iPhone had better have 100% of demand availability on release, otherwise this wouldn't be worth it. I would have thought a delay on the iPhone would be better than on Leopard.
I, for example, would have bought a Leopard Family Pack the day of release, but not an iPhone. And iLife (whose delay rumors blame on requiring Leopard.) Heck, if iLife gets delayed until October, I'll just wait until NEXT January for iLife '08, rather than buy iLife '07.
Newton wasn't so much a 'flop', as it was starting to gain ground just as Steve Jobs came back and killed it.
DAT definitely *NOT* a flop. Digital Compact Cassette, yes. DAT, no. (DCC was the same shape as standard analog audiocassettes, and DCC players could play standard analog tapes. But it had the misfortune of coming out at the same time as MiniDisc, which was vastly superior. Unfortunately, confusion, followed by digital audio players such as the iPod helped keep MiniDisc from really taking off, either. Although MD wasn't a 'flop', either, as it has mostly taken over DATs position!)
DIVX: Definite flop.
Dot Coms: Well, Google, Yahoo, Amazon, many are still around, and doing quite well, so lumping them all together is unfair. But, yes, certainly MANY dot coms were flops.
E-Books haven't taken off yet. They are about where the Newton was when it was killed. They *COULD* take off, or they could flop. Only time will tell.
PCjr is a tough one. It wasn't *MEANT* to be a full featured computer. I knew quite a few people who had them, and we even had a couple at school. I find their complaint about lack of hard drive funny, since in 1984, almost no home computers had hard drives. (They compare it to the Apple II and C64, both of which were HD-less. Even the more expensive Macintosh didn't get an INTERNAL hard drive until 1987.)
Internet currency: Flop-o-rama. A silly idea from the outset.
Iridium is still alive, it just hasn't been as successful as was predicted. I wouldn't call that a flop, though.
Bob. Enough said. (Although many years after Bob's demise was already a done deal, I had a chance to play with a Bob-loaded computer, and thought it had potential. It was just WAAAAY too unstable.) Although the animated characters lived on through Windows XP as 'assistants'.
Net PC. Not so much a flop as a single company pushing for something that never happened.
Paperless office. BWAHAHAHAHA!!!! Intel was one of the big forces behind the 'paperless office', and I worked for them back in '99-2000. Our workgroup laser printer was constantly spitting out paper documents, because none of us could stand sifting through PDFs on our computer screens. One of the companies making a big push for it, and we were downing redwoods like they were candy. (Okay, that's a bit of an exaggeration...)
Push: As the article itself mentions, push is still being used, it's just not as obvious as was originally though. (i.e. now it's just a 'behind the scenes' technology.)
Smart appliances: I dunno, my parents went to buy a new refrigerator last week, and there were multiple models with built in computers in the doors at the showroom. I've seen washing machines similarly equipped.
VR: As a mass-market thing, definitely a flop. Still used in certain industries, though.
Really, the Mac Pro is *NOT* targeted at the home user. That's the iMac. The Mac Pro really is a 'Workstation', and is targeted at such a crowd. The kind that do scientific computing, rendering, or other highly-parallelizable tasks.
Not that I don't want one to replace my aging 500 MHz G4 for home use, mind you...
No, the New York Times article says that full albums DRM-free at higher quality will cost the same as lower-quality DRM-laden albums. It does not mention the 'upgrade' fee to upgrade already-purchased content. That is what the original poster was referring to, the 30 cent charge to download a new DRM-less copy of a song you already bought. It is mentioned that there will be an opportunity to upgrade already-purchased albums, but no cost is specified.
We won't know for certain until the tracks become available. But Apple has said it is "30 cents per track". And so far, it only includes EMI content. I would *HOPE* that albums that were purchased for a total price that made them less than 99 cents per song will have a cheaper upgrade fee. (Like, say, $3.00 for a $9.99 album, regardless of number of songs.)
I have spent $1000 in Microsoft software for my MacBook Pro: Microsoft Office for Mac, Windows Vista Ultimate (so I can run it in Parallels,) and Microsoft Office for Windows.
My Compaq laptop, on the other hand, came with OEM Windows, which Microsoft made very little on, and I bought Office for it. Nowhere near as much money as I spent on my Mac!
Microsoft loves the idea of dual-booting *AND* virtualizing on a Mac, it means more full-cost sales for them, not OEM sales. Now, if Apple starts selling Boot Camp and/or Parallels pre-loaded, with OEM copies of Windows, THEN Microsoft will become indifferent. Either way, they're making money.
