My 2007 BMW 3series with iDrive navigation package does exactly that.
The navigation system receives real-time traffic info, and will actively alert me if my planned route has traffic and (depending on whether I have it set for a dynamic route) either automagically alter the route around the jam, or offer me the option of doing so.
If I'm not following a planned route, it will still place traffic alerts on the map to indicate accidents, congestion, severity of congestion, lane closures, etc... and it also offers detailed information about these advisories (where, when, etc).
It's come in extremely handy on many occasions, seeing as I live in Southern California.
It'll never happen. AMD has nothing to do with it.
OS X works so well because it doesn't have to support every single third party driver for all the components in your custom built beige box.
Most of the BSOD problems with Windows are driver related, and most drivers come from third parties. Apple controls the OS, the hardware, and the drivers in between. And there's a much smaller subset of hardware components to issue drivers for.
This adds up to a really solid experience that could only degrade if they open it up to support your beige box. Apple knows this. It would damage the end user "It Just Works!" experience that they rely on. Then there's also the fact that they make their profits on the hardware margins, and OS X is something that they practically give away in order to sell more hardware, so they wouldn't benefit from selling just the OS without the hardware.
It's not going to happen. They have NO incentive to do this.
Sgt. Joe sends his weekly email home to his family. The email includes a link to a National Geographic picture of the Bay of Yemen, and his email says "This is where Daddy is going to be next week."
A week later, the USS Cole gets bombed.*
This impacts (and endangers) not only Sgt. Joe, but everyone else on board that vessel, potentially even everyone deployed to the Bay of Yemen.
The danger here isn't so much that soldiers are going to intentionally give away highly secretive intel, but that they will do so ACCIDENTLY, without meaning to. Most leaks, far and away, are accidents. And that's why the situation requires additional vigilance... because if someone is careless, they endanger not only themselves, but everyone in their battalion/vessel/operation/region/etc.
As someone else put it, loose lips sink ships. The military isn't that proactive about such things... we're only seeing the new regulations because this has already become a serious problem.
(* I'm not asserting that this is what actually happened. It's my own handwaving fiction to construct an example that gets the point across.)
Ok... I also use TB on all of my machines (Mac, Linux, 2xWin), have used it since the 0.1 release, and before that Mozilla (and before that Netscape 4/6/7) Mailnews. I use it with SMIME digital certificates issued by my company and I'm eagerly awaiting the next blessed release of Lightning for the Google calendar functionality. In general, I think TB is the best mail client out there.
Having established that (potential lack of) credibility, I have to say that I completely agree with everything that the parent and grandparent have said. TB does have its quirks and issues which do drive me a little nuts sometimes.
But you guys have to bear something in mind, and no one else has touched on this: Firefox is the Mozilla flagship product. FX, not TB. FX gets the bulk of the resources to develop the XUL platform/toolkit and Gecko layout engine. TB just uses those components. The main amount of TB development is done by like two guys (mscott and bienvenu). Compare that to the army of people working on FX, and it's something of a major accomplishment that TB is as great as it is.
Now, instead of whining on/. about how TB sucks and you wish the developers would make it better, you guys COULD always log into the Mozilla forums at forums.mozillazine.org and add to the discussions in Thunderbird Builds with your ideas about making the product better. You could give that 5 minutes a day instead of endlessly clicking refresh on the/. main page the whole time...:)
All kidding aside, mscott _DOES_ read those forums, and he's also very receptive to (constructive) user feedback, so if you want to put your thoughts in the lead developer's ear, that's the best way.
A shiny new OS...or is it patch #5 on a seven year old program? In the MS world we call them service packs and they don't cost $100.
Oh right, you mean the same world in which:
* each OS release by MS is truly just another patch with no real innovation * MS systems crash with ridiculous frequency * MS systems get owned if they're connected to the net without a firewall * MS can't even release 1 service pack per year * MS pushes all their patches on one tuesday per month to make it APPEAR that they don't have as many vulnerabilities * MS can't even release a new OS that people actually desire, they have to End-of-Life XP to force people to buy Vista * and so forth...
