Have you worked in a modern medical facility? nobody looks at pictures or diagnostic imagery in physical form anymore. Gone are the days of the x-ray snapped to the light panel on the wall. Everything is done on computers.
I agree there may be a niche for this, but the one you suggest just isn't it.
The problem is that that number is depended on by most plugins to remain stable. As such, every time they change the number, most plugins stop working as they haven't been "updated" for the new version. When you release a new major version, the expectation is that you changed a lot of stuff, and as such, the plugins should test on your new version and make sure everything still works properly. In fact though these major versions are very minor changes, and the plugins you had before would probably work just fine, if they had been told that nothing would be changing in this version.
I could care less if they call it Firefox 32768.0 or Firefox 0.0000001. what I DO care about is that I don't loose functionality just because someone can't figure out the difference between what a major version change is versus a small update.
And that's the issue, they are already advertising higher speeds than you could ever possibly get in a real world scenario, so how do they plan to get you ABOVE those speeds when you pay more? simple, they don't. Instead they'll lower the real speed further, and then charge people extra to get where they are today.
Now if they advertised the iphone at 5meg and you could pay extra to get a burst to 10, I'd be ok with that, but that just doesn't seem likely. It's more likely they'll continue to advertise 14.4, while limiting you to 5 unless you pay for a burst to 10. (and the new price for 5 is probably about the same (or higher) than the old price for "14.4")
And that's the real problem, I have no problem with them giving extra speed for extra money (that's how it works on my DSL line at home, my 15 meg package costs more than a 6 meg package, but less than a 25) Unfortunately though, it seems highly unlikely that this new feature will magically have more bandwidth than exists today. Instead it seems more likely that they'll simply drop everyone's current speeds down, and then charge people extra to get back to what they thought they were already paying for...
google has never (or at least not recently) allowed any non alpha-numeric character to be searched for. (my most recent example was trying to search for information on the proper syntax for multiple entries in the linux.forward file, because there's no way to include the period in front of the file name, the information returned is all about forwarding things in linux, but not about the file I'm interested in)
In a lot of ways it's better to have the automatic debit setup. If you die and the payments are not made on time, your estate (and hence in effect your loved ones) will still be responsible for the payment, and likely for any late fees for not paying on time, up until the time the company in question is notified of your death and the termination of the account. Direct debit is cheaper and easier for your loved ones to deal with later.
As for "you'll be dead anyway, so you shouldn't have anything to worry about." while that part is true, I don't want my loved ones to have to worry about anything either, so it's better for them if I plan ahead so that they aren't further inconvenienced at a time that is likely to be quite difficult for them anyway.
Generally your best scheme requires only some percentage of the people to be available, for example 3 out of 5 people can recover the information. It's best if these people are part of different social groups too such that they are unlikely to all be together at any one time (your camping buddy, your mother, your co-worker, your lawyer, and your best friend from high school for example are unlikely to all be in the same room at the same time) If done properly, this provides both the redundancy of the information, as well as the redundancy of the people accessing it.
My thought is somewhat related, I haven't implemented this yet, but it is on my "to-do list".
My main plan is to put instructions in an envelope that is sealed near my will. Making sure that familly/friends know where it is. The instructions would direct the person to send a specific code/password to a specific email address on my hosted server. (could also be a private web form or some such) Once recieved the server would send me an email notifying me of the request, and giving me 4 days to cancel it. If I do not reply within 4 days (adjust to suit whatever length of time you think is the longest you could possibly go without finding a net connection while still being alive and well), it would automatically send the information to the original requestor.
This has the advantages of the sealed envelope where I can detect tampering, but where the information is still easily accessible to those who require it (without them really needing to remember how it all works), but with the added advantage that if I am still alive I can stop the process before any sensitive information is released (in case the original envelope is stolen/otherwise compromised). For added security you could add a list of IPs/email addresses who are authorized to trigger the system (of course that becomes one more thing that you have to remember to keep up to date) and if you are concerned about the security of the server being used, the file being sent back can be encrypted with the decryption information in the original envelope.
