I'm certainly considering going back to version 4... ever since the update half my plugins don't work, and I've lost some of what I thought was basic built in functionality (for example when I right click on a picture, "view image" is no longer an option) Between lost features and lost plugins I've seen a few steps backwards but none forwards with firefox 5 over the previous firefox 4
Yes I have... and if you think the iPad is an ergonomic wonder you have some serious issues.
Even so, ergonomics is highly dependent on two things, both of which you are dismissing out of hand. 1) the person. 2) the task being performed.
If you change either of those 2 items, what is ergonomic changes significantly. This is why truly ergonomic work stations are highly adjustable. When you find a tablet with an adjustable size display, let me know!
Have you considered that there is such a thing a screen size that works well for most people?
Yes, and I dismissed it as utter rubbish.
There is no one ANYTHING that is right for everyone, people are individuals who have different tastes, different preferences, and especially when it comes to tablets, different uses for the device.
One person may do nothing but web browsing, another mainly movies, someone else games, a different person note taking, and so on for an almost infinite number of possibilities. There are hundreds of thousands of apps available, what makes you think one exact tablet display size and shape is the best one for everyone? or even for the vast majority? People will use it and be happy, that doesn't mean they wouldn't be happier with slightly larger or slightly smaller, or that they wouldn't be happier with a different aspect ratio. Most people will never mention it because they haven't thought about it and this is all they've ever used, but that doesn't mean it's the best one for them.
The point that the previous poster made was that they didn't want to carry around adapters, which makes one of the android tablets with HDMI a better option than an iPad which needs an adapter. If you want VGA, you can probably use a VGA adapter to get an Android tablet to display that way too, and still be at the same place (no worse) than the iPad. I'm not sure how you think that it's easy to loose an HDMI to VGA adapter, but difficult to loose an iPad2 proprietary connector to VGA adapter? seems to me that they are both adapters subject to the same limitations...
As for your iPad2 adapter having the great "feature" of being able to charge the device at the same time... that's not needed on a device that has separate ports for separate functions like most Android tablets.
As for what ports projectors have, you're right that old projectors have VGA, and new ones have HDMI, some (many?) new projectors don't have VGA any more, standards change even a full laptop isn't guaranteed to have VGA anymore. Give it a couple years and you may have trouble connecting a VGA port to much of anything.
To start with, I want to say that I didn't mean that there is no reason to use an iOS device, just that if even the fanboys can't find anything better than the number of apps, they're in serious trouble as the general public won't see that as a decent reason once they realize that all the decent apps are already available on both devices (or similar apps to do the same things)
reasons to use iOS (just to cite a few obvious and less controversial ones: firmware updates over longer periods,
Compared to some android devices, but not necessarily all of them, and something that is changing drastically recently in the Android community as Google has started to step in and pressure manufacturers to provide better support for their devices. Additionally you can find updates to your devices in the community even if your manufacturer has discontinued support for it, something you can't do with an iPhone.
UI consistency across apps,
That's one downside to iOS yes, the lack of freedom of the developers to innovate and find a better interface without Apple's blessing. As long as an app makes their interface obvious and intuitive (neither of which Apple does generally) then I'm all for them doing whatever is most appropriate (note: obvious and intuitive are very different from easy to use, something Apple does actually do well once you get past the hurdle of figuring out what they did and how)
virtually no malware,
Android also has virtually no malware, depending on your definition of "virtually", the average android user has never had any malware, and likely never will. Google does pull apps from the market for malware, and you can easily see the permissions every app uses before you install it, there are several anti-virus and firewall programs available as well. Sure you can work around all the safeguards and install malware if you really want, but that's actually a good thing in that it also means nobody can stop you from installing any other particular app just because they want to (something Apple has done many times in the past)
better/more hardware accessories,
more, maybe, better, not likely. additionally most Android devices don't even need accessories to do what the iOS accessories do, with built in USB and often built in HDMI ports, along with removable storage, and the ability to interface without proprietary protocols, I have never seen an iWhatever accessory that I could find any use for that I can't also find a similar generic accessory that does the same thing.
Define hassle? if you completely ignore the Android task manager, you get what Apple decided you should have to start with (well, once they decided to allow multi-tasking, something Android had already been doing for some time), but if you decide to use it you have more control. The task manager has no downsides, and only positives.
I have honestly never figured out a single advantage to iOS devices over Android ones.
That said, I'm actually not anti-Apple believe it or not, in fact as a general rule I advise most non-techie people to buy Macs instead of PCs (in fact my girlfriend is just in the process of buying a Macbook Air as we speak, on my advice) I do think Apple does some things well. And they even made a decent product with the iPhone and iPad, It's just that their decent product has since been eclipsed by better products running Android.
