This list is often posted and rated +5 instantly, but there are many items in here which are just flat out false or opinions. The rest are true of either iPhone or Android. Here is my list I've compiled.
5. Only support up to 16GB storage (Dell Venue Pro comes in up to 32GB, you can put a 32GB uSD card in most of the HTC ones if you open them up, the Samsung Focus can reach 40 with an added 32GB card).
8. Your contact details are automatically uploaded to cloud service whether you like it or not. (You don't have to use this. The phone loses functionality if you don't, but it is optional.)
22. Only photos allowed as email attachments, documents not allowed. (Flat out false)
24. Cannot stream audio from video playback to Bluetooth devices as A2DP profile is not implemented. (A2DP is definitely supported, but using it with video is not because many A2DP receivers [most notably, as found in cars, contrary to the claim of #23] add significant lag that makes the video and audio end up out of sync
27. Cannot silence ringtone or alarm by flipping the phone. (False, HTC titan does this)
Opinion - 28. Very limited customization option.
33. Lockscreen need to be activated to show missed call/sms notification. (False this is right on the lockscreen)
35. Tiny fonts in messages is very hard to read for those over 45 (Ppinion, not objective)
36. Cannot create and save playlists on the phone. (Flat out false)
39. Cannot close music player, can only pause. Music player on lockscreen will stay until you reboot. Be careful not to touch it in a meeting. (This *is* stupid, but there's a free app explicitly to clear the currently-playing list.)
42. Online and phone contacts are mixed together with no ability to filter. (False)
46. Cannot recognize phone numbers in sms or email to save or use as calling number. (Quite simply flat-out false.)
50. Apps are listed alphabetically with no way to group by category. (False, apps are grouped by category in hubs)
61. No screenshots or app to do it. (There is an app. I don't think it's in the Marketplace yet, but it's been around homebrew sites for ages and is being submitted.)
69. Cannot open zip or rar files received as email attachment. (Total lie where ZIP is concerned; I do this all the time.)
72. No native Google maps and Bing maps is useless for most countries outside U.S. (Depends how you define "most" but it worked for me in Thailand, for example.)
80. Cannot send/receive MMS without enabling 3G data connection. MMS does not use 3G data (Lie; MMS does use exactly the same service as "normal" data including 3G. The carrier just bills it differently.)
81. Phone cannot be charged when off. (Misleading; phone turns on when plugged in.)
83. Oversized fonts for headings waste screen space and result in low information density (Pure opinion)
85. Phone can be rebooted without entering security code (this can easily be done to any phone.)
93. Call history does not show the time of call for calls older than current day. (False)
94. Cannot set custom sounds for different types of notifications. (False)
100. Cannot change alarm ring tone (False)
103. Zune does not allow user to add or update podcasts directly from the phone (False)
105. Alarm does not revert to speaker if headphones are plugged in. (False)
109. Wifi- hotspot and internet tethering not integral features in the OS but need to be provided by manufacturer on a case by case basis (False)
112. Embedded images in emails do not download (False)
117. Cannot be charged up when battery is completely dead. (False)
119. No HDMI output (False)
121. No over the air (OTA) firmware upgrade. All upgrades must be via PC installed Zune. (The OS is capable of it. MS hasn't used this because they want to be able to recover the phone in the case of a problem mid-update.)
As for the OS being a failure, that depends on how you want to measure it I guess. It hasn't gained great marketshare in the past 2 years true, but these
What they include in RTM isn't set in stone. It will be updated with all your other apps through the marketplace. But I agree with Haxagon: aren't there 10000 email clients out there? If you don't like the one shipped with your system, use another.
You might have heard people complaining about long load times. I have an old Xbox from 2006, so old it doesn't even have an HDMI port. It doesn't have internal storage so I can't pre-load a game onto the harddrive, and some games like Skyrim have unbearable load times between zones. Newer revision consoles allow you to load all that data locally, so you're not reading if off disk. But the fact is I can still play the game just fine once it's done loading.