Are those headaches really worth saving $100/yr? Hell yes. You get what you pay for.
The problem with Microsoft is not so much one of bugs as it is a problem with their general design philosophy.
Such as providing mechanisms for your own developers to bypass the security of the entire system to make some friggin media clips play more smoothly. News flash, idiots: if you provide two paths through security, a strongly checked path and a weakly checked path, you incentivize attackers to take the weak path! And if you provide those hooks for your own developers to bypass security, then attackers can use them too!
They were probably praying that no one would ever figure out that those hooks were there... and security by obscurity is very, very poor design.
My inclinations against myself or my family running vista just got a +1 Justification.
The conspiracy theorist in me (I don't let him out much) wonders...
This whole thing could be an elaborate Microsoft scheme to discredit Linux:
1) Enrich Darl enough so that he won't care when his personal/corporate image is sullied (even further). 2) Have SCO file idiotic lawsuits to try to bury IBM in shit. 3) Have SCO maintain these lawsuits even when lack of evidence is exposed, basically displaying psychotic determination. 4) Regardless of the outcome of the trial, dump enough money into SCO to keep it on life support so it can send the occasional threatening letters to anyone known to be using Linux.
This could just be Microsoft throwing SCO under the bus in an attempt to spread FUD and make Linux-using companies afraid of getting sued, thus driving up their TCO, at which point MS can say "Yeah, our licensing is expensive, but do you really want to risk getting sued by SCO? They're bankrupt, they're desperate, even if you disprove their charges you'd never recover your legal expenses from them...."
Interesting. I was not aware they were installing iDrive in the new 3-series.... It must be something that only comes with the gps/map system, as most cars around here don't sell with that.
Yeah, it's an option on the 3. (It's standard on everything else.) They refer to it as the Navigation package.
Oh yeah, and use a good leather conditioner on the seats, such as Lexol... and I'd suggest 301 Aerospace protectant for the dash.
And you are aware that the iDrive installed in the 3 series isn't the same as the earlier version installed in the 5 and 7 series? (It may be now. Originally though, they weren't the same.) I'm not surprised at all that they have a better implementation in the 3.
Yeah, I'm aware that it's gone through a few iterations since it's initial release, and I assume they've worked out the kinks. But I have no experience with anything other than the 2007 3 series.
The 3 series does seem to be the darling of the family, doesn't it?
Sure seems that way... but I can understand why. Most people just don't want to spend upwards of $50k on a car, even here in Southern California.
And I hate to sound like a fanboy... but you totally get what you pay for with this car. In a word: AWESOME.
I have to disagree with you. I have iDrive on my 2007 BMW 3 series, and I love it. Granted, it took a bit of getting used to because it's not the most intuitive thing I've ever used (it's not an ipod), but after a week or two I could navigate the menus quickly and without fuss, and while mostly keeping my eyes on the road. I've only had the car for a month, but haven't had any problems using iDrive beyond the first couple of days. These people should drive the car and use the system for a month before reviewing it, the negative reviews by people who use it for a few minutes and then criticize it are worthless and should be dismissed.
Why?
Firstly, the knob is tactile. It gives little vibrating pulses when you turn it, one pulse per selection that it scrolls past, and it will stop scrolling and apply tactile resistance when it reaches the top or bottom of a field. So you can let it scroll through options in a long list while you keep your eyes on the road and know by feel when you should glance at it.
Secondly, I don't have to use the knob that much. I can give the car voice commands, and only have to use the knob once I've reached a point in the menu where voice commands no longer apply. (E.g. when I get into a location search, it doesn't have voice recognition for all of the various addresses and businesses.)
Thirdly, about the criticisms that it's unsafe to use while driving? No shit sherlock. Neither is your cell phone. Or putting on makeup. Or shaving. Or eating lunch. But people do those without blaming the manufacturers or restaurants or stores that sell the necessary equipment. And when some dumbass kills another dumbass by ramming him at 90mph, we don't fault the manufacturer for building a car that can do 90. We should require some personal accountability from drivers before we lampoon BMW for providing a navigation system that (horror) might require a little driver interaction. It isn't the fault of BMW if the driver isn't responsible enough to interact with the system only when the car isn't in motion. Every time you power the car on, the first thing iDrive does is display a warning (for 10-15 seconds) that it's the driver's responsibility to operate the system only when safe to do so.
