You must be kidding - you say you have used Macs and iPhones but don't find them more usable?
Examples:
iPod:
Scroll wheel - made the IPod way more usable than every other mp3 player out at the time (and maybe even still)
IPhone/Touch:
pinch to zoom
flick to scroll
the algorithms used to figure out what you are poking (i just used a windows tablet PC with a touchscreen and had a heck of a time selecting some of the smaller UI objects)
The way you add photos to contacts - you can crop and zoom as part of the process
Mac:
Drag and Drop functionality (you can drop to apps minimized in the dock)
two finger track pad functionality (two finger scroll, two finger tap to 'right click')
Regardless of whether is can or can't be much simpler than that, the parents empirical experience (that he was getting replies that he had sent a blank email) indicates that it is not simple enough.
Apple's logic was that this tool could allow users to run illegal copies of games, holding it open to a charge of contributory copyright infringement. Anything that might do so is verboten under the terms of the iPhone OS SDK.
The myth of course is based in reality. There are many risks along the way to becoming successful. How many people do you know who stay in their current job because they are afraid of what might happen if they take a shot at a higher level job?
How many successes came about as the result of betting the farm (figuratively) on some idea? People that were willing to risk everything they owned because they believed in themselves?
This is already built into XP Tablet edition - if I poke my finger on the title bar and drag it around, the window drags around with my finger...is that what you are talking about?
For the record, Celsius sucks for the "how warm is it today?" question (the scale based on 0-100% is better),
So tell me what scale that is when it was 108F today here in Phoenix? It routinely gets up to 115 and even over 120. Also it rarely gets below 30F. Should we have a different scale for every climate?
Meters suck for "how big is this object I hold?"
Which is why we have centimetres,
and using a drill size 1/64th bigger than the O.D. of the bolt to make the hole just the right size is an inelegant hack in metric sizing.
Because using a drill size.5 mm bigger is inelegant how?
Apple users will pay double for an app with functionality that we've had on our Blackberries for years.
That may or may not be the case in general, however in this particular instance, $99 to buy the App seems significantly cheaper than $9.99/month that the TeleNav app on your blackberry costs. Well they do offer a discount - $99/yr or $249 for a 4 year plan.
I can't believe those blackberry users will pay $10/month for a GPS App that I can buy on my iPhone for only $100.
In the second case, the parents probably don't even know how the iPhone works, let alone how to activate parental controls.
Couldn't the parent and the child each have their own iPhone? I know Apple is pretty strict about their hardware, but last I heard it was not limiting one iPhone per family.
So Apple is definitely not about choice in your opinion. You either have to go all Apple or no Apple at all.
Apple is all about choice. I chose to get a mac because I was sick of all the windows crap.
I chose to get an iPhone because of the user interface.
I chose to get an Apple TV (without ever having seen one) because of the trust I had in Apple that it would be very usable.
You are free to choose not to buy an Iphone, or an iPod, or an Apple TV or any of their other products. You are free to choose whether to shop at the iTunes store or not.
Part of my choice in buying their stuff is because all of it works very nicely together. It is part of their business strategy and apparently seems to be working out OK for them.
Why shouldn't they be free to choose what products synch with their software? Why should they let another company hijack this strategy from them?
I dropped my iPhone many times (on concrete, no less) before the drop on which it broke. So it CAN be dropped and not break. How many times should one be able to drop it? I've had friends with other phones that have been broken when they dropped them. Perhaps you should investigate the Land Rover phoen if you'd like something rugged.
BTW while the glass is cracked in the one corner, it is still fully functional and I will be using it until December when I am eligible for my subsidized upgrade to a 3GS.
From our friends at wikipedia....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economics_of_new_nuclear_power_plants#US
Insurance for nuclear or radiological incidents in the U.S. is organized by the Price-Anderson Nuclear Industries Indemnity Act. In general, nuclear power plants have private insurance and assessments that are pooled into a fund currently worth about $10 billion. Insurance claims beyond the fund's size would be organized by, and probably paid by, the U.S. government. In July 2005, Congress extended this Act to newer facilities. For full history, details and controversy, see Price-Anderson Nuclear Industries Indemnity Act.
So why would anyone buy a more expensive USB stick to "extend their notebook" when they can do so internal to the notebook, for cheaper, and have all the benefits of a SSD drive?
Why would anyone buy a 64GB memory stick when they can buy a 500GB 2.5" drive for the same price?
Perhaps once someone has purchased the 256GB SSD drive and installed it into their notebook, they could double their capacity for only $1000 more. For corporate users, $1000 is a drop in the bucket.
And without a doubt in the next 6 months you will see the price plummet.
The last link in the summary, regarding the student who was without power for two weeks has absolutely nothing to do with smart appliances or smart grids. Why is it even included? Perhaps an article detailing the rolling brownouts that some areas have had to deal with during times when demand is greater than supply would be more appropriate (and would be something that a smart grid could address in a better way).
Oh wait, a balanced story detailing the pros and cons of an issue is probably way too much to ask for.
For example, a person can allow the clothes dryer to go into "conservation" mode when the utility signals through the smart meter that peak prices are in effect.
Slashdot Mirror
you realize that rotting meat makes for a poor fertilizer, right?
So let's see, independent groups give positive reviews. One of the main competitors give it a negative review. Who to believe?
You must be kidding - you say you have used Macs and iPhones but don't find them more usable?
Examples:
iPod:
IPhone/Touch:
Mac:
I could go on...
Regardless of whether is can or can't be much simpler than that, the parents empirical experience (that he was getting replies that he had sent a blank email) indicates that it is not simple enough.
According to the second article:
Apple's logic was that this tool could allow users to run illegal copies of games, holding it open to a charge of contributory copyright infringement. Anything that might do so is verboten under the terms of the iPhone OS SDK.
