It keeps track across all of my devices, and when I sync with iTunes it updates it. It's a much more integrated platform, which for people who don't want to fiddle with the technology is a good thing.
I can have access to the files on my iPod or iPad
iPods... I think I'm on my 5th
I've just never had any reason to look any any other music player
I've drunk the Kool Aid
You're definitely some kind of "Apple guy". Maybe I shouldn't have said mac.
things like being able to create a playlist of "music not played in the last 6 months or played less than 5 times" is something iTunes can do for me, and the players keep track of play counts and the like.
That's another feature I just remembered then which the ipod doesn't have. The player I got could easily pick a random album or give me the top 20 least played, most played, highest rated, never rated etc.. in a playlist on the spot (no computer sync required). I also remember being able to pull those ratings and play counts to be synced with last.fm or something (which I wasn't really interested in).
Sure, there are players out there which have some features that a few hard-core geeks want... but quite honestly, I have only ever known one person who needed Ogg Vorbis support and I can't think of any other features that might be missing from the iPod. (Well, I hear people whine you can't easily copy songs off the iPod, but that's because Apple didn't want to get sued by the music industry, and because iTunes keeps extra information about songs in its database)
Ugh. I hardly know what Ogg is, but I can immediately think of a couple features the iPod didn't have when I was looking for an mp3 player. The first is a custom equalizer (ipod only has presets), and the second is a selection of 3rd party music library managers. I've never actually owned an ipod so correct me if I'm wrong, but I heard from many people that you basically have to use itunes with it (WMP not required for most others).
Also, it doesn't/didn't play divx or xvid (not exactly obscure formats and very useful on airplanes), and it was more expensive. And yes, I've never heard of any other mp3 player (of which there are many) not letting you copy mp3s from it.
If you're curious, I bought a Creative Zen that I had for many years before my smartphone took over.
It must be a fun life, buying grossly overpriced electronics without the nagging feeling like you could be spending much less to get the same functionality and convenience.
"Hey, let's go back to the way it was in the 90's and forget that we've gotten used to not paying for our movies and getting them instantly!"
Do you remember the 90s? You know, people were getting all kinds of free music on Napster. Everyone was talking about digital music and building their mp3 collections. There's a place where that idea still exists in reality... and I've been there.
Google talk can do video, yes. I don't know about the GV integration, but I assume it would require a lot less investment from google to make some mobile version of google video chat be transferable then it would for Microsoft to come up with an all around video chat solution that interfaces between two operating systems which haven't even been released yet.
Do you own an xbox? There are many arcade games that cost a small amount but are very fun to play. I don't know why you judge worth of a game based on its price or simplicity. Many simple games are fun, no matter what platform they're played on.
Do you own an xbox? If so, did you buy it to play cheap games in your living room? Simple games can be fun, but not much more fun on an xbox than they are on a phone. My point was that the xbox is capable of a lot more, so I wouldn't even bother. It's not worth the cost of the xbox in the first place if that's what you're going to do with it.
Could you imagine being on a call, walking in your front door, then transferring that call onto the computer using skype?
I can already do this. When people call my GV number I press * to transfer it to google talk which I can pick up on my computer. I never do this because a speakerphone tied to my computer isn't as good. What I have done is pick up my bluetooth earpiece and "transfer" the call to that.
Or what about playing a game on xbox, pausing it, then hopping on a bus and picking up where you left off on your phone?
I would never spend 60 bucks on a game that's simple enough to be played on a tiny touchscreen. I also wouldn't waste my time at home playing simple games on an xbox.
ARM could not be open source and survive. They sell proprietary logic designs that no one can use unless you pay them. They could not make a business just selling a design once to TI for the first-to-market profits alone. IP laws are important for ARM, and they're important for R&D in general. This is especially true in the USA where manufacturing keeps getting outsourced. IP laws and patents are ideally a good thing as long as you don't allow abuse of the system.
its not 'the same' as the old days but its far better than NOT having it! you can always choose to not view it
I don't know. Sometimes the nostalgia is worth more as it exists in your own recollection (which is hampered by a new perspective), and sometimes you don't realistically have a choice not to view it.