Why build your own when you can get others to do the building, while you do the earning? They didn't have to spend a penny or lift a finger to get the oil and gas revenues, they want the same deal with the wind power.
Almost every app I run on my android phone has a line listed in the changelog for the most recent version stating "adapted interface for use on large screen tablets" (or some similar line about honeycomb or even naming a tablet specifically) Most of these updates have been within the past 2-3 months (the first major Android tablet only came out 4 months ago) so at this rate I foresee this problem vanishing very quickly.
That said, all the other apps still work on tablets, and will provide all the same functionality we love about them on the phones, only on a larger screen. So I'm having a very hard time seeing any reason to avoid an android tablet right now when there are 200,000 apps available, working, and providing all the features you want, with hundreds of them already optimized for tablets and more updating every day.
It's the same excuse the Apple fanboys use for the iPhone vs Android phones now, Apps, after Android phones surpassed iOS phones in sales, hardware and software features, apps is the only excuse they have left, and looking through apps, there has only been 1 app I have ever found that I wanted that was available on iOS and not on Android, and it was not exactly a mainstream app (in fact it was a proprietary one from my employer, luckily all the same information I need from it is also available in a PDF, and on a website, both of which my Android can access just fine (funnily enough, the iPhone can't access that same website due to the lack of flash support, maybe that's why they had to make an iPhone app....)
If your only reason for iOS over Android is Apps, then you're in a loosing situation, the apps most people will ever use are already there, and the rest will be there shortly, there's no good reason left to go with iOS.
Have you considered that maybe there is no such thing as the "right" screen size, and that each individual person will want a different size screen?
Personally I think the 10.1" screen is too small, and my ideal tablet would have a screen the same size as a standard A4 sheet of paper. Other people think 7" is too bit and want tablets with 4" screens because they fit nicely in any pocket. It all depends on your actual use of the device.
Now I do have to agree however with the original poster that anyone who says 10.1" is too big, but then claims the iPad screen at 9.7" is perfect is being a little ridiculous, considering that it is less than half an inch different, most people won't even know which one is which unless the two are side by side. Likely the only reason for such a statement is rabid fanoyism.
The established market player who first released their tablet more than a year ago has more market share than the newcomer who released their first serious tablet less than 4 months ago, and where many more tablets are still in the process of launching throughout the year... I'm shocked and amazed!
Come back next year (or better yet in 2-3 years) and we'll look at the numbers again.
As for "iOS vs Android" that's just a ridiculous statement because you're comparing an OS that's in phones, tablets, tv boxes, music players, and more, to an OS that has essentially been just a phone OS until early this year and is only just now branching out in to tablets. For a more equal comparison lets compare phones only (the one place that both iOS and Android are both relatively well established (even if iOS did have a significant head start)) and suddenly we see a reversal of your figures where Android is currently outselling iOS by a huge margin.
Now to be fair, I don't think this is a case of Apple "send(ing) out the dogs" but more likely a case of an Apple fan boy who just hasn't done an unbiased review. But to say that Apple has nothing to be scared of is also a little ridiculous considering that, if history is any indicator, they are about to loose a huge portion of their market share (Not overnight, but in the long run.)
no, it's "government of the people, by the corporations, for the corporations"... why after all would a corporation want to be governed, or have to follow any laws?
Do you know how many USD have been lost or destroyed? Does that make using the USD "not ok"?
Paper and coin currency don't have an expiration date, I don't really see how it's any different with Bitcoin.
Sure lost/destroyed coins can not be replaced, however as bitcoins can be subdivided in to very small fractions, it shouldn't really matter any more than people destroying their Cash USD in a house fire, laundry machine, or loosing coins in the couch.
but untill the carriers offer you a discount for bringing your own phone, who would be crazy enough not to take advantage of the FREE iPhone or android device you get from the carrier? (yes I know you pay for it as part of the contract... but you also pay for it if you DON'T take it, so you might as well save the several hundred dollars the iPhone costs from Apple)
Funny... Where I live the MS phones have the prime shelf space, and the dealers are pushing them hard... you even get a free xbox if you buy a (free) winphone7 on a 3 year contract... the posters outside the store are pushing them, and they are the first phones you see when you walk in the door.
Turns out, they can't give them away. for all the push the phones get here, and it's far more than Android, and even slightly more than iPhone, I have yet to see a single one "in the wild"
No. I don't. They specifically say they want to fight AGAINST dividing the internet up by country, but then they do EXACTLY the same thing with their coutry specific TLDs. Additionally, in most countries they reroute you to your local TLD even if you specifically type a different one. meaning you don't even have a choice but to be "localized" the way google sees fit. If they don't let you choose, then why do it at different TLDs in the first place? they might as well just localize it all on a single domain name.
refuse to use electronic banking that relies on anything sent via my browser alone
In most countries that would completely rule out using any form of online banking at all.