And this is why Mac OSX doesn't cost just $19.99. If you bought a Mac in 2011, you've already subsidized your purchase of OSX Mountain Lion you'll buy later in the year. Problem is, if you bought a Mac in 2008, you've already used up your copies of OSX, so you don't get to buy Mountain Lion at $19.99. Apple's decided you need to buy a new Mac to subsidize the next 4 versions of OSX, which you'll be free to buy for $19.99 of course. Until 2016 of course when the process starts over again.
Not anymore. A 6 year old machine might not be able to run the latest games, but it can run the latest Windows or Linux OS, the latest work processing and productivity software, and the latest browsers. I have a 2006 Core 2 machine with 4 GB RAM and a nice big harddrive in it. It runs Ubuntu 12.04, Windows 7, and Windows 8, runs Office 2010, runs Google Chrome and Opera 12.... this is a machine that does what most people need it to. This is very different from say 1996, where a computer from 1990 was laughable.
But we're not even talking about 6 year old machines here; where talking about machines you might have bought in 2008/2009. That's 3-4 years old! I have a quad core machine that old that can even run some of the latest games at decent resolution and FPS, and of course runs the latest Windows and Linux OS. It's unacceptable that a 3 year old mac could not run the latest Mac OS.
Sorry to reply to myself but I realized maybe the comparison was unfair since I didn't spec the Macbook Pro 15 up to the Envy 15. If you order a Macbook Pro 15 specced to to the Envy 15 level in terms of memory, storage, and resolution, it's going to cost you a grand total of $2,099.00, or $744 more, and you still don't have as high resolution or as good graphics, and only a one year warranty. That's a far cry from "+/- $100"
Take an Apple Computer. Go to Dell, or HP, or Lenovo. Try to find the closest model that matches the Apple computer. Match the specs up... All the specs, if you can, none of this we don't need this feature idea (If apples keyboard glows find the upgrade to make the PC keyboard glow.) You will find that their price is about the same as the Apple computers price +/- $100.00
Macbook Pro 15
Display: 15.4" 1440 x 900
Processor" 2.3GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 processor (Turbo Boost up to 3.3GHz) with 6MB L3 cache
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M with 512MB of GDDR5
Storage: 500GB 5400-rpm hard drive
Memory: 4GB of 1600MHz DDR3
Height: 0.95 inch (2.41 cm)
Weight: 5.6 pounds
Warranty: 1 year Price: $1799.00
For ~$450 less with the Envy I'm getting better graphics, more storage, more memory, better display, bigger display, longer warranty, and I'm also getting a quality build laptop with premium features like aluminum casing, slot load DVD, and backlit keyboard, and basic features not available on the Macbook pro like HDMI port, display port, 3 USB ports, higher maximum memory. The macbook pro has better battery life and is a little bit thinner and lighter. Oh and OSX of course. Is that worth $450? I don't know maybe to some but not me.
And by the way, this price is without any of the rebate ninja magic you can pull with HP. For my last purchase, and Envy 14, I got a discount off the list price, 30% off through Bing, and another $100 off just because I asked them. I paid over $1000 less for my Envy 14 (SSD, higher memory, better processor, higher resolution display) than for a similarly specced Macbook Pro 15 (minus the display size of course, but then again my display has a higher resolution than those displays did in 2010).
Oh I forgot to address how it would be better than a regular chalk/marker board. Remember the US/World map that used to be rolled up above the blackboard, that you would pull down during geography class? That would now be integrated into the board like Google map, except you can zoom in to any place for a geography lesson.
Or have you ever had a teacher say "I'm a terrible artist, but I'll give it a shot" maybe in math class when drawing 3D objects? With a surface like this, those could be pre-loaded and instead of a crappy drawing made by "not an artist" you get a fully accurate rendering of a toroid or hypercube or whatnot.
Or imagine writing an equation on the screen, and it being recognized. Then you could pull up plots of the equation, and maybe adjust parameters to show how it changes in x and y. Maybe it could query things like Wolfram Alpha so you get its derivative, its integral, etc.
Let's take it a step further: turn everyone's desk into an interactive surface. I used to have a math class where everyone would come to the board and put answers up. You could instead write at your interactive desk, and then display the classes answers on the interactive board at once. Or the students could have copies of the board at the same time on their desk so kids in the back can see just as well. The lecture could be recorded automatically, and they could play it back step by step to see a correct derivation or proof along with an audio explanation.