As soon as someone releases a true replacement for MS Office on the Mac, then Microsoft will start to take notice. As soon as CrossOver for Mac gets funding from Apple, Microsoft will revolt.
His biggest improvement over the script was to actually TALK to the people he was calling. The script had specific questions the customer might ask, and what the reply was to be. If they asked a question that wasn't on the list, he was supposed to reply with some canned response like "that's not why I'm calling" or something equally asinine. Instead, he would actually talk as a human. For example, if someone asked him about the weather, he would actually answer.
His calls were right on the mandated average (no shorter, no longer, because both would be considered bad,) and for the product details, he did stick to the script, to maintain all legalities. (His biggest complaint was that when someone unceremoniously hung up, he STILL had to read a 45 second long legal disclaimer, to dead air.
Oh, and he's currently a security manager at a fab of a large chip maker. He decided he likes security. (His history degree came in humorously handy when the company was bought out by an international conglomerate that requires employees to wear a black armband with three red dots on it. Aside from the Nazi-esque aspects, the fact that three red dots on a black field was the symbol for the Plague really had him laughing.)
What other large electronics chains are left that I can buy at? I don't want to support businesses who either cheat their customers (Best Buy) or who mistreat their employees (Wal-Mart, Circuit City.) I'm going to be running out of vendors, soon.
Anyway, this reminds me of a friend of mine. He graduated from college with a degree in History. Yes, a rather un-saleable degree. So he lived on my couch for a few months after he graduated while he tried to find a job. The only job he could find was telephone credit card sales. Yes, he was *THAT* guy. Every day, he came home from his job, the first words out of his mouth were "I hate my job." What made it even worse is that he was *GOOD* at it. His second month there, he set a sales record. His third month, he broke that record. Then he got fired. Because he wasn't following the script to the letter.
Now, if someone comes in, and, by *NOT* following the script to the letter (he did say all the parts that the law requires creditors to say,) sets sales records two months in a row (he got a plastic slinky with the company name on it in thanks,) shouldn't you have the OTHER people follow his lead, rather than fire him?
It supports 1280x720/24p or 960x540/30p H.264 at up to 5 Mb/s, (with 160 kbps AAC audio,) and 720x432/30p MPEG-4 at up to 3 Mb/s (with 160 kbps AAC audio.)
It doesn't even say "QuickTime" anywhere as a 'supported format'. (Which is correct, since QuickTime is a wrapper, not a codec.) It does not claim support for Sorensen, nor Cinepak, nor MPEG-2, nor MPEG-1, nor Motion-JPEG, nor any of the variety of other "QuickTime Supported" formats. If it truly does run a version of OS X down deep, then it is possible that it does quietly support those (minus MPEG-2, which requires a monetary license,) codecs. Definitely not Windows Media, RealVideo, or DivX, though; until someone figures out how to load third-party codecs onto it.
On the audio front, it supports AAC, MP3, AIFF, WAV, and Apple Lossless. No Windows Media or Ogg, again unless/until someone figures out how to load third-party codecs onto it.
And, yes, it outputs *ONLY* in a wide-screen 16:9 ratio. If your TV doesn't support 16:9 input, it'll look funny.
That's insane. My 2004 Prius is already about to hit the 100,000 mile mark, and its nowhere near dying. There are reports (see other/. replies) of first-generation Priuses (Prii?) already over the 200,000 mile mark. I wonder if even a single consumer-use Hummer has hit that yet?
Unless they're willing to share their reasoning for 'expected life', then their arbitrary choice is bull-crap.
Toyota has a document called the [url=http://www.toyota.co.jp/en/k_forum/tenji/pdf/ pgr_e.pdf]Prius Green Report[/url] that shows their analysis of the environmental impact of the Prius compared to an equivalent gas car (I believe they used their own Corolla,) over a 100,000 km (not mile,) lifespan. It doesn't say they only expect it to last 100,000 km, just that if you destroy the car at that point, what the impact is. It covers material production (mining, refining, etc, which would include the Nickel problem,) vehicle production, driving, maintenance, and disposal. The Prius is considered 'cleaner' with regard to CO2 emissions at about the 20,000 km mark. I'm sure the Hummer would be long blown out of the water in this comparison.
Now, if you convert an original diesel H1 Hummer to run on vegetable oil (a 'greasel' conversion,) then it becomes nearly as clean as a Prius for all categories OTHER than CO2. (Biodiesel and veggie oil conversions both have a 'lifecycle' CO2 emission about 60% less than petroleum diesel, but even that isn't enough to make an H1 emit less CO2 than a Prius.)