Setting up the scheme is relatively simple/straight forward the harder part is keeping all the data it needs to send back updated so that it is useful once recieved.
And for those who say "you won't care, you're dead", you're right in that I won't care then, but I do care now what I am going to put my loved ones through, so I'd rather make things as easy for them as I can, they'll be dealling with enough when I die that I don't want to make things any more difficult than they have to be.
That's because in North America phones are tied to contracts. Sure I can bring any phone I want and activate it on my current provider, but then I have to spend several hundred dollars on a phone. The carrier is willing to give me their phone for "free" if I sign a 3 year term. Now in an ideal world they'd give me a discount if I brought my own, but they don't, so I pay for that "free" phone whether I take it or not, I might as well take it. How many OEMs are willing to risk going up against free with a several hundred dollar device while also battling the marketing clout of the carrier? All just so they don't have to agree to the carrier's terms of locking the phone down and adding a few bloatware apps? Highly unlikely.
As I said, while OEMs don't "have" to do what a carrier asks of them, the truth is that they do, all the time, and if they don't, they won't sell any phones.
Verizon can't tell the OEM's what to do with their phones. If you buy a phone that is locked, that is your choice.
Verizon can't tell an OEM what to do with their phone, however Verizon CAN tell an OEM what to do with their phone if they want Verizon to carry it. This means that if said OEM doesn't comply they loose a HUGE retail opportunity. Most OEMs would rather let the carrier dictate terms than loose the carrier as a sales channel.
What you're saying would likely be true in one of 2 worlds: 1) A world where handsets are sold separately from service contracts (much of the world, but not North America) 2) A small enough carrier that the OEM wouldn't care if they lost them (again, not Verizon)
The end result is that carriers frequently DO dictate terms to the OEMs, in fact, to my knowledge the only OEM to ever stand up to a carrier on this one is Apple... and only because they wanted to put their own restrictions on instead of letting the carriers put theirs on.
more likely they just don't see it as their problem. No OEM has stopped producing Android phones due to this, so Google has lost absolutely nothing by letting other people fight the battle. I suspect if OEMs stopped producing Android phones, and cited patent concerns as the reason, Google would step up and deal with it, as it is it just isn't in their best interest to interfere, they have absolutely nothing to gain, and money to loose.
Until your allegation has been proven in court, it seems unlikely. Keep in mind both Motorola and Barnes & Noble were smart enough not to settle and ask Microsoft to put up or shut up. Being that Microsoft isn't willing to do so, it looks a lot more like a protection racket than an actual case of infringement.
While I don't know exactly how it works, the most likely case would be that it recognizes the words on the phone, and then sends those words to the cloud for interpretation and an answer. Recognizing speech is a relatively solved problem (though accuracy is often in question, but from what iIve read, siri still has those issues) and it's less bandwidth intensive to send text than a voice recording, but interpreting that text is much harder and would benefit greatly from "the cloud"
When I describe someone as "playing catchup" it usually implies they are behind the leader and trying to get to where they are... considering that modern android phones have surpassed iOS devices a while ago, it's Apple who is "playing catchup" now.
the fact that you have to touch it already puts it a step behind applications such as vlingo (and makes it illegal to use it while operating a motor vehicle in my jurisdiction)
I'd hardly call Mercedes a failure of history... (and they were making cars well before Ford)
As for successful, that remains to be seen, Android outsells IPhone, and generally does just about everything better, Siri may be a very slight improvement on many of the existing voice apps (but only slight) and is likely to be at least matched if not outdone by the next generation of android voice apps due out very soon. Now I don't see Apply landing in the dustbin just yet, but Android isn't exactly headed there either.