I can tell you that seeing the logic design for an ARM microcontroller would be extremely useful to TI, Samsung etc (if they'd be willing to ignore corporate ethics). Not only could they copy some of the design strategy for their own parts, they could literally implement the thing no problem (although I doubt they'd go that far). ARM provides support, but they don't have that much to do with the implementation. Even an amateur (read: foreign) IC design company could easily take the RTL and turn it into something that works. From personal experience I can tell you that ARM cares a great deal about leaked architectures. Their money comes from the R&D, not the support. It's easy to cry "patent troll". However, exclusively selling IP is not the easiest business, and I'm sure you'd agree that ARM is one of the good guys in the computer world.
It doesn't actually save the most amount of screen space. Firefox (Windows version) is customizable enough that you can put anything and everything in the title-bar alone.
On the surface that seems like a good tip, but ultimately it's useless. I'm not trying to take a jab at your helpfulness here, but I'm not going to go through a menu and select "verbatim" every time I do a search that should be "verbatim" to begin with. Even if they had an account preference I still wouldn't trust it. I tried turning off the instant search "feature" numerous times and the setting would get reset to default every couple weeks. That was the last straw that made me ditch google entirely. I started with Bing, but I ended up with the wildly-publicized-on-slashdot Duck Duck Go. It lets you customize everything without creating a login ID and the settings actually stick! When I need better results I can just use a "!g" in front of the search to get google's results without their "instant" BS.
Wish I had mod points. This is the correct response. Software engineers get paid because they can come up with the necessary code on the fly more or less. Their value is much more in that than in the code they've written, and after they write a program they're kept around (and paid) because of the next program that will be needed.
In this particular case it would be fun to see, but the implications of huge companies with lots of economic power targeting key politicians is kind of scary. A blanket blackout for a short time would be more appropriate.
Slashdot Mirror
It keeps track across all of my devices, and when I sync with iTunes it updates it. It's a much more integrated platform, which for people who don't want to fiddle with the technology is a good thing.
I can have access to the files on my iPod or iPad
iPods ... I think I'm on my 5th
I've just never had any reason to look any any other music player
I've drunk the Kool Aid
You're definitely some kind of "Apple guy". Maybe I shouldn't have said mac.
things like being able to create a playlist of "music not played in the last 6 months or played less than 5 times" is something iTunes can do for me, and the players keep track of play counts and the like.
That's another feature I just remembered then which the ipod doesn't have. The player I got could easily pick a random album or give me the top 20 least played, most played, highest rated, never rated etc.. in a playlist on the spot (no computer sync required). I also remember being able to pull those ratings and play counts to be synced with last.fm or something (which I wasn't really interested in).
But you're a mac guy. That's fine.
MUCH longer battery life, the most important factor for using a device on a plane.
Says you. My battery was fine and the files were already in divx. The convenience of not having to transcode was the most important factor for me.
Sure, there are players out there which have some features that a few hard-core geeks want ... but quite honestly, I have only ever known one person who needed Ogg Vorbis support and I can't think of any other features that might be missing from the iPod. (Well, I hear people whine you can't easily copy songs off the iPod, but that's because Apple didn't want to get sued by the music industry, and because iTunes keeps extra information about songs in its database)
Ugh. I hardly know what Ogg is, but I can immediately think of a couple features the iPod didn't have when I was looking for an mp3 player. The first is a custom equalizer (ipod only has presets), and the second is a selection of 3rd party music library managers. I've never actually owned an ipod so correct me if I'm wrong, but I heard from many people that you basically have to use itunes with it (WMP not required for most others).
Also, it doesn't/didn't play divx or xvid (not exactly obscure formats and very useful on airplanes), and it was more expensive. And yes, I've never heard of any other mp3 player (of which there are many) not letting you copy mp3s from it.
If you're curious, I bought a Creative Zen that I had for many years before my smartphone took over.
It must be a fun life, buying grossly overpriced electronics without the nagging feeling like you could be spending much less to get the same functionality and convenience.
-1 overrated
wtf is a printer cable?
"Hey, let's go back to the way it was in the 90's and forget that we've gotten used to not paying for our movies and getting them instantly!"
Do you remember the 90s? You know, people were getting all kinds of free music on Napster. Everyone was talking about digital music and building their mp3 collections. There's a place where that idea still exists in reality... and I've been there.
That's pretty cool! Can it do video too?
Google talk can do video, yes. I don't know about the GV integration, but I assume it would require a lot less investment from google to make some mobile version of google video chat be transferable then it would for Microsoft to come up with an all around video chat solution that interfaces between two operating systems which haven't even been released yet.
