The main reason is probably to lock you into their store for ringtones and games. Their guise for it all would probably be so-called security. At least that's the impression I got while I was their customer.
Check this out, to actually DOWNLOAD apps from their store they made you pay some sort of extra charge. Paying them money for apps wasn't simple enough. I passed and got busy modifying the firmware in a hex editor.
If you visit a Cricket location you'll see mostly poor folks who can't pass a credit check, and Cricket milks them hard for basic features -- like caller ID. To make matters worse, their coverage rarely goes beyond the city; travel 25 miles out and bam -- no service, no roaming even. It's an all around bad deal. For me I wanted a no contract plan since I hoped to move overseas.
Trying to cancel my account was a pain. The customer service people on the phone kept offering me new deals of some sort -- totally ignoring that I've moved to an area without coverage, and I reiterated that fact repeatedly.
I was with Cricket for a couple years. I bought a new phone from them on one occasion, and when I asked for a data cable, the salesperson asked what I intended to do with it. I answered "sync my addresses" because I knew that was the answer she was looking for . . .
t'll also be a cold day in hell before I plug an ethernet cable into a TV and give it access to the internet.
My Sony TV supports DLNA. I run PS3 Media Server on my Mac and Linux box and can stream all my movies, with subtitles, without using another set top box. It has Facebook, YouTube and all that, but DLNA was the only reason I bothered attaching a network cable to it. I didn't even want a net enabled TV but the 'dumb' version didn't have as many input options.
Its Skype widget can support a fucking webcam but when you plug a USB keyboard in to use with its web browser an error appears stating, "Unsupported Device." Leave it to Sony.
ClarisWorks became AppleWorks, which was sort of like Apple's Microsoft Works and stagnated for years, especially after Pages and Keynote came out. The Intel switch was the final nail in the coffin for it. It definitely had some loyalists, though; many seemed to be K-12 educators.
I think many of the iWork people came from Gobe Productive, which in turn was comprised of many ClarisWorks exiles. I guess the whole thing has come full circle in some ways. AppleWorks was such a kludge of legacy code that open sourcing it would probably be a hassle of limited use for the community, especially with so many other modern projects out there.
The Gobe code coild be interesting though, especially for the Haiku guys.
. . . but after making a few dozen phone calls realized no one gave a shit, much less was willing to pay money for access to a Google prototype. To compensate for his disappointment, he dicked around with the Google employee.
Why not go invest in a 15 year old PC for $2 and install every game from that era you can find for peanuts if you don't give a damn about the visuals?
Funny you should mention that. I have DOSBox running on my Wii with probably a thousand DOS games installed on its SD card. I play Wii titles, but emulators get plenty of love too. It's a compact, noiseless, and pretty cheap way to bring most major consoles and a handful of 8 and 16 bit computers into your living room. It's such an easy system to mod too, and Nintendo hasn't pushed out any troublemaking updates for more than a year now.
I realize the same can be accomplished (I'm assuming) with an XBox (current or previous generation) or PS3 -- but the form factor is great. Used Wiis will be showing up on Craigslist for pennies soon enough, and the most failure prone component: the optical drive, is unnecessary.
Different context, but Mubarak did this permanently a couple years before the revolution occurred. The reason was to stop people from easily organizing protests. I think we know how that worked . . .
Not sure where it stands now since I never felt the need to try.
Forget the Wii store. Install the Homebrew channel and an assload of emulators. I wasted way too much money the first night I had my Wii just because I was too lazy to mod it.
I have an iPad 2 and a TouchPad. The only way I'd ever buy an Android tablet is if I could install webOS on it instead. So, as far as viable alternatives outside of the Apple ecosystem, I'm looking forward to what becomes of webOS.
If you read the rise and fall of webOS article from a few weeks back, you'd discover that the OS in its most current iteration was really thrown together at the last minute.
Slashdot Mirror
If it weren't for Samscum making iPhone knockoffs platforms that didn't merely copy iOS, like webOS and WP might have had a chance in the marketplace.
The main reason is probably to lock you into their store for ringtones and games. Their guise for it all would probably be so-called security. At least that's the impression I got while I was their customer.
Check this out, to actually DOWNLOAD apps from their store they made you pay some sort of extra charge. Paying them money for apps wasn't simple enough. I passed and got busy modifying the firmware in a hex editor.