Overwhelmingly, my experience with the 2007 iDrive has been EXTREMELY positive, and I don't know how I lived without it.
Exactly. The "Month of Apple Bugs" was, for the most part, the "Month of Bugs that are Mostly Indirectly Related to Apple Because They Just Happen to Involve Software Running on the Mac Which Didn't Come From Apple".
As I recall there were a few bugs (a very significant minority) in there that Apple had some responsibility for, but they were obscure and there were no known in-the-wild attacks.
MoAB was nothing but a smear campaign. I'm happy to see Apple smearing them back.
That's pretty much exactly my problem. I have an older 32" tv with just RCA jacks, I don't even think it has S-video. I'd drop $300 on an Apple TV without even blinking, but ~$2000* to buy an Apple TV _AND_ LCD tv with HDMI.... not so much.
I'll wait on this until I have a real reason to buy a new tv which I can justify better than "but but i want one!"
[*] I say that with a complete wild-ass handwaving guess that a decent LCD tv is going to run me around 1700ish, having not even priced one recently. Whether I'm right or wrong isn't the point here.
I wholeheartedly agree. I am also a BofA customer, and while I have enjoyed a great banking experience with them, the SiteKey thing managed to piss me off. A year ago when they rolled out this crap and I was forced to sign up for it, I ranted on my blog about it. Here's an excerpt:
Bank of America has unrolled this stupid SiteKey thing, which just doesn't benefit the consumer much. It seems to be a way for them to have more plausible deniability without actually taking on any responsibility.
The idea is that you choose a little picture for your account, and the website saves a cookie on your computer. If you try to log into your bank account, and your browser has a valid cookie, the website will show your SiteKey picture.
If you recognize your SiteKey, you'll know for sure that you are at the valid Bank of America site. Confirming your SiteKey is also how you'll know that it's safe to enter your Passcode and click the Sign In button.
If you don't have a cookie then you're prompted with personal challenge questions that you have to answer in order to see your SiteKey picture. At that point if the right SiteKey picture shows up, you "know it's safe" to enter your actual password.
If I connect from a new computer, I basically have to enter a challenge response (password) before I can enter my password. It's simply a way for the bank to prove that they're the legitimate site, and that I'm not being phished. It doesn't actually authenticate me to the bank in any stronger way, since if an attacker knew the challenge answers and my password, he can still log in as me from anywhere. Granted, now he has to know more information, but it doesn't put it outside the realm of possibility. There will still be idiots who get phished and happily input their challenge, ignore the bogus SiteKey, provide their real password, and then find out all their money has been harvested away.
What really bothers me about it is that they're making it look like they care about security, but this is just another way for them to force the vigilance onto the consumers while providing themselves more loopholes to escape liability. It's another hoop that the consumer has to jump through, but it doesn't increase the responsibility on the bank's side of things. We need our government to make the financial institutions liable when their systems are exploited, instead of allowing them to blame the consumers, many of whom just aren't geeks and simply don't know any better. When it's an economic problem for the banks, then it will matter to them.
Personally, I think his sentence should include cross dressing in a hooker's outfit, getting picked up by someone in a sports car, getting fucked, dumped, gunned down, and then run over.
Actually, I want it because the interface for phone calls and text messages blows everything else away.
I don't care so much about the ipod functionality (I already have one that I only use at the gym) or the web browser. I want it because I can't manage a conference call or even call waiting on my phone without dropping someone 70% of the time.
3rd party apps? Who the hell cares. It's a phone. It makes phone calls. That's what I want it for. There are no good third party apps anyway.
DRM? Fairplay vs PlaysForSure.. I'll take Fairplay. You can always cut a cd and rerip if it bothers you so much.