I think you must have had a bad experience with honeycomb, because my Iconia with honeycomb 3.2 doesn't have any of the problems you relate. It's been rock solid, never hangs, and works quite well. As for which is "better", I also have a Motorola Milestone running Froyo, and it too is pretty stable. feature-wise they're pretty similar, I can't really say that either one is "better" than the other. Both devices have polish and features the likes of which you will never find on iOS.
Ergonomic and well thought out have NEVER been apple strengths... their strength has always been in convincing people to learn a new way of doing things and then somehow believing that it was actually intuitive to start with.
Apple is the best in the world at one thing, and one thing only, Marketing. They can take something that has been around for ages, and sell it as a new invention and have everyone believe them, they can take an un-intuitive product and make people claim it's easy to use, they can be missing all the features the competition has and have people thank them for saving them from those features (until they're released in the next version) And best of all, they can make people pay a premium for the privilege.
The bigger problem here is the reverse onus, Universal should have to prove infringement, Bad Lip Reading shouldn't have to prove fair use. Unfortunately DMCA is one of a multitude of laws specifically designed to change "innocent until proven guilty" to "guilty until proven guilty" (They pretty much dropped the innocent part altogether, as they generally assume that anyone who has had any allegation made against them must be guilty)
US has to have a huge military budget. Otherwise Canadians will invade Washington!
Just because we burned the White house down once doesn't mean we'll do it again... We mostly like our American neighbours now... (though we do wish they wouldn't meddle so much with our politicians)
So we shouldn't do anything that takes a longer term to produce a profit?
In actual fact, many railroads were built at government expense simply because private enterprise couldn't see a profit in doing so, had profit been the only motivator many long distance railways would never have been built, (or at least would have been built a lot later) (See for one example the history of Canadian Pacific Railways)
Sometimes things need to be worked on now that won't produce a profit "quickly", or that we may not be 100% sure how to fully monetize at all. That doesn't make the endeavour itself worthless or without merit.
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Have you worked in a modern medical facility? nobody looks at pictures or diagnostic imagery in physical form anymore. Gone are the days of the x-ray snapped to the light panel on the wall. Everything is done on computers.
I agree there may be a niche for this, but the one you suggest just isn't it.
The problem is that that number is depended on by most plugins to remain stable. As such, every time they change the number, most plugins stop working as they haven't been "updated" for the new version. When you release a new major version, the expectation is that you changed a lot of stuff, and as such, the plugins should test on your new version and make sure everything still works properly. In fact though these major versions are very minor changes, and the plugins you had before would probably work just fine, if they had been told that nothing would be changing in this version.
I could care less if they call it Firefox 32768.0 or Firefox 0.0000001. what I DO care about is that I don't loose functionality just because someone can't figure out the difference between what a major version change is versus a small update.
And that's the issue, they are already advertising higher speeds than you could ever possibly get in a real world scenario, so how do they plan to get you ABOVE those speeds when you pay more? simple, they don't. Instead they'll lower the real speed further, and then charge people extra to get where they are today.
Now if they advertised the iphone at 5meg and you could pay extra to get a burst to 10, I'd be ok with that, but that just doesn't seem likely. It's more likely they'll continue to advertise 14.4, while limiting you to 5 unless you pay for a burst to 10. (and the new price for 5 is probably about the same (or higher) than the old price for "14.4")
And that's the real problem, I have no problem with them giving extra speed for extra money (that's how it works on my DSL line at home, my 15 meg package costs more than a 6 meg package, but less than a 25) Unfortunately though, it seems highly unlikely that this new feature will magically have more bandwidth than exists today. Instead it seems more likely that they'll simply drop everyone's current speeds down, and then charge people extra to get back to what they thought they were already paying for...
google has never (or at least not recently) allowed any non alpha-numeric character to be searched for. (my most recent example was trying to search for information on the proper syntax for multiple entries in the linux .forward file, because there's no way to include the period in front of the file name, the information returned is all about forwarding things in linux, but not about the file I'm interested in)
In a lot of ways it's better to have the automatic debit setup. If you die and the payments are not made on time, your estate (and hence in effect your loved ones) will still be responsible for the payment, and likely for any late fees for not paying on time, up until the time the company in question is notified of your death and the termination of the account. Direct debit is cheaper and easier for your loved ones to deal with later.
