Do you have Applecare? Even if you don't I would still go to an Apple store and complain in person. Last time I was in an Apple store getting a battery or something I saw no less than 3 people come in with your complaint (slow, poor reception, etc...) and have their iPhone replaced on the spot.
Apple treats the people with Applecare pretty well, and even if you don't have Applecare I've had great experiences with Apple when it came to getting stuff fixed or replaced for free.
What pisses me off about the Apple TV is that it could be a great little device HTPC, but Apple is so hellbent to keeping it tied to the Apple store. Where is Hulu or Netflix on the ATV? The mac mini makes a much better ATV than the ATV itself (prior to hacking it of course).
I initially ripped on the controls on the ear phone cable until I started using them with my iPhone. Now I think about how stupid it is to have to pull the device out of my pocket or go searching around on my waistband just to skip a song or adjust the volume. For example, last time I was snowboarding I wanted to adjust the song. Instead of having to go digging through my jacket I was able to just change it from the ear buds. That also alleviated the need to pull the device out in the cold air and have it shut down from the cold (0F doesn't get along with the batteries in most devices).
I also have one of the shuffles with the controls still on it that I use for the gym. It's perfect for it is and for what I use it for. I wish it could be controlled by the headphone controls though.
The Sunday alcohol ban has been gone in most of the state for YEARS. Some counties are still dry on Sundays, but if the people who live there want it dry I don't see a problem with it.
Much of the state is like Charleston county where liquor stores are closed on Sundays, but you can buy beer and wine in grocery stores or go to a bar and get full service.
You can reset the iPod classics by holding the center button down while also pressing the click wheel up. Takes a few seconds, but the ipod will reboot. I don't know if it works on all ipods that still have that click wheel, but I assume it would. It does. FIRST link that pops up on google, but lets not let that get in the way of a good rant.
You can also set iTunes to not move or rename your files. It'll use the library you point it to where it sits. This is useful if you have a library on external disks that are not always connected.
No power switch? Stop the music and use the button lock slide. At that point the power is as good as off since the ipod isn't doing anything.
The over one hundred thousand apps speak otherwise.
Some examples of truly innovative apps would be welcomed. 100k apps doesn't say much when I find a bunch of 'flip a coin' apps or flashlight apps or the typical example of fart apps. Those I would say are safe apps and thats' what is mostly in the store. GV is a great example of an innovative app/service that was thrown out of the store.
I also love how Apple basically ripped off the 'classics' app guy, but that's another story.
I wasn't even talking about the tinkerer specifically. I was more talking about how locking it to the Apple approved app store may prevent a lot of innovative apps from making it onto the iPad. First one that comes to mind would be some sort of touch friendly Photoshop (or any other photo management tool). Or how about web browser innovations? Apple tends to deny apps that 'duplicate functionality' that is already on the device.
What you end up with a lot of 'safe' apps on the device that don't look to push it into new areas. People end up avoiding the risk of spending time developing apps that might get denied access.
Unless you're using Linux with all free software on it, DRM is going to put you at odds with every company out there. To single out Apple for DRM is the dumb part, not complaining about DRM in general (which I do have a problem with).
BTW, I'm confused about the DRM part of the MB video interfaces. Isn't display port just another standard?
So? Most other cell phone makers make it EASY to write & deploy applications.
Really? I don't have any experience developing for other cell phones, but from what I've read, until the iPhone came around developing apps for other phones was a huge PITA. Android has since come out and provided probably the most open solution, but to say that other cell phone makers made it EASY (to develop, deploy, etc...) prior to the release of the iPhone doesn't go along with what I have read. Feel free to show me different though.
I agree with you, the problem is that I feel this had already happened to some extent. The computer is generally viewed now as a social interaction tool (think FB, IM, email) more than anything else. When I was growing up on the geeks had computers or even wanted one. The amazement and wonderment of computers is for the most part lost on todays youth.
But then I encountered their users, snobby idiots really. Although it was not because they used Apple, more that those with a specific profession tend to use Macs
All groups have segments that are assholes. Many linux users are the same way thinking they are elite because they can click install. There was a time in the past when linux was hard to install but not anymore.
Recently I havent liked Apple because of their DRM and crazy control they have over their products and markets. I mean IPods that you cant change the battery in? WTF!
Apple removed all DRM off their music awhile ago. From what I understand you can change the battery in ipods with a replacement and a butter knife.
There are lots of things to bitch at Apple about. For example, the iPad should be more computer and less iPhone than the other way around. Moaning about their users, DRM, or a 1 button mouse (I know you didn't bring it up but all Apple rants seem to end up there) is just dumb.