I could go on and on. I don't know how effective all this would really be honestly, but I'm a geek too and think it could be cool.
It's the difference between talking on the phone and talking face to face. With a projected tablet PC, I'm not in front of the screen pointing to things. The best I can do is scribble on the screen with ink for emphasis, but I don't have any other gestures and nonverbal communication at my disposal. And all that scribbling gets the screen very messy. Further, I have to write very large because the pen nub isn't fine enough, so I can't leave things up on the board; I have to erase as I move along.
Standing up in front of the objects I'm manipulating is very different, because I can communicate nonverbally by pointing and so forth. I could also write larger, and keep things on the board longer to reference later.
Ah, so occasional slight gestures moving mostly just your hands is your idea of "waving both arms around." Hyperbole much? I was expecting something more like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlJM4UhbQ7A
You do it in order to be seen from a distance without technological assistance.
Would you choose to do the rest of your work on a vertical 200" workspace? I doubt it.
So what's your point exactly? Different tools for different jobs? Okay, that's obvious.
Of course technology is going to improve in the decades between the early 1980s and late 1990s. The contention is that because Apple bought Fingerworks' patents, they own the foundations of multi-touch technology. Elsewhere in this thread it was argued even that capacitive in particular (the tech on most phones today) is owned by Apple.
This is just not the case, as these technologies existed for decades even before Fingerworks existed. In fact, in his thesis, co-founder of Fingerworks Wayne Westerman cites Bill Buxton's work profusely.
Fingerworks was an evolution of multi-touch, not its genesis.
unless they have come up with some new tech I haven't heard of
Yes, the marker board, also known as the white board. It has very low friction compared to a chalk board. Either way, a multi-touch screen like this could mimic the same friction as either a white or chalk board, providing the same level of tactile feedback. I have a tablet PC with a stylus, and I can insert different tips, and depending on how much drag I want the pen to have it can feel like writing with a pen or a pencil. Same idea could be used here.
Abstract - A prototype touch-sensitive tablet Is presented. The tablet's main innovation is that It Is capable of sensing mare than one point of contact at a time. In addition to being able to provide position coordinates, the tablet also gives a measure of degree of contact, independently for each point of contact. In order to enable multi-touch sensing, the tablet surface is divided into a grid of discrete points. The points are scanned using a recursive area subdivision algorithm. In order to minimize the resolution lost due to the discrete nature of the grid, a novel interpolation scheme has been developed. Finally, the paper briefly discusses how multi-touch sensing, interpolation, and degree of contact sensing can be combined to expand our vocabulary In human-computer Interaction.
This stuff wasn't new in 1998, and it certainly wasn't new in 2006 with the release of the iPhone. Apple has proven to be litigious enough as of late, so why haven't they taken these multi-touch patents out of the war chest? Is it because they expect them to be summarily struck down due to the copious prior art?
Cause no one else would fail to see that using multi-touch on an 84" screen means waving both arms around.
Yeah, I'm failing to see that, especially since I'm watching it in use and don't see the guy waving around both arms. With your use of the word "waving" you're trying to convey this wild flailing motion, but the actual interaction with the device seems as natural as what I would do on a chalk board.
Right, because what I wanted for an input device for my word processing and spreadsheet applications is an 80" display that has no keyboard or mouse and relies on multitouch.
I'm sure he's thinking more along the lines of powerpoint, and something like this being in every corporate meeting room. Imagine being able to author multitouch powerpoint presentations easily, and wirelessly streaming to something like this with no little to no configuration. Technical difficulties with presentation equipment still have not gone away, and this might be a solution where Microsoft can say "Buy our OS, buy our office, buy our screen, and never fumble with presentation audio/visuals again."
Haven't Microsoft figured out yet that humans need tactile feedback for any kind of prolonged operation, and aren't designed for holding our hands out from our body?
I take it you aren't a teacher. I write on a 200 inch vertical surface with no tactile feedback for 2 hours at a time. This thing would be amazing in my classroom.
The new menu is supposed to encourage you to search, but the search is slow.
Why did you turn off file indexing?