That's one hell of an exclusive deal. As much as I hate Cingular and their pricing plans, I'm not sure I can wait five years for other networks to have that phone... especially if they put out a nano-sized version.
Sigh... why oh why can't I have my apple and eat it too?
From TFA: So far, Microsoft will use the new approach only in the UK, Dhaliwal said.
Disclaimer: IANAL, but I have several in my immediate family.
This wouldn't fly in the USA, since the BSA isn't a government or law enforcement agency.
So most business will tell them to go fuck themselves on the grounds that they're not coming inside without a search warrant, which, again, they can't get without directly involving the police who often have better things to do.
Which conveniently would give businesses at least a day or two to clean up their act, assuming they need to.
The trouble, such as it was, was that nothing was ready to announce, which is to say, ship.
Remeber, Apple doesn't get to schedule Macworld around their product readiness, it's on the calendar a year ahead of time. If a product isn't ready, I'd rather them take the extra time to make it ready than to rush it out on a specific target date like so many other companies -- notorious for making shit products -- that I could name.
While Apple does put out great products.. please dont think you are giving your money to the good guys. They are every bit as altruistic as Microsoft.
You completely missed my point. I'm NOT buying their products because "I want to give my money to the good guys" or any such philosophical or idealistic bullshit.
I buy their products because at the end of the day, they just work. It's not just a marketing slogan. I can sit and relax on my couch and not fight with my computer.
That's all it is. I don't care about their philosophy, or revolutionary upgrades. I just want a computer that does what I want, when I want, without irritating me.
All I care about is the quality. And I'm willing to pay for it. And people like me are Apple's target demographic. That was my point.
Slashdot Mirror
My 2007 BMW 3series with iDrive navigation package does exactly that.
The navigation system receives real-time traffic info, and will actively alert me if my planned route has traffic and (depending on whether I have it set for a dynamic route) either automagically alter the route around the jam, or offer me the option of doing so.
If I'm not following a planned route, it will still place traffic alerts on the map to indicate accidents, congestion, severity of congestion, lane closures, etc... and it also offers detailed information about these advisories (where, when, etc).
It's come in extremely handy on many occasions, seeing as I live in Southern California.
LOL!! I wish I had mod points for you! :)
Oh man, not this again...
It'll never happen. AMD has nothing to do with it.
OS X works so well because it doesn't have to support every single third party driver for all the components in your custom built beige box.
Most of the BSOD problems with Windows are driver related, and most drivers come from third parties. Apple controls the OS, the hardware, and the drivers in between. And there's a much smaller subset of hardware components to issue drivers for.
This adds up to a really solid experience that could only degrade if they open it up to support your beige box. Apple knows this. It would damage the end user "It Just Works!" experience that they rely on. Then there's also the fact that they make their profits on the hardware margins, and OS X is something that they practically give away in order to sell more hardware, so they wouldn't benefit from selling just the OS without the hardware.
It's not going to happen. They have NO incentive to do this.
Exactly. A good example of why this is a problem:
Sgt. Joe sends his weekly email home to his family. The email includes a link to a National Geographic picture of the Bay of Yemen, and his email says "This is where Daddy is going to be next week."
A week later, the USS Cole gets bombed.*
This impacts (and endangers) not only Sgt. Joe, but everyone else on board that vessel, potentially even everyone deployed to the Bay of Yemen.
The danger here isn't so much that soldiers are going to intentionally give away highly secretive intel, but that they will do so ACCIDENTLY, without meaning to. Most leaks, far and away, are accidents. And that's why the situation requires additional vigilance... because if someone is careless, they endanger not only themselves, but everyone in their battalion/vessel/operation/region/etc.
As someone else put it, loose lips sink ships. The military isn't that proactive about such things... we're only seeing the new regulations because this has already become a serious problem.
(* I'm not asserting that this is what actually happened. It's my own handwaving fiction to construct an example that gets the point across.)