I think the problem people are having the iPad lockdown is that it is trying to straddle appliance and full computer. The iPhone I'm fine with being an appliance. It's made around a small screen and a very particular UI to deal with that small screen. The iPad on the other hand has this large touch screen and it feels like Apple may end up holding it back by keeping it closed. Only time will tell though, when the iPhone first came out there was no 3G, web apps only, etc...
When I was still in grad school, it was also the same in certain web technology research areas. I've read a bunch of conference submission papers from Chinese students and nearly all of it was non-original, improperly cited, and poorly researched. The problem they are having is that it takes time to boot strap a research program. You need to build a research culture, nurture experts in the sciences and have the free flow of ideas going. The last one is going to be a challenge for China and I sometimes wonder if they will be able to make it over that hump given their extreme censorship policies.
As an aside, I find it interesting how culture effects research. When I was going to conferences US and even researchers from the EU would often present ideas that achieved a goal around a free market mechanism. Chinese researchers nearly always spoke of centralized control, even when the scale of the idea was really too big to make it work.
I don't get why many people assume if it's a name brand it must be a rip off. I went with the cheap wal-mart special shoes one time. After 1 game of basketball my feet were destroyed and they hurt like hell. Never again, now it's Nike's all the way for basketball (I use New Balance for general running and Nike Frees for weightlifting - most comfortable shoe ever BTW). Obviously, you don't need the $200 air jordans or whatever they are called now, but the lowest priced Nike basketball shoe will beat any of the no name brands for comfort every time.
Really? Is that based on anything, or just an opinion?
People in general today want to blame all their problems on external factors. The opportunities presented to people are too many to count, yet they still make stupid choices and fail to take advantage of the opportunities that are out there. They then blame others and continue the cycle. Thomas Edison said it best:
Opportunity is missed by most people because it comes dressed in overalls and looks like work.
Reminds me of some statistics I saw the other day that completely floored me. It is easier than ever to buy a book and learn anything you would like to learn. The stats:
1/3 of high school graduates never read another book for the rest of their lives. 42 percent of college graduates never read another book after college. 80 percent of U.S. families did not buy or read a book last year. 70 percent of U.S. adults have not been in a bookstore in the last five years. Each day in the U.S., people spend 4 hours watching TV, 3 hours listening to the radio and 14 minutes reading magazines.
That looks like a lot of people not taking advantage of the many opportunities that exist.
Interesting take. I haven't ever pirated a movie. My argument was simply showing how the movie distributers are going to push their customers away from paying for the content. Instead of making it easier to rent, they make it harder with the hopes that the customer will pay 2x-3x more and buy the movie.
So if I have no internet, or easy way to rent a movie online, and I go to my local store, and the movie is sold out/rented out, you think it is okay to pirate the movie, because, well, I tried to buy/rent it, but it was not available, at the time I wanted it? Disregard the fact that in a few days a shipment of new videos will come to the retail store, and the people who rented them from the rental store will return them. I just need to wait.
This might be valid pre-internet/on-demand/etc..., but that's not the environment we live in today. On-demand content is the way everything is moving and fighting that trend is only going to push your customers away.
It's why some people pirate despite having their cinema card, a Netflix sub and shelves of store-bought movies. It's not that they aren't prepared to pay, it's just piracy is the better service. Sure, plenty of pirates are doing it just because it's free, but there's a big chunk of people with a range of different reasons. Each step the studios take towards competing with piracy is a chunk of people for whom paying becomes their better choice. Each step away from competing with piracy, like delaying Netflix for 28 days, a bunch of people turn on the torrents. Many will actually be annoyed about not being able to get what they want by paying for it.
Bingo. I wanted to watch Inglorious Bastards. So, I head off to Netflix and it's not on streaming and the DVD is on wait. Lets ignore for a moment that we live in time where we shouldn't need physical media AT ALL in order to rent something (or even buy for that matter). Next I go to the xbox movie section and I see IB. I think good, I can rent it here. Nope, it's only for purchase and it's only SD. I'm trying my hardest to give someone money to rent their content and they won't let me! At some point more and more people are going to say f' it and just go straight to TPB. The hassle of finding it to rent just isn't worth it when I can find and download it in minutes.
BTW, I think the music companies have started to learn this lesson, even if they were pulled along kicking and screaming. Look at Amazon and ITMS now. No DRM, Amazon has a great changing selection of $5 albums, and both make it easy to find whatever you are looking for and purchase for a fairly reasonable price. Why can't movies follow suit?
Unless they push people who are trying to be good customers and rent the movie into finding it on TPB because it's easier. Enough people do this and Netflix needs to buy less movies because by the time they stock it people will have already downloaded and watched it.