With Metro I just have a huge mess of tiles.
Why didn't you organize them? You can separate them into groups, even name the groups and resize the tiles.
Windows 8 literally wastes my time by making me jump through hoops. My time is valuable. My software is supposed to enable me to work, not get in my way.
I thought you just use Windows to play games. Is Win 8 getting in the way of your game playing?
The best way to launch apps is with Alt-F2 in Linux or Win+R in Windows and then just type what I want
The start search in Win 7 does the same thing, as well as the Win 8 start menu.
Pasting URLs into the run dialog brings up the Metro IE browser.
This is configurable.
When I press the Windows button in Windows 8, I immediately get dragged back kicking and screaming to the Metro interface.
That's what the start button does... where did you expect it to bring you?
The new explorer also makes me jump through extra hoops to accomplish the same tasks.
Specifics please? The new explorer adds in options like the up-folder button many where dismayed had disappeared in Win 7. What did they make harder exactly?
I think you're the only person on this forum who's used Windows 8. The standard post here seems to say "While metro may be usable on a tablet, it's terrible on a desktop. I don't want a tablet interface on my PC! What am I supposed to do if I don't have a touch screen?" Neglecting the fact there is a full suite of keyboard shortcuts, full mouse support, full trackpad support with various multitouch gestures. The full desktop is right there ready to use! What's so hard about it?
Slashdot Mirror
This list is often posted and rated +5 instantly, but there are many items in here which are just flat out false or opinions. The rest are true of either iPhone or Android. Here is my list I've compiled.
5. Only support up to 16GB storage (Dell Venue Pro comes in up to 32GB, you can put a 32GB uSD card in most of the HTC ones if you open them up, the Samsung Focus can reach 40 with an added 32GB card).
8. Your contact details are automatically uploaded to cloud service whether you like it or not. (You don't have to use this. The phone loses functionality if you don't, but it is optional.)
22. Only photos allowed as email attachments, documents not allowed. (Flat out false)
24. Cannot stream audio from video playback to Bluetooth devices as A2DP profile is not implemented. (A2DP is definitely supported, but using it with video is not because many A2DP receivers [most notably, as found in cars, contrary to the claim of #23] add significant lag that makes the video and audio end up out of sync
27. Cannot silence ringtone or alarm by flipping the phone. (False, HTC titan does this)
Opinion - 28. Very limited customization option.
33. Lockscreen need to be activated to show missed call/sms notification. (False this is right on the lockscreen)
35. Tiny fonts in messages is very hard to read for those over 45 (Ppinion, not objective)
36. Cannot create and save playlists on the phone. (Flat out false)
39. Cannot close music player, can only pause. Music player on lockscreen will stay until you reboot. Be careful not to touch it in a meeting. (This *is* stupid, but there's a free app explicitly to clear the currently-playing list.)
42. Online and phone contacts are mixed together with no ability to filter. (False)
46. Cannot recognize phone numbers in sms or email to save or use as calling number. (Quite simply flat-out false.)
50. Apps are listed alphabetically with no way to group by category. (False, apps are grouped by category in hubs)
61. No screenshots or app to do it. (There is an app. I don't think it's in the Marketplace yet, but it's been around homebrew sites for ages and is being submitted.)
69. Cannot open zip or rar files received as email attachment. (Total lie where ZIP is concerned; I do this all the time.)
72. No native Google maps and Bing maps is useless for most countries outside U.S. (Depends how you define "most" but it worked for me in Thailand, for example.)
80. Cannot send/receive MMS without enabling 3G data connection. MMS does not use 3G data (Lie; MMS does use exactly the same service as "normal" data including 3G. The carrier just bills it differently.)