Because you need a story about a crisis if you want to make the front page of slashdot :)
Ok... I also use TB on all of my machines (Mac, Linux, 2xWin), have used it since the 0.1 release, and before that Mozilla (and before that Netscape 4/6/7) Mailnews. I use it with SMIME digital certificates issued by my company and I'm eagerly awaiting the next blessed release of Lightning for the Google calendar functionality. In general, I think TB is the best mail client out there.
/. about how TB sucks and you wish the developers would make it better, you guys COULD always log into the Mozilla forums at forums.mozillazine.org and add to the discussions in Thunderbird Builds with your ideas about making the product better. You could give that 5 minutes a day instead of endlessly clicking refresh on the /. main page the whole time... :)
Having established that (potential lack of) credibility, I have to say that I completely agree with everything that the parent and grandparent have said. TB does have its quirks and issues which do drive me a little nuts sometimes.
But you guys have to bear something in mind, and no one else has touched on this: Firefox is the Mozilla flagship product. FX, not TB. FX gets the bulk of the resources to develop the XUL platform/toolkit and Gecko layout engine. TB just uses those components. The main amount of TB development is done by like two guys (mscott and bienvenu). Compare that to the army of people working on FX, and it's something of a major accomplishment that TB is as great as it is.
Now, instead of whining on
All kidding aside, mscott _DOES_ read those forums, and he's also very receptive to (constructive) user feedback, so if you want to put your thoughts in the lead developer's ear, that's the best way.
A shiny new OS...or is it patch #5 on a seven year old program?
In the MS world we call them service packs and they don't cost $100.
Oh right, you mean the same world in which:
* each OS release by MS is truly just another patch with no real innovation
* MS systems crash with ridiculous frequency
* MS systems get owned if they're connected to the net without a firewall
* MS can't even release 1 service pack per year
* MS pushes all their patches on one tuesday per month to make it APPEAR that they don't have as many vulnerabilities
* MS can't even release a new OS that people actually desire, they have to End-of-Life XP to force people to buy Vista
* and so forth...
Are those headaches really worth saving $100/yr? Hell yes. You get what you pay for.
I agree.
The problem with Microsoft is not so much one of bugs as it is a problem with their general design philosophy.
Such as providing mechanisms for your own developers to bypass the security of the entire system to make some friggin media clips play more smoothly. News flash, idiots: if you provide two paths through security, a strongly checked path and a weakly checked path, you incentivize attackers to take the weak path! And if you provide those hooks for your own developers to bypass security, then attackers can use them too!
They were probably praying that no one would ever figure out that those hooks were there... and security by obscurity is very, very poor design.
My inclinations against myself or my family running vista just got a +1 Justification.
The conspiracy theorist in me (I don't let him out much) wonders...
This whole thing could be an elaborate Microsoft scheme to discredit Linux:
1) Enrich Darl enough so that he won't care when his personal/corporate image is sullied (even further).
2) Have SCO file idiotic lawsuits to try to bury IBM in shit.
3) Have SCO maintain these lawsuits even when lack of evidence is exposed, basically displaying psychotic determination.
4) Regardless of the outcome of the trial, dump enough money into SCO to keep it on life support so it can send the occasional threatening letters to anyone known to be using Linux.
This could just be Microsoft throwing SCO under the bus in an attempt to spread FUD and make Linux-using companies afraid of getting sued, thus driving up their TCO, at which point MS can say "Yeah, our licensing is expensive, but do you really want to risk getting sued by SCO? They're bankrupt, they're desperate, even if you disprove their charges you'd never recover your legal expenses from them...."
Interesting. I was not aware they were installing iDrive in the new 3-series. ... It must be something that only comes with the gps/map system, as most cars around here don't sell with that.
:)
Yeah, it's an option on the 3. (It's standard on everything else.) They refer to it as the Navigation package.
Oh yeah, and use a good leather conditioner on the seats, such as Lexol... and I'd suggest 301 Aerospace protectant for the dash.
Cool, thanks for the tips!
-r
Yes, because only BMW or Lexus owners are bad drivers. Silverado drivers would never, say, suffer from road rage.