You should only be allowed to vote if you pass a test with questions about political issues.
While I agree that simply being in the military doesn't mean you know how to vote, don't forget the military (and police to a lesser extent) is the enforcement arm of politics. Someone who was/is in the military will have a different perspective on war and its consequences that may be helpful in making a political decision about the military.
I thought about it, but I already have an xbox that does movie rentals and netflix. I think before I bought an Apple TV I would just get a mini and use it as a full media PC for Hulu, etc...
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The iPhone doesn't support tethering.
Do you have Applecare? Even if you don't I would still go to an Apple store and complain in person. Last time I was in an Apple store getting a battery or something I saw no less than 3 people come in with your complaint (slow, poor reception, etc...) and have their iPhone replaced on the spot.
Apple treats the people with Applecare pretty well, and even if you don't have Applecare I've had great experiences with Apple when it came to getting stuff fixed or replaced for free.
If you make any claims it's common practice to cancel the insurance.
What pisses me off about the Apple TV is that it could be a great little device HTPC, but Apple is so hellbent to keeping it tied to the Apple store. Where is Hulu or Netflix on the ATV? The mac mini makes a much better ATV than the ATV itself (prior to hacking it of course).
I initially ripped on the controls on the ear phone cable until I started using them with my iPhone. Now I think about how stupid it is to have to pull the device out of my pocket or go searching around on my waistband just to skip a song or adjust the volume. For example, last time I was snowboarding I wanted to adjust the song. Instead of having to go digging through my jacket I was able to just change it from the ear buds. That also alleviated the need to pull the device out in the cold air and have it shut down from the cold (0F doesn't get along with the batteries in most devices).
I also have one of the shuffles with the controls still on it that I use for the gym. It's perfect for it is and for what I use it for. I wish it could be controlled by the headphone controls though.
The Sunday alcohol ban has been gone in most of the state for YEARS. Some counties are still dry on Sundays, but if the people who live there want it dry I don't see a problem with it.
Much of the state is like Charleston county where liquor stores are closed on Sundays, but you can buy beer and wine in grocery stores or go to a bar and get full service.
You can reset the iPod classics by holding the center button down while also pressing the click wheel up. Takes a few seconds, but the ipod will reboot. I don't know if it works on all ipods that still have that click wheel, but I assume it would. It does. FIRST link that pops up on google, but lets not let that get in the way of a good rant.
You can also set iTunes to not move or rename your files. It'll use the library you point it to where it sits. This is useful if you have a library on external disks that are not always connected.
No power switch? Stop the music and use the button lock slide. At that point the power is as good as off since the ipod isn't doing anything.
Some examples of truly innovative apps would be welcomed. 100k apps doesn't say much when I find a bunch of 'flip a coin' apps or flashlight apps or the typical example of fart apps. Those I would say are safe apps and thats' what is mostly in the store. GV is a great example of an innovative app/service that was thrown out of the store.
I also love how Apple basically ripped off the 'classics' app guy, but that's another story.
I wasn't even talking about the tinkerer specifically. I was more talking about how locking it to the Apple approved app store may prevent a lot of innovative apps from making it onto the iPad. First one that comes to mind would be some sort of touch friendly Photoshop (or any other photo management tool). Or how about web browser innovations? Apple tends to deny apps that 'duplicate functionality' that is already on the device.
What you end up with a lot of 'safe' apps on the device that don't look to push it into new areas. People end up avoiding the risk of spending time developing apps that might get denied access.
Unless you're using Linux with all free software on it, DRM is going to put you at odds with every company out there. To single out Apple for DRM is the dumb part, not complaining about DRM in general (which I do have a problem with).
BTW, I'm confused about the DRM part of the MB video interfaces. Isn't display port just another standard?
Really? I don't have any experience developing for other cell phones, but from what I've read, until the iPhone came around developing apps for other phones was a huge PITA. Android has since come out and provided probably the most open solution, but to say that other cell phone makers made it EASY (to develop, deploy, etc...) prior to the release of the iPhone doesn't go along with what I have read. Feel free to show me different though.
I agree with you, the problem is that I feel this had already happened to some extent. The computer is generally viewed now as a social interaction tool (think FB, IM, email) more than anything else. When I was growing up on the geeks had computers or even wanted one. The amazement and wonderment of computers is for the most part lost on todays youth.
All groups have segments that are assholes. Many linux users are the same way thinking they are elite because they can click install. There was a time in the past when linux was hard to install but not anymore.
Apple removed all DRM off their music awhile ago. From what I understand you can change the battery in ipods with a replacement and a butter knife.
