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  1. Yes, I have also been waiting for Face ID before upgrading to the large iPad Pro. I also hope they increase the storage capacity and expect an improved processor. Whatâ(TM)s not to like?

  2. Re:Drives me nuts on A Real-Time Map of All the Objects In Earth's Orbit · · Score: 1

    The product is called Freefall and I have a version 1.2 copy running on a G4 Tower Mac connected the an HDMI switch so I can watch it on a big screen. It is, unfortunately, PPC only so it doesn't run on current Macs. There was an 'update' sold for a while that ran on intel also (I think, memory is tricky). But it was more like a redesign which just wasn't as nice as the original. The two names attached to the program, XtremeMac and Advanced Analytic System Design, seem to have passed from this world.

    You can view some of the same stuff with Starry Night Pro on the Mac.

  3. Re:Uh yeah? on Chromebooks Overtake iPads In US Education Market · · Score: 1

    The Chromebooks may be shipped to the customer but the "customer" is not the person who has to use it. This sounds like the "cheap PC" effect all over again. A functionary decides some similar but significantly less capable device is good enough product because all he sees is a lower price tag. Whenever the customer is not the same as the user of a computing device, the result is usually distorted by short sighted initial cost arguments. Also, it is your damn sig so it goes in automatically without extra typing. Put in the apostrophe.

  4. Re: Not likely. on Microsoft Wants You To Trade Your MacBook Air In For a Surface Pro 3 · · Score: 1

    In fact locally the earth is flat which is an important insight about geometry. So for a sufficiently small neighborhood a plane is a good approximation while globally it is spherical. On the other hand there is some reason why Apple is a far more profitable company than any of its competitors. Keep at it, eventually you may figure out why. (Of course, I don't have much hope for a breakthrough in the short run).

  5. Re:Not likely. on Microsoft Wants You To Trade Your MacBook Air In For a Surface Pro 3 · · Score: 1

    Not a very good example. Most people do not think the earth is flat. From personal observation on a flight the curvature of the earth is visible. Also anyone living on a coast can see evidence of the curvature. Anyone viewing an eclipse of the sun or moon will see compelling evidence. The shared experience of the moon landing is not exactly a secret. And finally the ancient Greeks already had determined the earth was a sphere from their own personal experience and observation.

    But seriously, do you know anyone who thinks the earth is flat?

  6. Re:Not likely. on Microsoft Wants You To Trade Your MacBook Air In For a Surface Pro 3 · · Score: 1

    "But who cares? Only an idiot would try to generalize from your tiny sample size."

    I think a better conclusion would be that only and idiot would ignore his own experience.

  7. Since WB doesn't seem like they care enough to provide according to their promise, it sounds like a job for 'Popcorn Time'!

  8. Re:Apple just buy out Intel on Why Bob Mansfield Was Cut From Apple's Executive Team · · Score: 1

    Apple cash : 10,746,000

    Intel's market cap: 115,690,000,000

    I didn't post this to prove you wrong - I was sincerely interested. You wouldn't believe the crazy things I've heard on the internet that turned out to make me money!

    But, I posted my results just to boost my own ego is all.

    Carry on....I have a pathetic little life....

    Maybe everyone else is crazy who reports it but I know I've read Apple has over $140 billion in cash. Much of it is overseas and would be subject to taxation if brought back to US but that is a whole lot more than the $10+ billion you mention. In fact it is much more than the market cap for Intel you mention but I have doubts about that since it is from the same source.

  9. Re: Hrmmm on "Dark Lightning" Could Expose Airline Passengers To Radiation · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Gamma rays are stopped by 1/4 inches of aluminum? I can see it messing with radio waves, but gamma radiation? Requiring all passenger planes to include a radiation dosimeter for a while (include it with the black box recorder) and we would have a practical answer.

  10. Re:This is what trademarks are for on Brazilians Can Now Buy an "iPhone" Loaded With Android · · Score: 1

    I don't know enough about the details of cloud computing infrastructure to have a strong opinion one way or the other but it seems like a dull but useful market with many competitors but not much potential for a meteoric success like an iPhone or iPad. If Microsoft proves unsatisfactory for some reason, then like in the case of Samsung, I would expect Apple to move to a competitor or start their own (cf Apple Store vs big box disasters like Best Buy). Regardless of the details you can rest assured that there will be an Apple for which you can predict decline and disaster.