As for "you'll be dead anyway, so you shouldn't have anything to worry about." while that part is true, I don't want my loved ones to have to worry about anything either, so it's better for them if I plan ahead so that they aren't further inconvenienced at a time that is likely to be quite difficult for them anyway.
Generally your best scheme requires only some percentage of the people to be available, for example 3 out of 5 people can recover the information. It's best if these people are part of different social groups too such that they are unlikely to all be together at any one time (your camping buddy, your mother, your co-worker, your lawyer, and your best friend from high school for example are unlikely to all be in the same room at the same time) If done properly, this provides both the redundancy of the information, as well as the redundancy of the people accessing it.
My thought is somewhat related, I haven't implemented this yet, but it is on my "to-do list".
My main plan is to put instructions in an envelope that is sealed near my will. Making sure that familly/friends know where it is. The instructions would direct the person to send a specific code/password to a specific email address on my hosted server. (could also be a private web form or some such) Once recieved the server would send me an email notifying me of the request, and giving me 4 days to cancel it. If I do not reply within 4 days (adjust to suit whatever length of time you think is the longest you could possibly go without finding a net connection while still being alive and well), it would automatically send the information to the original requestor.
This has the advantages of the sealed envelope where I can detect tampering, but where the information is still easily accessible to those who require it (without them really needing to remember how it all works), but with the added advantage that if I am still alive I can stop the process before any sensitive information is released (in case the original envelope is stolen/otherwise compromised). For added security you could add a list of IPs/email addresses who are authorized to trigger the system (of course that becomes one more thing that you have to remember to keep up to date) and if you are concerned about the security of the server being used, the file being sent back can be encrypted with the decryption information in the original envelope.
Setting up the scheme is relatively simple/straight forward the harder part is keeping all the data it needs to send back updated so that it is useful once recieved.
And for those who say "you won't care, you're dead", you're right in that I won't care then, but I do care now what I am going to put my loved ones through, so I'd rather make things as easy for them as I can, they'll be dealling with enough when I die that I don't want to make things any more difficult than they have to be.
That's because in North America phones are tied to contracts. Sure I can bring any phone I want and activate it on my current provider, but then I have to spend several hundred dollars on a phone. The carrier is willing to give me their phone for "free" if I sign a 3 year term. Now in an ideal world they'd give me a discount if I brought my own, but they don't, so I pay for that "free" phone whether I take it or not, I might as well take it. How many OEMs are willing to risk going up against free with a several hundred dollar device while also battling the marketing clout of the carrier? All just so they don't have to agree to the carrier's terms of locking the phone down and adding a few bloatware apps? Highly unlikely.
As I said, while OEMs don't "have" to do what a carrier asks of them, the truth is that they do, all the time, and if they don't, they won't sell any phones.
Verizon can't tell the OEM's what to do with their phones. If you buy a phone that is locked, that is your choice.
Verizon can't tell an OEM what to do with their phone, however Verizon CAN tell an OEM what to do with their phone if they want Verizon to carry it. This means that if said OEM doesn't comply they loose a HUGE retail opportunity. Most OEMs would rather let the carrier dictate terms than loose the carrier as a sales channel.
What you're saying would likely be true in one of 2 worlds:
1) A world where handsets are sold separately from service contracts (much of the world, but not North America)
2) A small enough carrier that the OEM wouldn't care if they lost them (again, not Verizon)
The end result is that carriers frequently DO dictate terms to the OEMs, in fact, to my knowledge the only OEM to ever stand up to a carrier on this one is Apple... and only because they wanted to put their own restrictions on instead of letting the carriers put theirs on.
It is "usual" to speculate on it in both circumstances. That does not make it "acceptable" in either.