If you visit a Cricket location you'll see mostly poor folks who can't pass a credit check, and Cricket milks them hard for basic features -- like caller ID. To make matters worse, their coverage rarely goes beyond the city; travel 25 miles out and bam -- no service, no roaming even. It's an all around bad deal. For me I wanted a no contract plan since I hoped to move overseas.
Trying to cancel my account was a pain. The customer service people on the phone kept offering me new deals of some sort -- totally ignoring that I've moved to an area without coverage, and I reiterated that fact repeatedly.
I was with Cricket for a couple years. I bought a new phone from them on one occasion, and when I asked for a data cable, the salesperson asked what I intended to do with it. I answered "sync my addresses" because I knew that was the answer she was looking for . . .
When did Cricket switch from CDMA to GSM?
I stand corrected.
Dick's is the place whee the SWASS hang out.
I guess I'll be using Bugmenot with WP like I have with the NY TImes for years.
Modding a Wii is painless. I have a 500gb drive attached to mine and haven't used discs in months.
Not on the second generation Wii, since it lacks the Gamecube ports.
I'm using a USB adapter with my Wii. Nintendo sold one themselves. But again, not sure about the software or the extent that it can be modded.
t'll also be a cold day in hell before I plug an ethernet cable into a TV and give it access to the internet.
My Sony TV supports DLNA. I run PS3 Media Server on my Mac and Linux box and can stream all my movies, with subtitles, without using another set top box. It has Facebook, YouTube and all that, but DLNA was the only reason I bothered attaching a network cable to it. I didn't even want a net enabled TV but the 'dumb' version didn't have as many input options.
Its Skype widget can support a fucking webcam but when you plug a USB keyboard in to use with its web browser an error appears stating, "Unsupported Device." Leave it to Sony.
Sorta looks like something that would summon the Cenobites if opened for repairs.
I like Game Center, especially the worldwide rankings.
ClarisWorks became AppleWorks, which was sort of like Apple's Microsoft Works and stagnated for years, especially after Pages and Keynote came out. The Intel switch was the final nail in the coffin for it. It definitely had some loyalists, though; many seemed to be K-12 educators.
I think many of the iWork people came from Gobe Productive, which in turn was comprised of many ClarisWorks exiles. I guess the whole thing has come full circle in some ways. AppleWorks was such a kludge of legacy code that open sourcing it would probably be a hassle of limited use for the community, especially with so many other modern projects out there.
The Gobe code coild be interesting though, especially for the Haiku guys.
And working for an institution that fuels itself on groupthink and blind patriotism is a last resort for smart people with personal ethics.
. . . but after making a few dozen phone calls realized no one gave a shit, much less was willing to pay money for access to a Google prototype. To compensate for his disappointment, he dicked around with the Google employee.
Why not go invest in a 15 year old PC for $2 and install every game from that era you can find for peanuts if you don't give a damn about the visuals?
Funny you should mention that. I have DOSBox running on my Wii with probably a thousand DOS games installed on its SD card. I play Wii titles, but emulators get plenty of love too. It's a compact, noiseless, and pretty cheap way to bring most major consoles and a handful of 8 and 16 bit computers into your living room. It's such an easy system to mod too, and Nintendo hasn't pushed out any troublemaking updates for more than a year now.
I realize the same can be accomplished (I'm assuming) with an XBox (current or previous generation) or PS3 -- but the form factor is great. Used Wiis will be showing up on Craigslist for pennies soon enough, and the most failure prone component: the optical drive, is unnecessary.
The Wii's browser is fine. The problem is that you're browsing modern websites on a machine with the processing power of an iMac from 2002.
The bigger they come, the harder they get stabbed.
I wonder how effective sliding it between my asscheeks before handing it to them would be in deterring theft.
Other than the occasional maps, Nintendo Power was shit.
Different context, but Mubarak did this permanently a couple years before the revolution occurred. The reason was to stop people from easily organizing protests. I think we know how that worked . . .
Not sure where it stands now since I never felt the need to try.
Forget the Wii store. Install the Homebrew channel and an assload of emulators. I wasted way too much money the first night I had my Wii just because I was too lazy to mod it.
For showing you have a sense of humor.
I have an iPad 2 and a TouchPad. The only way I'd ever buy an Android tablet is if I could install webOS on it instead. So, as far as viable alternatives outside of the Apple ecosystem, I'm looking forward to what becomes of webOS.
If you read the rise and fall of webOS article from a few weeks back, you'd discover that the OS in its most current iteration was really thrown together at the last minute.