  11. Re:This is what trademarks are for on Brazilians Can Now Buy an "iPhone" Loaded With Android · · Score: 1

    Gosh, I didn't think I would have any more to add but this just begs. Bill Gates quite rationally propped up what he considered a harmless adversary to try to satisfy those who objected to his use of monopoly power to subvert the market elsewhere. But Apple was saved by Steve Jobs and built to make Microsoft relatively irrelevant to the future of computing. They (MS) still matter and probably 'always' will but this isn't the future Mr Gates had in mind when he made his very profitable investment in Apple (but they sold those shares many years ago).

  12. Re:This is what trademarks are for on Brazilians Can Now Buy an "iPhone" Loaded With Android · · Score: 1

    This sort of disagreement is not one that can be settled by words. It will be settled by results which will take years to play out. The song you sing of Apple's doom has been sung many times for many decades. If one worships at the temple of market share, predictions are simple and often wrong. Please note how many Commodore computers are relevant today. On a day to day basis we see the drama of Dell and HP, marketshare champions, both dealing with 'interesting times'.

    But enough of prognostication. What I was objecting to strenuously was the absurdity of how you characterized that Apple was trying to sneak their failed product, the iPhone, into Brazil using the good name and technical excellence of the locally produced legitimate 'iPhone'. The absurdity of the statement is beyond redemption. It's just absurd.

  13. Re:This is what trademarks are for on Brazilians Can Now Buy an "iPhone" Loaded With Android · · Score: 1

    You really haven't bothered to look at any numbers, have you? Apple makes more money based just on the iPhone than Microsoft does on everything. Soon it is projected to be more than Microsoft and Google combined. We can differ on what we consider a good or better product but successful is rather easily numerically determined and Apple's iPhone is a monster. You are entitled to your own opinions but you are not entitled to your own facts.

  14. Re:This is what trademarks are for on Brazilians Can Now Buy an "iPhone" Loaded With Android · · Score: 1

    "There was not nefarious trademark squatting"

    That is exactly what is being alleged. If it were like the Cisco case where an actual product was developed and sold, then one can quite objectively expect Apple to address the issue and rectify the situation (i.e. pay up). In the Brazilian case, like the Chinese case, it appears to be a mugging of opportunity. They saw their opportunity for a payday and made the requisite minimal moves so a home court judge could put his compromised seal on the tawdry affair.

    "Yes, I can say exactly that. Look at it like this: A local company creates a successful product and a huge american company with massive lawyers come in and sell an inferior product under the same name. Does the US company deserve to peddle its inferior product to consumers pretending it is the locally produced quality product?"

    Successful product? Successful product? Are you blind? Apple's iPhone, whatever else could be said about it, is arguably the most successful product in the history of the world! (No, I don't own or intend to buy an Apple iPhone. I vastly prefer the iPod touch, especially in its most recent version). There is simply no way in the world that Apple intends "to peddle its inferior product" using the reputation of the local product.

    "Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens."

  15. Re:the specs will make you cream your shorts on Intel's Rumored TV Plans Would Compete With Apple, Google · · Score: 1

    Has the Plex app on Roku improved recently? The last time I used it the experience had a definite flimsy, underpowered feel. I find the Air Video Server and corresponding iOS app much nicer. I use AirPlay and Apple TV, of course, to view on a big screen TV. A rather peculiar feature is that Apple TV works on my home network, which is not connected to the internet, while Roku simply fails to function if it cannot connect to the internet.

  16. Re:Just buy new hardware! (NOT) on OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion) Won't Support Some 64-bit Macs With Older GPUs · · Score: 1

    Isn't this mainly just the dark side of Moore's Law? I'm right on the cusp now for Mountain Lion so I am not unfamiliar with the frustration that I will need a new MBP for future updates but I also know how much technology has progressed since I got my classic 15" MBP that runs so well. On the other hand Macs tend to hold their value so you should be able to sell your model to someone who doesn't need the latest update for a good price. Try that with a 5 year old Toshiba (or a 1 year old model).

  17. Re:Disagree on How Steve Jobs Patent-Trolled Bill Gates · · Score: 2

    Oh please, bitch. The Mach microkernel was pioneered by Avie Tevanian and his colleagues at CMU. He left CMU to join a new company called NeXT which had as its CEO Steve Jobs after he left Apple. NeXTStep was developed but did not reach critical mass. When Jobs returned to Apple he brought Tevanian and Jon Rubenstein (previously head of hardware engineering at NeXT) to head Software and Hardware respectively at the 'new' Apple. The software for the Mac, iPhone, iPad, AppleTV, and iPod touch is all developed from the foundation of NeXTStep and the mach microkernel.

