I could actually see a way that Apple could make use of that space that isn't fugly. My main issue is that they're putting the notification bar up there.
But if they put the notification bar below the notch, and used the "ears" for something else -- maybe user-customizable super-important priority indicators -- that could work. The "ears" remain black most of the time, but light up when the super-notification happens.
I haven't put any effort at all into learning the details of the Nougat way yet (I don't target apps that far up the version ladder), so I am likely to be wrong in my first impressions -- but on the surface it doesn't look like this change is that big of a deal for most apps. There are probably edge cases where it is, though.
Many Apple fans were amused when Phil Schiller explained the removal of the headphone jack on last year’s iPhone as “courage”. But that was nothing compared to what happened last week.
Since we're using "courage" as a synonym for "stupid" these days, the removal of the headphone jack took more "courage". The cutout has mostly an aesthetic impact. The headphone jack removal has a functionality impact.
The Essential Phone does this, in a slightly less obnoxious manner (since the cutout is smaller) -- and receives much ridicule about it.
Justifiably, in my opinion -- it's a terrible design decision. It could be OK if the status bar sat below the cutout instead of being cut in half by it.
What in Nougat is stopping you from using a cert signed by your own CA? I'm not seeing that in the page you linked to. On the contrary, I see specific instructions on how to allow exactly that.
It's not possible unless they fix the things that prevents it from being a serious contender as a payment system: the value of the coins needs to be a lot less variable, and there needs to be some sort of recourse if a transaction goes wrong.
They aren't strangers, and helping them install a cert is a trivial exercise. Or, if they use a less tightass browser, telling them that the security warning is OK and they should allow a permanent exception is even easier.
If they're unwilling or unable to do either of those things, then they don't have to access my servers. I also run an open WiFi hotspot just for this purpose, which gets them throttled, limited internet access that is more than sufficient for casual use.
Clearly, if you like the digital assistant (of whatever flavor), then this is a nonissue. The dumb thing is that the button is worthless to people who don't want to use the digital assistant.
I don't pine for Geocities and such at all -- that's not what I'm talking about. Also, the important part of the web obviously still exists. My only real point is that if the commercial web segregates itself off, it would make the rest of the web (which, for me, is where I find the most valuable stuff) more prominent.
I don't know if I really buy the argument, I'm just trying to look for a silver lining in a dark cloud.
I won't name the specific company I know about, because they don't do direct hires. They use a placement agency -- specifically because they can't find candidates on their own. This is because to work there, you're going to have to live in a rural area, about 3 hours from the nearest largish city. Their competitors are similarly located.
Over the years, I've noticed that there are more companies than you'd think that need talent, pay well, and work with interesting tech -- but exist in the middle of nowhere, so have problems hiring. Someone who is OK with relocating to a rural area can do very well.
In a home LAN you can just use a self-signed certificate and add the cert to your browsers' trust stores.
Yes, this.
You can even, for complex home environments, run your own CA, install your own CA's cert and then use it to sign individual certs all day long without further hassle.
The only reason you'd ever have to have a cert signed by a third party CA is if you want strangers to use your services and don't want to require them to install a special cert to do so.
Yes. Although if it's an edge that can be easily ignored (rather than a button that constantly taunts you with its potential), that's much less annoying.
Unless, of course, you can't disable it -- in which case, it makes the phone unappealing, period.
This could actually save the web. Bear with me here...
It's pretty much only going to be the commercial websites that bother with DRM for any reason. The commercialization of the web has had numerous terrible effects on the web as a whole, and if much of the commercial web segregates itself through this mechanism, it might bring the real (and, imo, better) web back into the prominence that it once had.
The trend, in hardware and software, has been to reduce the ability for people to use their own machines in the way that they see fit. I object to this trend in the most strenuous terms.
It's why people who insist that I "hate change" or am a "luddite" because I refuse to use devices and software that are effectively handcuffs are misguided. I relish change and love cool new stuff.
I'm just not willing to give up any freedom for it.
The geek doesn't like paying for content. I get that.
If that's what you think the issue is about, then you don't get it at all.
Then you have give it access to protected content.
It always had access to protected content. That also isn't the issue.
The issue is that the EME doesn't belong in the HTML standard in the first place. But, since it's going to be forced in no matter what, the secondary issue is that the EME mechanism doesn't actually achieve any of the things were being touted as the reason it should be in the standard.
Resigning after losing the EME fight stinks of the spoilt little child taking his bat and ball and storming off home in a huff after losing a game with the neighborhood kids.
That's not how I see it at all. They aren't leaving because of this one issue. The corporate takeover of the W3C had been causing increasing problems for a long time. I think this is more like the straw that broke the camel's back.
From my point of view, their leaving is makes sense -- their presence adds some validity to the committee that it doesn't deserve. If they can't actually accomplish any good by being on it (and it looks like they can't), then their remaining on it is actively harmful.
This depends a lot on where you are looking. There are tons of companies that have a great deal of trouble filling developer positions, but they aren't in the usual cities or (often) with companies that are well-known in the computer industry.
They also tend to have the most interesting and challenging work. For example, do you want to work with room-sized robots tackling computer vision and AI problems? There are lumber mill equipment manufacturers who badly need you.
Slashdot Mirror
When you've produced a couple of very successful products, you're not a "wannabe" anymore.
I agree.
I could actually see a way that Apple could make use of that space that isn't fugly. My main issue is that they're putting the notification bar up there.
But if they put the notification bar below the notch, and used the "ears" for something else -- maybe user-customizable super-important priority indicators -- that could work. The "ears" remain black most of the time, but light up when the super-notification happens.
Hmmm...
I haven't put any effort at all into learning the details of the Nougat way yet (I don't target apps that far up the version ladder), so I am likely to be wrong in my first impressions -- but on the surface it doesn't look like this change is that big of a deal for most apps. There are probably edge cases where it is, though.