Do you own an xbox? There are many arcade games that cost a small amount but are very fun to play. I don't know why you judge worth of a game based on its price or simplicity. Many simple games are fun, no matter what platform they're played on.
Do you own an xbox? If so, did you buy it to play cheap games in your living room? Simple games can be fun, but not much more fun on an xbox than they are on a phone. My point was that the xbox is capable of a lot more, so I wouldn't even bother. It's not worth the cost of the xbox in the first place if that's what you're going to do with it.
Could you imagine being on a call, walking in your front door, then transferring that call onto the computer using skype?
I can already do this. When people call my GV number I press * to transfer it to google talk which I can pick up on my computer. I never do this because a speakerphone tied to my computer isn't as good. What I have done is pick up my bluetooth earpiece and "transfer" the call to that.
Or what about playing a game on xbox, pausing it, then hopping on a bus and picking up where you left off on your phone?
I would never spend 60 bucks on a game that's simple enough to be played on a tiny touchscreen. I also wouldn't waste my time at home playing simple games on an xbox.
That would be some pretty cool stuff
No it wouldn't.
Sin taxes have precedent as well, and a small tax is not the same as a ban. I'm sure this initiative will fail for other reasons though.
And the more I read about this, the better off I think I am.
Seriously, this summary sounds like there is really no way around this BS except by using a dumbphone and never connecting anything to the Internet.
Why even step outside.
ARM could not be open source and survive. They sell proprietary logic designs that no one can use unless you pay them. They could not make a business just selling a design once to TI for the first-to-market profits alone. IP laws are important for ARM, and they're important for R&D in general. This is especially true in the USA where manufacturing keeps getting outsourced. IP laws and patents are ideally a good thing as long as you don't allow abuse of the system.
its not 'the same' as the old days but its far better than NOT having it! you can always choose to not view it
I don't know. Sometimes the nostalgia is worth more as it exists in your own recollection (which is hampered by a new perspective), and sometimes you don't realistically have a choice not to view it.
I can tell you that seeing the logic design for an ARM microcontroller would be extremely useful to TI, Samsung etc (if they'd be willing to ignore corporate ethics). Not only could they copy some of the design strategy for their own parts, they could literally implement the thing no problem (although I doubt they'd go that far). ARM provides support, but they don't have that much to do with the implementation. Even an amateur (read: foreign) IC design company could easily take the RTL and turn it into something that works. From personal experience I can tell you that ARM cares a great deal about leaked architectures. Their money comes from the R&D, not the support. It's easy to cry "patent troll". However, exclusively selling IP is not the easiest business, and I'm sure you'd agree that ARM is one of the good guys in the computer world.
It doesn't actually save the most amount of screen space. Firefox (Windows version) is customizable enough that you can put anything and everything in the title-bar alone.
On the surface that seems like a good tip, but ultimately it's useless. I'm not trying to take a jab at your helpfulness here, but I'm not going to go through a menu and select "verbatim" every time I do a search that should be "verbatim" to begin with. Even if they had an account preference I still wouldn't trust it. I tried turning off the instant search "feature" numerous times and the setting would get reset to default every couple weeks. That was the last straw that made me ditch google entirely. I started with Bing, but I ended up with the wildly-publicized-on-slashdot Duck Duck Go. It lets you customize everything without creating a login ID and the settings actually stick! When I need better results I can just use a "!g" in front of the search to get google's results without their "instant" BS.
I get the same blank blue thing on windows Firefox.
And at what point is "contributing" not considered an implied quid pro quo?
With more tax revenue the US government has to borrow and print less which creates a stronger dollar. This makes Chinese goods even cheaper.
That's not true if the Chinese goods are what's being taxed.
Wish I had mod points. This is the correct response. Software engineers get paid because they can come up with the necessary code on the fly more or less. Their value is much more in that than in the code they've written, and after they write a program they're kept around (and paid) because of the next program that will be needed.
I don't have mod points, but that's a great point. Thanks.
Bribery of a politician is one thing. Censorship to favor a political party is a much bigger deal.
Kay Hagan co-sponsored PIPA and got far more money from anti-PIPA groups.
In this particular case it would be fun to see, but the implications of huge companies with lots of economic power targeting key politicians is kind of scary. A blanket blackout for a short time would be more appropriate.