    What is it with you guys? Apple introduces the first consumer friendly PC in the Apple ][, then the first mass market gui PC in the Mac (after the failed and distinctly not mass market Lisa), the first mp3 player that did not suck too much in the iPod, the first cell phone that often delights rather than inspire you to smash it: iPhone, and finally a pad format device that people actually want to use. But you aren't impressed. Wow. Mit der dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens. That's as much /. as I can take for today.

  18. Re:Disagree on How Steve Jobs Patent-Trolled Bill Gates · · Score: 2

    The world still has TNT and tactical weapons yet the Nobel Prizes are what are popularly associated with Alfred Nobel.

  19. Re:Apple practically invented patent trolling on How Steve Jobs Patent-Trolled Bill Gates · · Score: 1

    Youngin's today have no idea how limited processing power and memory were in those days. For years when a user moved a window around the screen a ghostly outline of the boundary of the window is all you got for feedback. When you let go of the window the old one was erased and the window was redrawn in its new position. And we had to walk to school uphill and into the wind both ways, etc.

  20. Re:Apple practically invented patent trolling on How Steve Jobs Patent-Trolled Bill Gates · · Score: 4, Informative

    Current value of those shares if held to the present day would be 8,000,000 x $500 = $4 Billion and still climbing (of course that would have required nerves of steel). Even Doctor Evil would be impressed. (N.B. Apple stock has split three times).

    By the way anyone who accuses Apple (or any other company that actually creates and sells products based on their patents) a patent troll indicates gross ignorance on the part of the accuser. The only definition I've heard of that term is a company that has no products of its own so that cross licensing is never an option for negotiation. Patent trolls are "purely abstract" companies that game the patent system to change it from an attempt to encourage innovation to one that kills innovation (cf. Intellectual Ventures and its vile ilk).

  21. Re:That's pretty presumpyuous. on Your Next TV Interface Will Be a Tablet · · Score: 1

    Also in the smaller form factor there is the iPod touch which is essentially an iPhone without the monthly bill. It also runs a Plex client which can throw the video to an Apple TV connected big screen.

  22. Re:It's called an idiot box for a reason ... on Your Next TV Interface Will Be a Tablet · · Score: 1

    I know there is some turmoil going on, but last time I checked Portugal was still considered to be in Europe. So that is not really a counter-example.

  23. Re:Taking the heat off torrents on Library.nu and Ifile.it Shut Down · · Score: 1

    Have you heard of VPN? It is widely used by business and government so trying to prevent its use is very problematic. As long as there are locations on the net that are not 'owned' by the copyright cartel the darknet will continue to flourish. Ironically a side effect of this development is that all other internet activity of an individual using VPN becomes much less vulnerable to surveillance. Positive efforts to encourage people to safeguard privacy have been fairly ineffective but this sort of activity is doing that job rather well.

  24. Re:Blame Napster on File Sharing In the Post MegaUpload Era · · Score: 3, Funny

    ...
    Are sites containing strictly Magnet URIs, which I assume provide no resources for locating the tracker nor "piers" that would provide file, illegal or legal in the US? ...

    To stop people from smirking you should refer to "peers" rather than "piers". Although the nautical image it conjures up is entertaining.

  25. Re:so i guess. on Apple Announces Most Profitable Quarter in History · · Score: 1

    I understand your point about leverage. What I think you are trying to ignore is the wealth of products Apple makes and will continue to sell. The Mac (at least in name) goes back to '84. That is almost 30 years. Apple has never sold more or made more money on the Mac than in the most recent quarter. There is a huge amount of growth potential from the multitudes who are not satisfied with their current choice and are willing to try an Apple product because of their experience with the iPhone, iPad, and/or iPod. This is even more true of the iPhone and iPad. They insures an enormous amount of time (decades) before an improbable absence of a new successul product is felt. Finally there is the $100 billion that Apple (and by extension The Apple Store) has in cash or cash equivalents that could sustain them if they decided to nothing but sail around in yachts. Anyone waiting for Apple to fail because of the Apple Store needs to be very young and very patient.