On her site (oh, wait, it's copyright protected, I can't talk about it...)
Anyway, just reported Google, Yahoo, & MS Live Search's caches to her. I hope I get some reward when she wins millions in her copyright infringement suit against them!
Only with one set of hardware now. Yes, one set of hardware makes it slightly easier on IT staff, but they're still mixed OSes, and now the IT staff has to maintain two OSes on EACH box.
When the RAZR launched (Cingular-only) in 2003, it was $500. WITH contract. And the sole reason for its price was style. At least Apple has SOME substance to go with their style.
I'm not defending the iPhone. When watching the keynote, I was, as most were, in Steve Jobs' "Reality Distortion Field". But upon seeing the actual specs, I know I won't be buying one. But it really isn't that outrageously priced, either.
How about mandating a level of efficiency rather than assuming that innovation can't happen?
Sounds good to me. You should always legislate for the effect you want, not the method of getting there.
Of course, if they did mandate the same level of efficiency as a CFL, then the first generation of these new incandescent still wouldn't qualify. I know there are uses where incandescent is preferable, but for everyday use, alternatives really should be used. After all, standard incandescent bulbs are only 5% efficient. (That means 95% of the energy going in comes out as heat instead of light. And since it's supposed to be a light bulb not a heat bulb, that's pretty darned inefficient.)
Heck, even CFLs are only 20% efficient. I want a 50% or higher efficiency bulb!
Running RC2, when I try to install software, it sometimes fails, then asks if I want to run the install again as Administrator. When this happens, I have to approve UAC some 5 times for one install. (One to run the installer, one to give permissions to install, which fails, one to run the installer again, one to elevate to administrator, one to grant permission to install.)
UAC is just broken. As the Apple ad shows, it pops up so often that it will just be ignored. If it only came up when true Administrator access was needed, and actually required that the user type their password, it would be much more effective.
Because they are completely separate products. Just because Microsoft advertises their similar program under a name reminiscent of their office suite (Microsoft Office Live vs. Microsoft Office; compared to 'Google Applications for your Domain vs. Google Docs & Spreadsheets,) doesn't mean they are directly related.
And Google has committed to offering Docs & Spreadsheets for free. They have always said that Google Apps would end up being a paid service someday.
Again, two separate products. Office suite vs. web/email hosting. (Oddly, MS is the one offering the web/email hosting for free, while charging for the office suite; Google is charing for the web/email hosting while making the office suite free.)
Ah, my mistake. It supports subscribing via iCal-compatible clients. I suppose I just assumed that that technology WAS CalDAV. Now I see that it's not the same thing.
A replacement for Outlook and Exchange, maybe. But "Google Apps for Your Domain", the service in question, isn't an office suite.
It is:
Domain registration
Website hosting
Email hosting (with POP and webmail)
Calendar hosting (with CalDav and web-based calendaring)
Chat (Jabber-based, can tie-in with Google Talk)
It is *NOT* a replacement for Word, Excel, or PowerPoint. That is 'Google Docs & Spreadsheet' (minus the presentation software, which is rumored to be coming soon.)
Well, Symbian Series 60 has one of the biggest mobile phone independent developer markets out there. (Probably right up there with Palm.)
I actually bought my N-Gage specifically to use it as a phone. It was after it had already been declared dead, and they were being dumped cheap. For a 'smartphone', I got a heck of a deal. And using a Bluetooth headset, I don't even have to worry about the goofy 'taco to the ear' look when using it as a phone.
I do on-site computer repair. In the last 6 years, I have only seen the WGA notifier notify of two truly invalid copies of Windows. (In both cases, the user knew/acknowledged that their copy was likely not properly licensed.) In the same time, I've seen hardware from HP and Dell both come with a key that the MS program cites as invalid, and declares non-genuine. Both with their original OEM installs.
So of WGA-flagged installs I have seen in the past few years, HALF were, in fact, valid installs that were flagged improperly. What was REALLY goofy is that one succeeded in re-activation, and even after re-activation, WGA still insisted it wasn't valid! (The other didn't need reactivation.)
Too bad Vista won't let you play them...
on
101 Free PC Games
·
· Score: 1, Funny
Slashdot Mirror
iPhone had better have 100% of demand availability on release, otherwise this wouldn't be worth it. I would have thought a delay on the iPhone would be better than on Leopard.