There are lots of things to bitch at Apple about. For example, the iPad should be more computer and less iPhone than the other way around. Moaning about their users, DRM, or a 1 button mouse (I know you didn't bring it up but all Apple rants seem to end up there) is just dumb.
I think the problem people are having the iPad lockdown is that it is trying to straddle appliance and full computer. The iPhone I'm fine with being an appliance. It's made around a small screen and a very particular UI to deal with that small screen. The iPad on the other hand has this large touch screen and it feels like Apple may end up holding it back by keeping it closed. Only time will tell though, when the iPhone first came out there was no 3G, web apps only, etc...
That's a better answer than I used to get when I was forced to go to Sunday school as a kid. "Because the bible says so."
When I was still in grad school, it was also the same in certain web technology research areas. I've read a bunch of conference submission papers from Chinese students and nearly all of it was non-original, improperly cited, and poorly researched. The problem they are having is that it takes time to boot strap a research program. You need to build a research culture, nurture experts in the sciences and have the free flow of ideas going. The last one is going to be a challenge for China and I sometimes wonder if they will be able to make it over that hump given their extreme censorship policies.
As an aside, I find it interesting how culture effects research. When I was going to conferences US and even researchers from the EU would often present ideas that achieved a goal around a free market mechanism. Chinese researchers nearly always spoke of centralized control, even when the scale of the idea was really too big to make it work.
I don't get why many people assume if it's a name brand it must be a rip off. I went with the cheap wal-mart special shoes one time. After 1 game of basketball my feet were destroyed and they hurt like hell. Never again, now it's Nike's all the way for basketball (I use New Balance for general running and Nike Frees for weightlifting - most comfortable shoe ever BTW). Obviously, you don't need the $200 air jordans or whatever they are called now, but the lowest priced Nike basketball shoe will beat any of the no name brands for comfort every time.
No, in the sea of crap that is most laptops, MBP/MB are some of the least crappy.
I don't know, but it seems like yes since nearly every person on "Locked Up Abroad" was caught airline smuggling.
People in general today want to blame all their problems on external factors. The opportunities presented to people are too many to count, yet they still make stupid choices and fail to take advantage of the opportunities that are out there. They then blame others and continue the cycle. Thomas Edison said it best:
Reminds me of some statistics I saw the other day that completely floored me. It is easier than ever to buy a book and learn anything you would like to learn. The stats:
1/3 of high school graduates never read another book for the rest of their lives.
42 percent of college graduates never read another book after college.
80 percent of U.S. families did not buy or read a book last year.
70 percent of U.S. adults have not been in a bookstore in the last five years.
Each day in the U.S., people spend 4 hours watching TV, 3 hours listening to the radio and 14 minutes reading magazines.
That looks like a lot of people not taking advantage of the many opportunities that exist.
Interesting take. I haven't ever pirated a movie. My argument was simply showing how the movie distributers are going to push their customers away from paying for the content. Instead of making it easier to rent, they make it harder with the hopes that the customer will pay 2x-3x more and buy the movie.
This might be valid pre-internet/on-demand/etc..., but that's not the environment we live in today. On-demand content is the way everything is moving and fighting that trend is only going to push your customers away.
Bingo. I wanted to watch Inglorious Bastards. So, I head off to Netflix and it's not on streaming and the DVD is on wait. Lets ignore for a moment that we live in time where we shouldn't need physical media AT ALL in order to rent something (or even buy for that matter). Next I go to the xbox movie section and I see IB. I think good, I can rent it here. Nope, it's only for purchase and it's only SD. I'm trying my hardest to give someone money to rent their content and they won't let me! At some point more and more people are going to say f' it and just go straight to TPB. The hassle of finding it to rent just isn't worth it when I can find and download it in minutes.
BTW, I think the music companies have started to learn this lesson, even if they were pulled along kicking and screaming. Look at Amazon and ITMS now. No DRM, Amazon has a great changing selection of $5 albums, and both make it easy to find whatever you are looking for and purchase for a fairly reasonable price. Why can't movies follow suit?
Unless they push people who are trying to be good customers and rent the movie into finding it on TPB because it's easier. Enough people do this and Netflix needs to buy less movies because by the time they stock it people will have already downloaded and watched it.
While I agree that simply being in the military doesn't mean you know how to vote, don't forget the military (and police to a lesser extent) is the enforcement arm of politics. Someone who was/is in the military will have a different perspective on war and its consequences that may be helpful in making a political decision about the military.
I thought about it, but I already have an xbox that does movie rentals and netflix. I think before I bought an Apple TV I would just get a mini and use it as a full media PC for Hulu, etc...