81. Phone cannot be charged when off. (Misleading; phone turns on when plugged in.)
83. Oversized fonts for headings waste screen space and result in low information density (Pure opinion)
85. Phone can be rebooted without entering security code (this can easily be done to any phone.)
93. Call history does not show the time of call for calls older than current day. (False)
94. Cannot set custom sounds for different types of notifications. (False)
100. Cannot change alarm ring tone (False)
103. Zune does not allow user to add or update podcasts directly from the phone (False)
105. Alarm does not revert to speaker if headphones are plugged in. (False)
109. Wifi- hotspot and internet tethering not integral features in the OS but need to be provided by manufacturer on a case by case basis (False)
112. Embedded images in emails do not download (False)
117. Cannot be charged up when battery is completely dead. (False)
119. No HDMI output (False)
121. No over the air (OTA) firmware upgrade. All upgrades must be via PC installed Zune. (The OS is capable of it. MS hasn't used this because they want to be able to recover the phone in the case of a problem mid-update.)
As for the OS being a failure, that depends on how you want to measure it I guess. It hasn't gained great marketshare in the past 2 years true, but these
How is there a new UI? It shares the same ribbon with Office 2007 and 2010. It's more like a skin on 2010 than anything else.
What they include in RTM isn't set in stone. It will be updated with all your other apps through the marketplace. But I agree with Haxagon: aren't there 10000 email clients out there? If you don't like the one shipped with your system, use another.
You might have heard people complaining about long load times. I have an old Xbox from 2006, so old it doesn't even have an HDMI port. It doesn't have internal storage so I can't pre-load a game onto the harddrive, and some games like Skyrim have unbearable load times between zones. Newer revision consoles allow you to load all that data locally, so you're not reading if off disk. But the fact is I can still play the game just fine once it's done loading.
What do you mean huh? That's exactly my point. Even a 12 year old system can run a modern OS just fine.
And this is why Mac OSX doesn't cost just $19.99. If you bought a Mac in 2011, you've already subsidized your purchase of OSX Mountain Lion you'll buy later in the year. Problem is, if you bought a Mac in 2008, you've already used up your copies of OSX, so you don't get to buy Mountain Lion at $19.99. Apple's decided you need to buy a new Mac to subsidize the next 4 versions of OSX, which you'll be free to buy for $19.99 of course. Until 2016 of course when the process starts over again.
Not anymore. A 6 year old machine might not be able to run the latest games, but it can run the latest Windows or Linux OS, the latest work processing and productivity software, and the latest browsers. I have a 2006 Core 2 machine with 4 GB RAM and a nice big harddrive in it. It runs Ubuntu 12.04, Windows 7, and Windows 8, runs Office 2010, runs Google Chrome and Opera 12.... this is a machine that does what most people need it to. This is very different from say 1996, where a computer from 1990 was laughable.
But we're not even talking about 6 year old machines here; where talking about machines you might have bought in 2008/2009. That's 3-4 years old! I have a quad core machine that old that can even run some of the latest games at decent resolution and FPS, and of course runs the latest Windows and Linux OS. It's unacceptable that a 3 year old mac could not run the latest Mac OS.
Sorry to reply to myself but I realized maybe the comparison was unfair since I didn't spec the Macbook Pro 15 up to the Envy 15. If you order a Macbook Pro 15 specced to to the Envy 15 level in terms of memory, storage, and resolution, it's going to cost you a grand total of $2,099.00, or $744 more, and you still don't have as high resolution or as good graphics, and only a one year warranty. That's a far cry from "+/- $100"
Take an Apple Computer. Go to Dell, or HP, or Lenovo. Try to find the closest model that matches the Apple computer. Match the specs up... All the specs, if you can, none of this we don't need this feature idea (If apples keyboard glows find the upgrade to make the PC keyboard glow.) You will find that their price is about the same as the Apple computers price +/- $100.00
I did exactly this comparison a couple weeks ago
Envy 15
Display: 15.6" 1920x1080
Processor: 3rd generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3610QM Processor (2.3 GHz, 6MB L3 Cache)
Graphics: 1GB Radeon(TM) HD 7750M GDDR5 Graphics
Storage: 750GB 7200 rpm Hard Drive
Memory: 6GB 1600DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
Height: 1.11 inches
Weight: 5.79 lbs
Warranty: 2 years
Price: $1,354.99
Macbook Pro 15
Display: 15.4" 1440 x 900
Processor" 2.3GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 processor (Turbo Boost up to 3.3GHz) with 6MB L3 cache
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M with 512MB of GDDR5
Storage: 500GB 5400-rpm hard drive
Memory: 4GB of 1600MHz DDR3
Height: 0.95 inch (2.41 cm)
Weight: 5.6 pounds
Warranty: 1 year
Price: $1799.00
For ~$450 less with the Envy I'm getting better graphics, more storage, more memory, better display, bigger display, longer warranty, and I'm also getting a quality build laptop with premium features like aluminum casing, slot load DVD, and backlit keyboard, and basic features not available on the Macbook pro like HDMI port, display port, 3 USB ports, higher maximum memory. The macbook pro has better battery life and is a little bit thinner and lighter. Oh and OSX of course. Is that worth $450? I don't know maybe to some but not me.