I, for example, would have bought a Leopard Family Pack the day of release, but not an iPhone. And iLife (whose delay rumors blame on requiring Leopard.) Heck, if iLife gets delayed until October, I'll just wait until NEXT January for iLife '08, rather than buy iLife '07.
Yup.
Newton wasn't so much a 'flop', as it was starting to gain ground just as Steve Jobs came back and killed it.
DAT definitely *NOT* a flop. Digital Compact Cassette, yes. DAT, no. (DCC was the same shape as standard analog audiocassettes, and DCC players could play standard analog tapes. But it had the misfortune of coming out at the same time as MiniDisc, which was vastly superior. Unfortunately, confusion, followed by digital audio players such as the iPod helped keep MiniDisc from really taking off, either. Although MD wasn't a 'flop', either, as it has mostly taken over DATs position!)
DIVX: Definite flop.
Dot Coms: Well, Google, Yahoo, Amazon, many are still around, and doing quite well, so lumping them all together is unfair. But, yes, certainly MANY dot coms were flops.
E-Books haven't taken off yet. They are about where the Newton was when it was killed. They *COULD* take off, or they could flop. Only time will tell.
PCjr is a tough one. It wasn't *MEANT* to be a full featured computer. I knew quite a few people who had them, and we even had a couple at school. I find their complaint about lack of hard drive funny, since in 1984, almost no home computers had hard drives. (They compare it to the Apple II and C64, both of which were HD-less. Even the more expensive Macintosh didn't get an INTERNAL hard drive until 1987.)
Internet currency: Flop-o-rama. A silly idea from the outset.
Iridium is still alive, it just hasn't been as successful as was predicted. I wouldn't call that a flop, though.
Bob. Enough said. (Although many years after Bob's demise was already a done deal, I had a chance to play with a Bob-loaded computer, and thought it had potential. It was just WAAAAY too unstable.) Although the animated characters lived on through Windows XP as 'assistants'.
Net PC. Not so much a flop as a single company pushing for something that never happened.
Paperless office. BWAHAHAHAHA!!!! Intel was one of the big forces behind the 'paperless office', and I worked for them back in '99-2000. Our workgroup laser printer was constantly spitting out paper documents, because none of us could stand sifting through PDFs on our computer screens. One of the companies making a big push for it, and we were downing redwoods like they were candy. (Okay, that's a bit of an exaggeration...)
Push: As the article itself mentions, push is still being used, it's just not as obvious as was originally though. (i.e. now it's just a 'behind the scenes' technology.)
Smart appliances: I dunno, my parents went to buy a new refrigerator last week, and there were multiple models with built in computers in the doors at the showroom. I've seen washing machines similarly equipped.
VR: As a mass-market thing, definitely a flop. Still used in certain industries, though.
The ones that this computer is targeted at.
Really, the Mac Pro is *NOT* targeted at the home user. That's the iMac. The Mac Pro really is a 'Workstation', and is targeted at such a crowd. The kind that do scientific computing, rendering, or other highly-parallelizable tasks.
Not that I don't want one to replace my aging 500 MHz G4 for home use, mind you...
No, the New York Times article says that full albums DRM-free at higher quality will cost the same as lower-quality DRM-laden albums. It does not mention the 'upgrade' fee to upgrade already-purchased content. That is what the original poster was referring to, the 30 cent charge to download a new DRM-less copy of a song you already bought. It is mentioned that there will be an opportunity to upgrade already-purchased albums, but no cost is specified.
We won't know for certain until the tracks become available. But Apple has said it is "30 cents per track". And so far, it only includes EMI content. I would *HOPE* that albums that were purchased for a total price that made them less than 99 cents per song will have a cheaper upgrade fee. (Like, say, $3.00 for a $9.99 album, regardless of number of songs.)
I have a MacBook Pro.
I have Parallels.
I have spent $1000 in Microsoft software for my MacBook Pro: Microsoft Office for Mac, Windows Vista Ultimate (so I can run it in Parallels,) and Microsoft Office for Windows.
My Compaq laptop, on the other hand, came with OEM Windows, which Microsoft made very little on, and I bought Office for it. Nowhere near as much money as I spent on my Mac!
Microsoft loves the idea of dual-booting *AND* virtualizing on a Mac, it means more full-cost sales for them, not OEM sales. Now, if Apple starts selling Boot Camp and/or Parallels pre-loaded, with OEM copies of Windows, THEN Microsoft will become indifferent. Either way, they're making money.
As soon as someone releases a true replacement for MS Office on the Mac, then Microsoft will start to take notice. As soon as CrossOver for Mac gets funding from Apple, Microsoft will revolt.