</sarcasm>
And you are aware that the iDrive installed in the 3 series isn't the same as the earlier version installed in the 5 and 7 series? (It may be now. Originally though, they weren't the same.) I'm not surprised at all that they have a better implementation in the 3.
Yeah, I'm aware that it's gone through a few iterations since it's initial release, and I assume they've worked out the kinks. But I have no experience with anything other than the 2007 3 series.
The 3 series does seem to be the darling of the family, doesn't it?
Sure seems that way... but I can understand why. Most people just don't want to spend upwards of $50k on a car, even here in Southern California.
And I hate to sound like a fanboy... but you totally get what you pay for with this car. In a word: AWESOME.
It sucks.
I have to disagree with you. I have iDrive on my 2007 BMW 3 series, and I love it. Granted, it took a bit of getting used to because it's not the most intuitive thing I've ever used (it's not an ipod), but after a week or two I could navigate the menus quickly and without fuss, and while mostly keeping my eyes on the road. I've only had the car for a month, but haven't had any problems using iDrive beyond the first couple of days. These people should drive the car and use the system for a month before reviewing it, the negative reviews by people who use it for a few minutes and then criticize it are worthless and should be dismissed.
Why?
Firstly, the knob is tactile. It gives little vibrating pulses when you turn it, one pulse per selection that it scrolls past, and it will stop scrolling and apply tactile resistance when it reaches the top or bottom of a field. So you can let it scroll through options in a long list while you keep your eyes on the road and know by feel when you should glance at it.
Secondly, I don't have to use the knob that much. I can give the car voice commands, and only have to use the knob once I've reached a point in the menu where voice commands no longer apply. (E.g. when I get into a location search, it doesn't have voice recognition for all of the various addresses and businesses.)
Thirdly, about the criticisms that it's unsafe to use while driving? No shit sherlock. Neither is your cell phone. Or putting on makeup. Or shaving. Or eating lunch. But people do those without blaming the manufacturers or restaurants or stores that sell the necessary equipment. And when some dumbass kills another dumbass by ramming him at 90mph, we don't fault the manufacturer for building a car that can do 90. We should require some personal accountability from drivers before we lampoon BMW for providing a navigation system that (horror) might require a little driver interaction. It isn't the fault of BMW if the driver isn't responsible enough to interact with the system only when the car isn't in motion. Every time you power the car on, the first thing iDrive does is display a warning (for 10-15 seconds) that it's the driver's responsibility to operate the system only when safe to do so.
Overwhelmingly, my experience with the 2007 iDrive has been EXTREMELY positive, and I don't know how I lived without it.
-r
Exactly. The "Month of Apple Bugs" was, for the most part, the "Month of Bugs that are Mostly Indirectly Related to Apple Because They Just Happen to Involve Software Running on the Mac Which Didn't Come From Apple".
As I recall there were a few bugs (a very significant minority) in there that Apple had some responsibility for, but they were obscure and there were no known in-the-wild attacks.
MoAB was nothing but a smear campaign. I'm happy to see Apple smearing them back.
OMG Ponies!!!!11
:P)
(sorry, just couldn't help it
Forget Mars, we can just tow asteroids into orbit and mine them. Hell, there's already one on the way! :)
That's pretty much exactly my problem. I have an older 32" tv with just RCA jacks, I don't even think it has S-video. I'd drop $300 on an Apple TV without even blinking, but ~$2000* to buy an Apple TV _AND_ LCD tv with HDMI.... not so much.
I'll wait on this until I have a real reason to buy a new tv which I can justify better than "but but i want one!"
[*] I say that with a complete wild-ass handwaving guess that a decent LCD tv is going to run me around 1700ish, having not even priced one recently. Whether I'm right or wrong isn't the point here.
I wholeheartedly agree. I am also a BofA customer, and while I have enjoyed a great banking experience with them, the SiteKey thing managed to piss me off. A year ago when they rolled out this crap and I was forced to sign up for it, I ranted on my blog about it. Here's an excerpt:
Bank of America has unrolled this stupid SiteKey thing, which just doesn't benefit the consumer much. It seems to be a way for them to have more plausible deniability without actually taking on any responsibility.
