The North American mobile phone market is a bit special as there are different standards used by different phone companies (GMS vs. D-AMPS vs. CDMA2000). So if you switch providers, you also switch technology and actually need a new phone.
In countries which are GSM-only, you can usually get better deals if you don't need a new phone. Even in Germany, which was a bit retarted compared to other European countries, you could find dealers which did not give you a subsided phone but a subsided cheque. Nowadays, there are SIM-card only plans which start at 0 per month (and very competitive prices for airtime).
In the meantime I think cellphone companies could start providing wi-fi access, which they provided at a reduced price (or free) for their customers and at a cost for non-customers. This would reduce the burden on the cellphone networks and potentially provide an extra revenue stream.
It was my understanding that the iPhone was targeted at the US market.
Well, that must be the reason Mr Jobs did not mention release dates for "Europe" and "Asia".;-)
In the US, GSM/EDGE coverage is pretty much standard, but UMTS coverage is iffy at best.
That's the same in many other countries. UMTS phones usually also support GSM with GPRS/EDGE because of that.
EVDO is the best bet for the US for high speed wireles. Of course, outside the US I agree UMTS would be the better standard. Of course, the Asian market has WCDMA and outside Europe and in Latin America it varies quite a bit.
GSM (if you habe a quad-band phone, which the iPhone is) is available everywhere, except Japan and South Korea. UMTS (=W-CDMA) is only available in few countries... but as all UMTS phones also support GSM, you actually get a global coverage.
can UNDERSTAND why Apple thinks HSDPA is not necessary for their iPhone. Most people will not use it. And the iPhone is not a notebook. But please state the real reason and don't start the "Apple Distortion Field" and try to tell us that EDGE is as fast as 3G. There is a difference and customers WILL actually see it.
The real reason probably is that Apple could not sell iPhones at 749 USD (with two-year contract) which have a battery life of 2 hours. Yes, 3G phones do need more power (and thus better batteries) and the chipset/other hardware is still more expensive.
1) 3G. OK, so it will be there for Europe. Are you sure? Apple has made no announcement about that. You're guessing, making an assumption based on the fact that 2.5G devices don't sell well in Europe.
I don't think that Europe will get a 3G version. 3G phones don't sell too well here, most people just don't care as the killer apps are still making phone calls, text and downloading ringtones, which works well enough with 2G.
However, there will have to be a 3G version for the Asian market. Japan and South Korea don't have GSM networks (yes, this also means no EDGE) but use a standard called PDC. It would not make sense for Apple to make PDC iPhones, which could only be sold (and used) in these two countries, but making a hybrid GSM/UMTS phone, which could be sold and used worldwide, well that certainly would make sense. Maybe that's why Asia will get the iPhone in 2008 and not, like Europe, in late 2007.
Just one more thing: UMTS phones often have a second camera on the front for making video calls. The way Steve Jobs held the iPhone when making calls... well, that's just how you would hold such a a phone when making a video call.
I'm still missing the GPS for mobile navigation...
Gaah why to all the metric pushers insist on using a mass unit for describing weight? Metric has a perfectly good force unit, the Newton.
You usually want to know the mass, not the gravitational force. The term "weight" is ambigous, it can mean "mass" (or "mass determined by measuring the gravitational force") or "gravitational force".
There was no need to repeat Galileo's greatest folly and invent the kilograms-weight unit.
That would be kilopond (kp), which is no longer in wide use.
The lack of relation between the price and the quality. For a radio and TV, the GEZ wants EUR204.36 (GBP136.91, USD257.81). A colour TV license in the UK costs GBP131.50 (EUR196.28, USD247.62.
In other words: About the same, depending on the exchange rate.
For my GEZ money, I get a few poor TV channels (with ads), a few (mostly poor) radio channels (with ads) and little original programme-making of any consequence. Were I still in England, I'd be getting from the BBC (at the last count) eight TV channels, eleven national radio channels and numerous local radio channels along with programme-making of international repute.
