool, and TONS of potential.
But when I asked for http://www.google.com/squared/search?q=supermodels I couldn't help but notice it was missing a few key columns.
HOLY CRAP! This post started out as a joke but then I then typed 'measurements' into the 'Add columns' box and it effing worked! Then click in the 'Add items' in the lower left, add the 5 suggestions, do that a few more times, and BAM, you've got a good amount of data. Holy crap, this is neat. There goes the rest of my day. I could see using this for actual work, like bridge lengths and building heights and such.
And it's FUN! Data appears instantly, as if by magic, complete with pictures. I've never said this in my 10+ years on Slashdot, but everyone, GO RTFA! Actually, skip TFA, just go visit the site!
... the Internet truly would be a series of tubes.
Also, little known fact: Gordon Moore's father was a mechanical engineer who predicted that the size of hydraulic valves would shrink 50% every 18 months.
5) John Gruber supplies #5
(The other fatal flaw is that the video tag makes it easy for people to download the original video file - something none of the big content providers want. Yes, everyone knows how to do this with Flash videos, but the illusion of content protection is there.)
OTOH, there are "content providers" out there who won't mind this at all, and have large enough audiences that something good may indeed come from the <video> tag. Wikipedia comes to mind.
To learn more about Bing, type "bing search engine" into Google.
Wouldn't it be sweet if the new compass UI (since it's software-based, and could get location from the GPS) could show the difference between magnetic north and true north?
Will it look like an ancient Palm, with a black-and-white screen, a writing area, and only a dozen apps on the homescreen?
SLASHDOT, FFS, GET SOME NEW ICONS!
And WTF is up with the MacBook icon on this iPhone story? I guess I need to change my request to "new and accurate icons."
Don't listen to the people telling you to put viruses and email programs on the USB drives, that is not what Christmas is all about.
Yeah. That's more of an Easter thing.
... the iPhone's keyboard isn't perfect and even less so when the iPhone assumes you're a moron that can't type and "corrects" what you meant to type with a completely different word...
Well, maybe your phone is right about you being a moron, because you can go to Settings -> General -> Keyboard and turn off auto-correction.
Owning a BlackBerry (work) and an iPhone (mine) I infinitely prefer the iPhone's keyboard. (And before my iPhone I had two Nokias with physical QWERTY keyboards so I'm not just preferring the iPhone's because it was my first exposure to a full keyboard on a phone.) You can type faster and with a lighter touch since you don't have to physically press each key, and holding the phone with one hand and typing with that thumb is a whole lot easier. And whoever thought of putting keys in anything but a straight line (BlackBerry Curve 8830, Palm Pre, and the number pads on my old Nokias) should be shot.
That said, I really hope Apple allows background apps soon, if for nothing other than Undercover. The Pre looks nice and they're doing some cool things but I won't be getting one since a) I don't have any worthwhile contacts in social sites that I need my phone to automagically gather and b) I don't need to carry around a calendar. Mainly, I'm happy that the Pre is out to give Apple some much-needed competition and force issues like MMS, video recording, background apps, etc.
Thanks for one of the best, most concise explanations every posted to Slashdot. That has been printed and is now up on my cube wall.
He recieved it in 1989 and recently decided to see if it would actually work.
Wow. And I thought I was bad about putting things off.
Sweet! Now I can block ads in documents!
And a good mobile version of Slashdot is coming... when?
I know it doesn't have a built-in 720p display. I was replying to this comment which said "It's a winner in my book, even though I still wish the screen itself was 720p." Nested view is your friend. :-)