I believe at least one of the problems is that with access to the basic interpreter could be used to start illegally obtained games.
Phoenix Arizona is terrible - switched from Verizon to get an iPhone and get horribly slow 3G at times and a couple of dropped calls per week.
You could easily say the same of many of the upgrades in OS X point releases.
But we're not talking about many of point releases of OSX. The article and comments are specifically comparing Snow Leopard and Windows 7.
The myth of course is based in reality. There are many risks along the way to becoming successful. How many people do you know who stay in their current job because they are afraid of what might happen if they take a shot at a higher level job?
How many successes came about as the result of betting the farm (figuratively) on some idea? People that were willing to risk everything they owned because they believed in themselves?
This is already built into XP Tablet edition - if I poke my finger on the title bar and drag it around, the window drags around with my finger...is that what you are talking about?
Truthfully, though neat as a "Gee whiz" type of thing, I just don't see much practical application for Menuet.
I recall hearing the same arguments regarding Linux and 386BSD back in the early 90's.
For the record, Celsius sucks for the "how warm is it today?" question (the scale based on 0-100% is better),
So tell me what scale that is when it was 108F today here in Phoenix? It routinely gets up to 115 and even over 120. Also it rarely gets below 30F. Should we have a different scale for every climate?
Meters suck for "how big is this object I hold?"
Which is why we have centimetres,
and using a drill size 1/64th bigger than the O.D. of the bolt to make the hole just the right size is an inelegant hack in metric sizing.
Because using a drill size .5 mm bigger is inelegant how?
Apple users will pay double for an app with functionality that we've had on our Blackberries for years.
That may or may not be the case in general, however in this particular instance, $99 to buy the App seems significantly cheaper than $9.99/month that the TeleNav app on your blackberry costs. Well they do offer a discount - $99/yr or $249 for a 4 year plan.
I can't believe those blackberry users will pay $10 /month for a GPS App that I can buy on my iPhone for only $100.
Water exists only on our planet (no direct evidence it exists anywhere else, especially right now, in the Universe) and it allows us to survive
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19426065.400
Or is there some other explanation where Apple's actions look justified?
How about "it's their store, they can sell what they want?"
or should we complain that the christian book store should be selling nudie magazines because they sell other books?
I'd even hazard a guess that it is covered in their guidelines that the developer received before he even started writing the app for the iPhone.
In the second case, the parents probably don't even know how the iPhone works, let alone how to activate parental controls.
Couldn't the parent and the child each have their own iPhone? I know Apple is pretty strict about their hardware, but last I heard it was not limiting one iPhone per family.
http://www.snopes.com/legal/arizona.asp
maybe it's just me, but I'd really think someone who was geeky enough to read slashdot would run silly stories through snopes first...
So Apple is definitely not about choice in your opinion. You either have to go all Apple or no Apple at all.
Apple is all about choice. I chose to get a mac because I was sick of all the windows crap.
I chose to get an iPhone because of the user interface.
I chose to get an Apple TV (without ever having seen one) because of the trust I had in Apple that it would be very usable.
You are free to choose not to buy an Iphone, or an iPod, or an Apple TV or any of their other products. You are free to choose whether to shop at the iTunes store or not.
Part of my choice in buying their stuff is because all of it works very nicely together. It is part of their business strategy and apparently seems to be working out OK for them.
Why shouldn't they be free to choose what products synch with their software? Why should they let another company hijack this strategy from them?
I dropped my iPhone many times (on concrete, no less) before the drop on which it broke. So it CAN be dropped and not break. How many times should one be able to drop it? I've had friends with other phones that have been broken when they dropped them. Perhaps you should investigate the Land Rover phoen if you'd like something rugged.
BTW while the glass is cracked in the one corner, it is still fully functional and I will be using it until December when I am eligible for my subsidized upgrade to a 3GS.
From our friends at wikipedia....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economics_of_new_nuclear_power_plants#US
Insurance for nuclear or radiological incidents in the U.S. is organized by the Price-Anderson Nuclear Industries Indemnity Act. In general, nuclear power plants have private insurance and assessments that are pooled into a fund currently worth about $10 billion. Insurance claims beyond the fund's size would be organized by, and probably paid by, the U.S. government. In July 2005, Congress extended this Act to newer facilities. For full history, details and controversy, see Price-Anderson Nuclear Industries Indemnity Act.
So why would anyone buy a more expensive USB stick to "extend their notebook" when they can do so internal to the notebook, for cheaper, and have all the benefits of a SSD drive?
Why would anyone buy a 64GB memory stick when they can buy a 500GB 2.5" drive for the same price?
Perhaps once someone has purchased the 256GB SSD drive and installed it into their notebook, they could double their capacity for only $1000 more. For corporate users, $1000 is a drop in the bucket.
And without a doubt in the next 6 months you will see the price plummet.
someone sets up a jail-broken app store from which to distribute the apps Apple doesn't approve of
it's called Cydia and is available for all jailbroken iPhones.
You can dismiss this as fear mongering or alarmism,
OK I will.
you'd think we're living in the fifties with nuclear mutant scares.
No, we're living in the now with paranoid 'the government won't let me dry my clothes' scares.
The last link in the summary, regarding the student who was without power for two weeks has absolutely nothing to do with smart appliances or smart grids. Why is it even included? Perhaps an article detailing the rolling brownouts that some areas have had to deal with during times when demand is greater than supply would be more appropriate (and would be something that a smart grid could address in a better way).
Oh wait, a balanced story detailing the pros and cons of an issue is probably way too much to ask for.
From the article:
For example, a person can allow the clothes dryer to go into "conservation" mode when the utility signals through the smart meter that peak prices are in effect.
Note the 'a person can allow' part.