Well, let's count the German channels (not including regional services):
Das Erste ("First")*
ZDF ("Second")*
ARTE (German/French cooperation)
3sat (German/Austrian/Swiss cooperation)
Phoenix (Parliament/Politics)
KI.KA (Children's Channel)
EinsPlus
EinsExtra
EinsFestival
ZDFdokukanal
ZDFinfokanal
ZDFtheaterkanal
If I remember correctly, twelve is more than eight. In addition, there are more regional channels ("Third programmes", except BR-alpha) than in the UK (and they are "full" programms, not just time slices):
Unless you're stuck with an analogue terrestrial antenna (only Das Erste, ZDF, the local "third" programme and maybe a few commercial programms), you can also watch at least two (analogue cable, DVB-T) or all (DVB-C/S) of these regional programmes.
Well, only those channels marked with * (yes, that's the two main channels) actually do show a few ads (up to 20 minutes per working day, not after 8pm, not interrupting programmes).
(When was the last time you saw something from the BBC on TV, wherever you are? And when did you last see something from German TV?)
Hm, the last thing I remember from the BBC was a coproduction of the BBC and ZDF... Of course, BBC programmes are more easily exported to other English- and even American-speaking countries.
(12) No provision of this Directive should require or encourage Member States to impose new systems of licensing or administrative authorisation on any type of media.
As it stands, only one SIM number can ever be associated with a phone number.
Actually, O2 Germany offers this as a service. (Yes, you actually get two accounts - one per SIM - which just share the phone number.)
It woudl create a fault in the system which would prevent both yours and the clone SIM from working. This is actually one of the main reasons why Cellphones are not usable on Planes (even if it is prooven to be safe to the electronics).
No, GSM can handle this quite well. In towns with a high base station density, it is also possible that multiple cells are visible.
No, the licence defines any "tablet" to be a "non-PC". ("...you may not use the Software on any non-PC product..., including, but not limited to, mobile devices,... tablets,...")
If your software is licensed with the "or later" clause, you might end up with it being licensed under terms you really don't agree with.
If you don't use the "or later" clause, you might end up with a licence that is outdated (and does not address ASP adequatly, for example) and no easy way to upgrade to a better licence.
"v2 or later" is *NOT* trivially convertable to "v3 or later." You either need all authors to agree to it, or you need to fork off the project and then convince all authors to work on the new fork.
Actually, it is convertible quite easily. "v2 or later" actually is a multi-license under GPL v2, v3, v4,... With multi-licensed works, you can always make modifications and distribute the result under less licenses, such as GPL v3 ("or later"), the GPL v2 (without "or later"), the GPL v4, the GPL v2 or v4 or later, but not v3, and so on...
Of course, you can't reduce the license grants of other people, so users can always use the version not modified by you. If people don't like your reduction to less licenses, they can just not use your code.
Re:Good news, even for Sid users.
on
Sarge is Now Frozen
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Which is fine, but it does not mean that you need to go three *years* between releases, and then launching with older software than any other major distribution is currently using.
With a shorter release cycle, Debian would lose one of its advantages: You can set up a server and receive security fixes for years without having to upgrade. For some purposes, this is a good thing.
On the other hand, for other purposes, this is bad. What Debian needs is a "semi-stable" release (not as volatile as "testing" but released more often than "stable").
"The court said Fortinet would have to pay a fine of five to 250,000 euros and that employees would face up to 6 months imprisonment for violation of the injunction.
The fine is only for future violations, i.e. if they continue to distribute the product. Also, the exact amount is decided by a court on a case-by-case basis and it is very unlikely that the court will fine them with the maximum amount or imprison the CEOs, even for the most blatant and gross violations of the injunction.
In addition, the company is responsible for Welte's legal fees."
This is because Germany has a loser-pays-all-legal-expenses system and not a you-can-sue-me-if-you-like-but-it-will-cost-you-mo re-than-you-can-win system.
What stops me from plugging the video output of a dvd player into my video capture card and recording off of it?
HDCP. Doesn't work with analogue outputs? Well, no analogue outputs for HD DVD players then (at least not for HDTV resolutions, which is why you'd buy a HD DVD instead of an ordinary DVD in the first place).
Slashdot Mirror
The North American mobile phone market is a bit special as there are different standards used by different phone companies (GMS vs. D-AMPS vs. CDMA2000). So if you switch providers, you also switch technology and actually need a new phone.