I love your guilty until proven guilty motif... personally I like to presume innocence until the courts have decided.
more likely they just don't see it as their problem. No OEM has stopped producing Android phones due to this, so Google has lost absolutely nothing by letting other people fight the battle. I suspect if OEMs stopped producing Android phones, and cited patent concerns as the reason, Google would step up and deal with it, as it is it just isn't in their best interest to interfere, they have absolutely nothing to gain, and money to loose.
Until your allegation has been proven in court, it seems unlikely. Keep in mind both Motorola and Barnes & Noble were smart enough not to settle and ask Microsoft to put up or shut up. Being that Microsoft isn't willing to do so, it looks a lot more like a protection racket than an actual case of infringement.
While I don't know exactly how it works, the most likely case would be that it recognizes the words on the phone, and then sends those words to the cloud for interpretation and an answer. Recognizing speech is a relatively solved problem (though accuracy is often in question, but from what iIve read, siri still has those issues) and it's less bandwidth intensive to send text than a voice recording, but interpreting that text is much harder and would benefit greatly from "the cloud"
When I describe someone as "playing catchup" it usually implies they are behind the leader and trying to get to where they are... considering that modern android phones have surpassed iOS devices a while ago, it's Apple who is "playing catchup" now.
the fact that you have to touch it already puts it a step behind applications such as vlingo (and makes it illegal to use it while operating a motor vehicle in my jurisdiction)
I'd hardly call Mercedes a failure of history... (and they were making cars well before Ford)
As for successful, that remains to be seen, Android outsells IPhone, and generally does just about everything better, Siri may be a very slight improvement on many of the existing voice apps (but only slight) and is likely to be at least matched if not outdone by the next generation of android voice apps due out very soon. Now I don't see Apply landing in the dustbin just yet, but Android isn't exactly headed there either.
Marketing. It's the only thing Apple has ever done better than the competition.
I think you must have had a bad experience with honeycomb, because my Iconia with honeycomb 3.2 doesn't have any of the problems you relate. It's been rock solid, never hangs, and works quite well.
As for which is "better", I also have a Motorola Milestone running Froyo, and it too is pretty stable. feature-wise they're pretty similar, I can't really say that either one is "better" than the other. Both devices have polish and features the likes of which you will never find on iOS.
Ergonomic and well thought out have NEVER been apple strengths... their strength has always been in convincing people to learn a new way of doing things and then somehow believing that it was actually intuitive to start with.
Apple is the best in the world at one thing, and one thing only, Marketing. They can take something that has been around for ages, and sell it as a new invention and have everyone believe them, they can take an un-intuitive product and make people claim it's easy to use, they can be missing all the features the competition has and have people thank them for saving them from those features (until they're released in the next version) And best of all, they can make people pay a premium for the privilege.
Unfortunately they round them so far that most of the stuff I want to do is in the parts they shaved off...
The bigger problem here is the reverse onus, Universal should have to prove infringement, Bad Lip Reading shouldn't have to prove fair use. Unfortunately DMCA is one of a multitude of laws specifically designed to change "innocent until proven guilty" to "guilty until proven guilty" (They pretty much dropped the innocent part altogether, as they generally assume that anyone who has had any allegation made against them must be guilty)
US has to have a huge military budget. Otherwise Canadians will invade Washington!
Just because we burned the White house down once doesn't mean we'll do it again... We mostly like our American neighbours now... (though we do wish they wouldn't meddle so much with our politicians)
So we shouldn't do anything that takes a longer term to produce a profit?
In actual fact, many railroads were built at government expense simply because private enterprise couldn't see a profit in doing so, had profit been the only motivator many long distance railways would never have been built, (or at least would have been built a lot later) (See for one example the history of Canadian Pacific Railways)
Sometimes things need to be worked on now that won't produce a profit "quickly", or that we may not be 100% sure how to fully monetize at all. That doesn't make the endeavour itself worthless or without merit.