The idea is that you choose a little picture for your account, and the website saves a cookie on your computer. If you try to log into your bank account, and your browser has a valid cookie, the website will show your SiteKey picture.
If you recognize your SiteKey, you'll know for sure that you are at the valid Bank of America site. Confirming your SiteKey is also how you'll know that it's safe to enter your Passcode and click the Sign In button.
If you don't have a cookie then you're prompted with personal challenge questions that you have to answer in order to see your SiteKey picture. At that point if the right SiteKey picture shows up, you "know it's safe" to enter your actual password.
If I connect from a new computer, I basically have to enter a challenge response (password) before I can enter my password. It's simply a way for the bank to prove that they're the legitimate site, and that I'm not being phished. It doesn't actually authenticate me to the bank in any stronger way, since if an attacker knew the challenge answers and my password, he can still log in as me from anywhere. Granted, now he has to know more information, but it doesn't put it outside the realm of possibility. There will still be idiots who get phished and happily input their challenge, ignore the bogus SiteKey, provide their real password, and then find out all their money has been harvested away.
What really bothers me about it is that they're making it look like they care about security, but this is just another way for them to force the vigilance onto the consumers while providing themselves more loopholes to escape liability. It's another hoop that the consumer has to jump through, but it doesn't increase the responsibility on the bank's side of things. We need our government to make the financial institutions liable when their systems are exploited, instead of allowing them to blame the consumers, many of whom just aren't geeks and simply don't know any better. When it's an economic problem for the banks, then it will matter to them.
Personally, I think his sentence should include cross dressing in a hooker's outfit, getting picked up by someone in a sports car, getting fucked, dumped, gunned down, and then run over.
That'd be fantastic.
Or you can buy a Mac Mini for 600, declare immediate victory, and have actual warranty support.
Actually, I want it because the interface for phone calls and text messages blows everything else away.
I don't care so much about the ipod functionality (I already have one that I only use at the gym) or the web browser. I want it because I can't manage a conference call or even call waiting on my phone without dropping someone 70% of the time.
3rd party apps? Who the hell cares. It's a phone. It makes phone calls. That's what I want it for. There are no good third party apps anyway.
DRM? Fairplay vs PlaysForSure.. I'll take Fairplay. You can always cut a cd and rerip if it bothers you so much.
That's one hell of an exclusive deal. As much as I hate Cingular and their pricing plans, I'm not sure I can wait five years for other networks to have that phone... especially if they put out a nano-sized version.
Sigh... why oh why can't I have my apple and eat it too?
From TFA: So far, Microsoft will use the new approach only in the UK, Dhaliwal said.
Disclaimer: IANAL, but I have several in my immediate family.
This wouldn't fly in the USA, since the BSA isn't a government or law enforcement agency.
So most business will tell them to go fuck themselves on the grounds that they're not coming inside without a search warrant, which, again, they can't get without directly involving the police who often have better things to do.
Which conveniently would give businesses at least a day or two to clean up their act, assuming they need to.
The trouble, such as it was, was that nothing was ready to announce, which is to say, ship.
Remeber, Apple doesn't get to schedule Macworld around their product readiness, it's on the calendar a year ahead of time. If a product isn't ready, I'd rather them take the extra time to make it ready than to rush it out on a specific target date like so many other companies -- notorious for making shit products -- that I could name.
While Apple does put out great products.. please dont think you are giving your money to the good guys. They are every bit as altruistic as Microsoft.
You completely missed my point. I'm NOT buying their products because "I want to give my money to the good guys" or any such philosophical or idealistic bullshit.
I buy their products because at the end of the day, they just work. It's not just a marketing slogan. I can sit and relax on my couch and not fight with my computer.
That's all it is. I don't care about their philosophy, or revolutionary upgrades. I just want a computer that does what I want, when I want, without irritating me.
All I care about is the quality. And I'm willing to pay for it. And people like me are Apple's target demographic. That was my point.