His biggest improvement over the script was to actually TALK to the people he was calling. The script had specific questions the customer might ask, and what the reply was to be. If they asked a question that wasn't on the list, he was supposed to reply with some canned response like "that's not why I'm calling" or something equally asinine. Instead, he would actually talk as a human. For example, if someone asked him about the weather, he would actually answer.
His calls were right on the mandated average (no shorter, no longer, because both would be considered bad,) and for the product details, he did stick to the script, to maintain all legalities. (His biggest complaint was that when someone unceremoniously hung up, he STILL had to read a 45 second long legal disclaimer, to dead air.
Oh, and he's currently a security manager at a fab of a large chip maker. He decided he likes security. (His history degree came in humorously handy when the company was bought out by an international conglomerate that requires employees to wear a black armband with three red dots on it. Aside from the Nazi-esque aspects, the fact that three red dots on a black field was the symbol for the Plague really had him laughing.)
What other large electronics chains are left that I can buy at? I don't want to support businesses who either cheat their customers (Best Buy) or who mistreat their employees (Wal-Mart, Circuit City.) I'm going to be running out of vendors, soon.
Anyway, this reminds me of a friend of mine. He graduated from college with a degree in History. Yes, a rather un-saleable degree. So he lived on my couch for a few months after he graduated while he tried to find a job. The only job he could find was telephone credit card sales. Yes, he was *THAT* guy. Every day, he came home from his job, the first words out of his mouth were "I hate my job." What made it even worse is that he was *GOOD* at it. His second month there, he set a sales record. His third month, he broke that record. Then he got fired. Because he wasn't following the script to the letter.
Now, if someone comes in, and, by *NOT* following the script to the letter (he did say all the parts that the law requires creditors to say,) sets sales records two months in a row (he got a plastic slinky with the company name on it in thanks,) shouldn't you have the OTHER people follow his lead, rather than fire him?
Realism in sports games is nice, but Sonic better be able to give a thorough thrashing in any straightforward races.
New Marathon record: 3 minutes, 12 seconds.
I bought a Prius, and now I'm being sued because I didn't buy a Hummer!
That was fast.
It supports 1280x720/24p or 960x540/30p H.264 at up to 5 Mb/s, (with 160 kbps AAC audio,) and 720x432/30p MPEG-4 at up to 3 Mb/s (with 160 kbps AAC audio.)
Per the Tech Specs page.
It doesn't even say "QuickTime" anywhere as a 'supported format'. (Which is correct, since QuickTime is a wrapper, not a codec.) It does not claim support for Sorensen, nor Cinepak, nor MPEG-2, nor MPEG-1, nor Motion-JPEG, nor any of the variety of other "QuickTime Supported" formats. If it truly does run a version of OS X down deep, then it is possible that it does quietly support those (minus MPEG-2, which requires a monetary license,) codecs. Definitely not Windows Media, RealVideo, or DivX, though; until someone figures out how to load third-party codecs onto it.
On the audio front, it supports AAC, MP3, AIFF, WAV, and Apple Lossless. No Windows Media or Ogg, again unless/until someone figures out how to load third-party codecs onto it.
And, yes, it outputs *ONLY* in a wide-screen 16:9 ratio. If your TV doesn't support 16:9 input, it'll look funny.
That's insane. My 2004 Prius is already about to hit the 100,000 mile mark, and its nowhere near dying. There are reports (see other /. replies) of first-generation Priuses (Prii?) already over the 200,000 mile mark. I wonder if even a single consumer-use Hummer has hit that yet?
/ pgr_e.pdf]Prius Green Report[/url] that shows their analysis of the environmental impact of the Prius compared to an equivalent gas car (I believe they used their own Corolla,) over a 100,000 km (not mile,) lifespan. It doesn't say they only expect it to last 100,000 km, just that if you destroy the car at that point, what the impact is. It covers material production (mining, refining, etc, which would include the Nickel problem,) vehicle production, driving, maintenance, and disposal. The Prius is considered 'cleaner' with regard to CO2 emissions at about the 20,000 km mark. I'm sure the Hummer would be long blown out of the water in this comparison.
Unless they're willing to share their reasoning for 'expected life', then their arbitrary choice is bull-crap.
Toyota has a document called the [url=http://www.toyota.co.jp/en/k_forum/tenji/pdf
Now, if you convert an original diesel H1 Hummer to run on vegetable oil (a 'greasel' conversion,) then it becomes nearly as clean as a Prius for all categories OTHER than CO2. (Biodiesel and veggie oil conversions both have a 'lifecycle' CO2 emission about 60% less than petroleum diesel, but even that isn't enough to make an H1 emit less CO2 than a Prius.)