And by the way, this price is without any of the rebate ninja magic you can pull with HP. For my last purchase, and Envy 14, I got a discount off the list price, 30% off through Bing, and another $100 off just because I asked them. I paid over $1000 less for my Envy 14 (SSD, higher memory, better processor, higher resolution display) than for a similarly specced Macbook Pro 15 (minus the display size of course, but then again my display has a higher resolution than those displays did in 2010).
Oh I forgot to address how it would be better than a regular chalk/marker board. Remember the US/World map that used to be rolled up above the blackboard, that you would pull down during geography class? That would now be integrated into the board like Google map, except you can zoom in to any place for a geography lesson.
Or have you ever had a teacher say "I'm a terrible artist, but I'll give it a shot" maybe in math class when drawing 3D objects? With a surface like this, those could be pre-loaded and instead of a crappy drawing made by "not an artist" you get a fully accurate rendering of a toroid or hypercube or whatnot.
Or imagine writing an equation on the screen, and it being recognized. Then you could pull up plots of the equation, and maybe adjust parameters to show how it changes in x and y. Maybe it could query things like Wolfram Alpha so you get its derivative, its integral, etc.
Let's take it a step further: turn everyone's desk into an interactive surface. I used to have a math class where everyone would come to the board and put answers up. You could instead write at your interactive desk, and then display the classes answers on the interactive board at once. Or the students could have copies of the board at the same time on their desk so kids in the back can see just as well. The lecture could be recorded automatically, and they could play it back step by step to see a correct derivation or proof along with an audio explanation.
I could go on and on. I don't know how effective all this would really be honestly, but I'm a geek too and think it could be cool.
It's the difference between talking on the phone and talking face to face. With a projected tablet PC, I'm not in front of the screen pointing to things. The best I can do is scribble on the screen with ink for emphasis, but I don't have any other gestures and nonverbal communication at my disposal. And all that scribbling gets the screen very messy. Further, I have to write very large because the pen nub isn't fine enough, so I can't leave things up on the board; I have to erase as I move along.
Standing up in front of the objects I'm manipulating is very different, because I can communicate nonverbally by pointing and so forth. I could also write larger, and keep things on the board longer to reference later.
Ah, so occasional slight gestures moving mostly just your hands is your idea of "waving both arms around." Hyperbole much? I was expecting something more like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlJM4UhbQ7A
You do it in order to be seen from a distance without technological assistance. Would you choose to do the rest of your work on a vertical 200" workspace? I doubt it.
So what's your point exactly? Different tools for different jobs? Okay, that's obvious.
Of course technology is going to improve in the decades between the early 1980s and late 1990s. The contention is that because Apple bought Fingerworks' patents, they own the foundations of multi-touch technology. Elsewhere in this thread it was argued even that capacitive in particular (the tech on most phones today) is owned by Apple.
This is just not the case, as these technologies existed for decades even before Fingerworks existed. In fact, in his thesis, co-founder of Fingerworks Wayne Westerman cites Bill Buxton's work profusely.
Fingerworks was an evolution of multi-touch, not its genesis.
unless they have come up with some new tech I haven't heard of
Yes, the marker board, also known as the white board. It has very low friction compared to a chalk board. Either way, a multi-touch screen like this could mimic the same friction as either a white or chalk board, providing the same level of tactile feedback. I have a tablet PC with a stylus, and I can insert different tips, and depending on how much drag I want the pen to have it can feel like writing with a pen or a pencil. Same idea could be used here.