Marco Arment said:
Many Apple fans were amused when Phil Schiller explained the removal of the headphone jack on last year’s iPhone as “courage”. But that was nothing compared to what happened last week.
Since we're using "courage" as a synonym for "stupid" these days, the removal of the headphone jack took more "courage". The cutout has mostly an aesthetic impact. The headphone jack removal has a functionality impact.
The Essential Phone does this, in a slightly less obnoxious manner (since the cutout is smaller) -- and receives much ridicule about it.
Justifiably, in my opinion -- it's a terrible design decision. It could be OK if the status bar sat below the cutout instead of being cut in half by it.
What in Nougat is stopping you from using a cert signed by your own CA? I'm not seeing that in the page you linked to. On the contrary, I see specific instructions on how to allow exactly that.
It's not possible unless they fix the things that prevents it from being a serious contender as a payment system: the value of the coins needs to be a lot less variable, and there needs to be some sort of recourse if a transaction goes wrong.
Ah, I mistook that slide show for a video. So let me rephrase my earlier comment...
They aren't locked away in a slideshow, are they? Is there any chance they could be made available in a reasonable format?
They aren't locked away in the video, are they? Is there any chance they could be made available in a reasonable format?
They aren't strangers, and helping them install a cert is a trivial exercise. Or, if they use a less tightass browser, telling them that the security warning is OK and they should allow a permanent exception is even easier.
If they're unwilling or unable to do either of those things, then they don't have to access my servers. I also run an open WiFi hotspot just for this purpose, which gets them throttled, limited internet access that is more than sufficient for casual use.
Clearly, if you like the digital assistant (of whatever flavor), then this is a nonissue. The dumb thing is that the button is worthless to people who don't want to use the digital assistant.
I don't pine for Geocities and such at all -- that's not what I'm talking about. Also, the important part of the web obviously still exists. My only real point is that if the commercial web segregates itself off, it would make the rest of the web (which, for me, is where I find the most valuable stuff) more prominent.
I don't know if I really buy the argument, I'm just trying to look for a silver lining in a dark cloud.
Yes, of course I do, but that's not very relevant to the issue of whether or not EME should be a part of the HTML spec.
I won't name the specific company I know about, because they don't do direct hires. They use a placement agency -- specifically because they can't find candidates on their own. This is because to work there, you're going to have to live in a rural area, about 3 hours from the nearest largish city. Their competitors are similarly located.
Over the years, I've noticed that there are more companies than you'd think that need talent, pay well, and work with interesting tech -- but exist in the middle of nowhere, so have problems hiring. Someone who is OK with relocating to a rural area can do very well.
In a home LAN you can just use a self-signed certificate and add the cert to your browsers' trust stores.
Yes, this.
You can even, for complex home environments, run your own CA, install your own CA's cert and then use it to sign individual certs all day long without further hassle.
The only reason you'd ever have to have a cert signed by a third party CA is if you want strangers to use your services and don't want to require them to install a special cert to do so.
Yes. Although if it's an edge that can be easily ignored (rather than a button that constantly taunts you with its potential), that's much less annoying.
Unless, of course, you can't disable it -- in which case, it makes the phone unappealing, period.
This could actually save the web. Bear with me here...
It's pretty much only going to be the commercial websites that bother with DRM for any reason. The commercialization of the web has had numerous terrible effects on the web as a whole, and if much of the commercial web segregates itself through this mechanism, it might bring the real (and, imo, better) web back into the prominence that it once had.
Very well said. I couldn't agree more.
The trend, in hardware and software, has been to reduce the ability for people to use their own machines in the way that they see fit. I object to this trend in the most strenuous terms.
It's why people who insist that I "hate change" or am a "luddite" because I refuse to use devices and software that are effectively handcuffs are misguided. I relish change and love cool new stuff.
I'm just not willing to give up any freedom for it.
It seems like once a week I'm given a new reason to be happy that I don't use Chrome.
The geek doesn't like paying for content. I get that.
If that's what you think the issue is about, then you don't get it at all.
Then you have give it access to protected content.
It always had access to protected content. That also isn't the issue.
The issue is that the EME doesn't belong in the HTML standard in the first place. But, since it's going to be forced in no matter what, the secondary issue is that the EME mechanism doesn't actually achieve any of the things were being touted as the reason it should be in the standard.
It's a con job.
It is sad, but it's also understandable.
Resigning after losing the EME fight stinks of the spoilt little child taking his bat and ball and storming off home in a huff after losing a game with the neighborhood kids.
That's not how I see it at all. They aren't leaving because of this one issue. The corporate takeover of the W3C had been causing increasing problems for a long time. I think this is more like the straw that broke the camel's back.
From my point of view, their leaving is makes sense -- their presence adds some validity to the committee that it doesn't deserve. If they can't actually accomplish any good by being on it (and it looks like they can't), then their remaining on it is actively harmful.
This depends a lot on where you are looking. There are tons of companies that have a great deal of trouble filling developer positions, but they aren't in the usual cities or (often) with companies that are well-known in the computer industry.
They also tend to have the most interesting and challenging work. For example, do you want to work with room-sized robots tackling computer vision and AI problems? There are lumber mill equipment manufacturers who badly need you.
Yes, Bixby is an anti-feature that makes the phone less appealing than it would otherwise be.
That it has a dedicated button is reasonably insane. At least they graciously allow you to disable it now, but then you have a worthless button.
Now, if it were possible to use the button for something desirable, that would turn it into something that would actually add value.
almost anything of significance since the missing Doctor Who episodes is preserved.
Perhaps that's true with video, but it's certainly not true with music.
That's all well and good -- but now that it's a standard, it will be abused for things other than media streaming.