In countries which are GSM-only, you can usually get better deals if you don't need a new phone. Even in Germany, which was a bit retarted compared to other European countries, you could find dealers which did not give you a subsided phone but a subsided cheque. Nowadays, there are SIM-card only plans which start at 0 per month (and very competitive prices for airtime).
Yes, 3G phones do need more power (and thus better batteries) and the chipset/other hardware is still more expensive.
However, there will have to be a 3G version for the Asian market. Japan and South Korea don't have GSM networks (yes, this also means no EDGE) but use a standard called PDC. It would not make sense for Apple to make PDC iPhones, which could only be sold (and used) in these two countries, but making a hybrid GSM/UMTS phone, which could be sold and used worldwide, well that certainly would make sense.
Maybe that's why Asia will get the iPhone in 2008 and not, like Europe, in late 2007.
Just one more thing: UMTS phones often have a second camera on the front for making video calls. The way Steve Jobs held the iPhone when making calls
I'm still missing the GPS for mobile navigation...
The term "weight" is ambigous, it can mean "mass" (or "mass determined by measuring the gravitational force") or "gravitational force".
That would be kilopond (kp), which is no longer in wide use.
Well, let's count the German channels (not including regional services):
- Das Erste ("First")*
- ZDF ("Second")*
- ARTE (German/French cooperation)
- 3sat (German/Austrian/Swiss cooperation)
- Phoenix (Parliament/Politics)
- KI.KA (Children's Channel)
- EinsPlus
- EinsExtra
- EinsFestival
- ZDFdokukanal
- ZDFinfokanal
- ZDFtheaterkanal
If I remember correctly, twelve is more than eight. In addition, there are more regional channels ("Third programmes", except BR-alpha) than in the UK (and they are "full" programms, not just time slices):- Bayerisches Fernsehen (Bavaria)
- BR-alpha (Bavaria)
- hr-fernsehen (Hesse)
- Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk (Central Germany)
- NDR Fernsehen (Northern Germany)
- Radio Bremen TV (Bremen)
- rbb Fernsehen (Berlin, Brandenburg)
- SR Südwest Fernsehen (Saarland)
- SWR Fernsehen (Baden-Wuerttemberg, Rheinland-Palatine)
- WDR Fernsehen (Western Germany)
Unless you're stuck with an analogue terrestrial antenna (only Das Erste, ZDF, the local "third" programme and maybe a few commercial programms), you can also watch at least two (analogue cable, DVB-T) or all (DVB-C/S) of these regional programmes.Well, only those channels marked with * (yes, that's the two main channels) actually do show a few ads (up to 20 minutes per working day, not after 8pm, not interrupting programmes).
Hm, the last thing I remember from the BBC was a coproduction of the BBC and ZDF...
Of course, BBC programmes are more easily exported to other English- and even American-speaking countries.
Well, if that really happened, it would take some time before there's a conviction. Enough time to finish the HURD... dt&r
No, GSM can handle this quite well. In towns with a high base station density, it is also possible that multiple cells are visible.
You're confused. Chang *is* a family name - but not the most common one, which is Wang.
Over 95% of all people don't have a "social security number". (Most of them don't even have social security, BTW.)
Most web sites can't be accessed with IP adresses. They are name-based virtual servers which share an IP address.
Quite close, but not exactly right.
No, the licence defines any "tablet" to be a "non-PC". ("...you may not use the Software on any non-PC product ..., including, but not limited to, mobile devices, ... tablets, ...")
Of course, you can't reduce the license grants of other people, so users can always use the version not modified by you. If people don't like your reduction to less licenses, they can just not use your code.
With a shorter release cycle, Debian would lose one of its advantages: You can set up a server and receive security fixes for years without having to upgrade. For some purposes, this is a good thing.
On the other hand, for other purposes, this is bad. What Debian needs is a "semi-stable" release (not as volatile as "testing" but released more often than "stable").
This is because Germany has a loser-pays-all-legal-expenses system and not a you-can-sue-me-if-you-like-but-it-will-cost-you-m