On her site (oh, wait, it's copyright protected, I can't talk about it...)
Anyway, just reported Google, Yahoo, & MS Live Search's caches to her. I hope I get some reward when she wins millions in her copyright infringement suit against them!
</sarcasm>
Only with one set of hardware now. Yes, one set of hardware makes it slightly easier on IT staff, but they're still mixed OSes, and now the IT staff has to maintain two OSes on EACH box.
Hrm, will a Mac NetBoot a Windows disk image?
Do people forget these things this quickly?
When the RAZR launched (Cingular-only) in 2003, it was $500. WITH contract. And the sole reason for its price was style. At least Apple has SOME substance to go with their style.
I'm not defending the iPhone. When watching the keynote, I was, as most were, in Steve Jobs' "Reality Distortion Field". But upon seeing the actual specs, I know I won't be buying one. But it really isn't that outrageously priced, either.
Sounds good to me. You should always legislate for the effect you want, not the method of getting there.
Of course, if they did mandate the same level of efficiency as a CFL, then the first generation of these new incandescent still wouldn't qualify. I know there are uses where incandescent is preferable, but for everyday use, alternatives really should be used. After all, standard incandescent bulbs are only 5% efficient. (That means 95% of the energy going in comes out as heat instead of light. And since it's supposed to be a light bulb not a heat bulb, that's pretty darned inefficient.)
Heck, even CFLs are only 20% efficient. I want a 50% or higher efficiency bulb!
Running RC2, when I try to install software, it sometimes fails, then asks if I want to run the install again as Administrator. When this happens, I have to approve UAC some 5 times for one install. (One to run the installer, one to give permissions to install, which fails, one to run the installer again, one to elevate to administrator, one to grant permission to install.)
UAC is just broken. As the Apple ad shows, it pops up so often that it will just be ignored. If it only came up when true Administrator access was needed, and actually required that the user type their password, it would be much more effective.
Because they are completely separate products. Just because Microsoft advertises their similar program under a name reminiscent of their office suite (Microsoft Office Live vs. Microsoft Office; compared to 'Google Applications for your Domain vs. Google Docs & Spreadsheets,) doesn't mean they are directly related.
And Google has committed to offering Docs & Spreadsheets for free. They have always said that Google Apps would end up being a paid service someday.
Again, two separate products. Office suite vs. web/email hosting. (Oddly, MS is the one offering the web/email hosting for free, while charging for the office suite; Google is charing for the web/email hosting while making the office suite free.)
Ah, my mistake. It supports subscribing via iCal-compatible clients. I suppose I just assumed that that technology WAS CalDAV. Now I see that it's not the same thing.
A replacement for Outlook and Exchange, maybe. But "Google Apps for Your Domain", the service in question, isn't an office suite.
It is:
It is *NOT* a replacement for Word, Excel, or PowerPoint. That is 'Google Docs & Spreadsheet' (minus the presentation software, which is rumored to be coming soon.)
Well, Symbian Series 60 has one of the biggest mobile phone independent developer markets out there. (Probably right up there with Palm.)
I actually bought my N-Gage specifically to use it as a phone. It was after it had already been declared dead, and they were being dumped cheap. For a 'smartphone', I got a heck of a deal. And using a Bluetooth headset, I don't even have to worry about the goofy 'taco to the ear' look when using it as a phone.
No, no, no...
That was the killer game on the Tapwave Zodiac.
N-Gage actually has some halfway decent games. Pathway to Glory and Rifts: Promise of Power are good little games.
It was the console itself that sucked ass.
Unlike the Zodiac, which was a kick-ass console, with crappy games.
I do on-site computer repair. In the last 6 years, I have only seen the WGA notifier notify of two truly invalid copies of Windows. (In both cases, the user knew/acknowledged that their copy was likely not properly licensed.) In the same time, I've seen hardware from HP and Dell both come with a key that the MS program cites as invalid, and declares non-genuine. Both with their original OEM installs.
So of WGA-flagged installs I have seen in the past few years, HALF were, in fact, valid installs that were flagged improperly. What was REALLY goofy is that one succeeded in re-activation, and even after re-activation, WGA still insisted it wasn't valid! (The other didn't need reactivation.)
(See earlier Slashdot story.)
Yeah, I know Vista will let you play them, but not easily if you want to have parental controls on.