Abstract - A prototype touch-sensitive tablet Is presented. The tablet's main innovation is that It Is capable of sensing mare than one point of contact at a time. In addition to being able to provide position coordinates, the tablet also gives a measure of degree of contact, independently for each point of contact. In order to enable multi-touch sensing, the tablet surface is divided into a grid of discrete points. The points are scanned using a recursive area subdivision algorithm. In order to minimize the resolution lost due to the discrete nature of the grid, a novel interpolation scheme has been developed. Finally, the paper briefly discusses how multi-touch sensing, interpolation, and degree of contact sensing can be combined to expand our vocabulary In human-computer Interaction.
Video
This stuff wasn't new in 1998, and it certainly wasn't new in 2006 with the release of the iPhone. Apple has proven to be litigious enough as of late, so why haven't they taken these multi-touch patents out of the war chest? Is it because they expect them to be summarily struck down due to the copious prior art?
The original patents on multi-touch belonged to a company founded back in 1998 called Fingerworks
That's interesting, since actual multitouch systems predate Fingerworks by almost 2 decades.
Here's an example of the pinch gesture being used in 1988: http://youtu.be/dmmxVA5xhuo?t=4m32s
Why isn't Apple suing every phone manufacturer in existence? I'm quite sure Apple doesn't want its acquired patents to face their day in court.
Cause no one else would fail to see that using multi-touch on an 84" screen means waving both arms around.
Yeah, I'm failing to see that, especially since I'm watching it in use and don't see the guy waving around both arms. With your use of the word "waving" you're trying to convey this wild flailing motion, but the actual interaction with the device seems as natural as what I would do on a chalk board.
Right, because what I wanted for an input device for my word processing and spreadsheet applications is an 80" display that has no keyboard or mouse and relies on multitouch.
I'm sure he's thinking more along the lines of powerpoint, and something like this being in every corporate meeting room. Imagine being able to author multitouch powerpoint presentations easily, and wirelessly streaming to something like this with no little to no configuration. Technical difficulties with presentation equipment still have not gone away, and this might be a solution where Microsoft can say "Buy our OS, buy our office, buy our screen, and never fumble with presentation audio/visuals again."
Haven't Microsoft figured out yet that humans need tactile feedback for any kind of prolonged operation, and aren't designed for holding our hands out from our body?
I take it you aren't a teacher. I write on a 200 inch vertical surface with no tactile feedback for 2 hours at a time. This thing would be amazing in my classroom.
The new menu is supposed to encourage you to search, but the search is slow.
Why did you turn off file indexing?
With Metro I just have a huge mess of tiles.
Why didn't you organize them? You can separate them into groups, even name the groups and resize the tiles.
Windows 8 literally wastes my time by making me jump through hoops. My time is valuable. My software is supposed to enable me to work, not get in my way.
I thought you just use Windows to play games. Is Win 8 getting in the way of your game playing?
The best way to launch apps is with Alt-F2 in Linux or Win+R in Windows and then just type what I want
The start search in Win 7 does the same thing, as well as the Win 8 start menu.
Pasting URLs into the run dialog brings up the Metro IE browser.
This is configurable.
When I press the Windows button in Windows 8, I immediately get dragged back kicking and screaming to the Metro interface.
That's what the start button does... where did you expect it to bring you?
The new explorer also makes me jump through extra hoops to accomplish the same tasks.
Specifics please? The new explorer adds in options like the up-folder button many where dismayed had disappeared in Win 7. What did they make harder exactly?
This is the graph you were looking for: http://www.netmarketshare.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=8&qpcustomd=0
I think you're the only person on this forum who's used Windows 8. The standard post here seems to say "While metro may be usable on a tablet, it's terrible on a desktop. I don't want a tablet interface on my PC! What am I supposed to do if I don't have a touch screen?" Neglecting the fact there is a full suite of keyboard shortcuts, full mouse support, full trackpad support with various multitouch gestures. The full desktop is right there ready to use! What's so hard about it?
Windows 8 is a superset of Windows 7 except for the start menu. So yes, Win+# will launch your taskbar items.
why is there always a new letter added every few years??
I think the new approved letter set is LGBTQIAPSAHO... I don't know what it stands for anymore.