Where I live, the only banks that don't charge me insane monthly fees are only available online, they have no tellers to visit. Additionally, no banks in the country offer any more secure banking than asking for a password. and worse yet, one of the banks I have dealt with in the past required the password to be exactly 6 characters long (no more, no less) and completely numeric.
You may be lucky enough to live somewhere with secure banking, but most of the world doesn't have anywhere near that luxury.
Why is it that Google isn't happy with one domain name, google.com? why on earth do they have any reason to have a domain name with every single extension available anyway? Most people, no matter what country they are in, type google.com anyway, they only end up on their local one because google re-directs them there.
Google refuses to host servers in that country stating that it will fracture the internet, but they themselves are already causing that fracture by forcing people all over the world in to their own country's TLD instead of the.com that they actually type in their browser. Google are being a bit hypocritical here I think.
I think the larger point is that spending 4 years in college doesn't make someone a geek, there is no degree that transforms a non-geek in to a geek. Likewise, not going to college doesn't disqualify one from being a geek. Being a geek is who you are, not how you were educated. Likely the geeks you knew in college were geeks long before they got to college, and the non-geeks likely didn't magically become geeks by going through the process.
What the rights holders want is irrelevant. What IS relevant is what is best for society as a whole. Intellectual property laws were introduced to encourage creation, not protect rights holders, that's just an unintended side effect.
If shortening the terms of protection cause more creative works to be available, regardless of why or how, it is the right thing to do.
If the original term was 7 years, in a world where publishing and distributing took months to years, why, in a world where publishing and distributing takes minutes, would a LONGER term make more sense? It would seem to me that if 7 years was a good length of time when copyright was first invented, 1 to 2 years should be plenty in the modern world.
Remember, the point of copyright is NOT to protect the creator, nor is it to make them rich. The point is to convince them to create for the benefit of mankind.
I was thinking more like an old ISP we used to have around here about 15 years ago. I believe they called themselves 3web, and thy provided you with a dialup client that opened a remote desktop session where you would run a browser, or FTP, or IRC, or mail client on their computers with the output being streamed back to yours through the dial-up connection. They claimed it meant you didn't need a powerfull computer to run such intensive apps as netscape navigator... The catch of course being that at the time, the bottleneck was the dial-up modem, not the processing power of your computer, so this resulted in a very painful web experience...
Slashdot Mirror
Then I wish I knew what was wrong with mine...
I'm certainly considering going back to version 4... ever since the update half my plugins don't work, and I've lost some of what I thought was basic built in functionality (for example when I right click on a picture, "view image" is no longer an option)
Between lost features and lost plugins I've seen a few steps backwards but none forwards with firefox 5 over the previous firefox 4
Yes I have... and if you think the iPad is an ergonomic wonder you have some serious issues.
Even so, ergonomics is highly dependent on two things, both of which you are dismissing out of hand.
1) the person.
2) the task being performed.
If you change either of those 2 items, what is ergonomic changes significantly. This is why truly ergonomic work stations are highly adjustable. When you find a tablet with an adjustable size display, let me know!
Have you considered that there is such a thing a screen size that works well for most people?
Yes, and I dismissed it as utter rubbish.
There is no one ANYTHING that is right for everyone, people are individuals who have different tastes, different preferences, and especially when it comes to tablets, different uses for the device.
One person may do nothing but web browsing, another mainly movies, someone else games, a different person note taking, and so on for an almost infinite number of possibilities. There are hundreds of thousands of apps available, what makes you think one exact tablet display size and shape is the best one for everyone? or even for the vast majority? People will use it and be happy, that doesn't mean they wouldn't be happier with slightly larger or slightly smaller, or that they wouldn't be happier with a different aspect ratio. Most people will never mention it because they haven't thought about it and this is all they've ever used, but that doesn't mean it's the best one for them.
The point that the previous poster made was that they didn't want to carry around adapters, which makes one of the android tablets with HDMI a better option than an iPad which needs an adapter. If you want VGA, you can probably use a VGA adapter to get an Android tablet to display that way too, and still be at the same place (no worse) than the iPad. I'm not sure how you think that it's easy to loose an HDMI to VGA adapter, but difficult to loose an iPad2 proprietary connector to VGA adapter? seems to me that they are both adapters subject to the same limitations...
As for your iPad2 adapter having the great "feature" of being able to charge the device at the same time... that's not needed on a device that has separate ports for separate functions like most Android tablets.
As for what ports projectors have, you're right that old projectors have VGA, and new ones have HDMI, some (many?) new projectors don't have VGA any more, standards change even a full laptop isn't guaranteed to have VGA anymore. Give it a couple years and you may have trouble connecting a VGA port to much of anything.
To start with, I want to say that I didn't mean that there is no reason to use an iOS device, just that if even the fanboys can't find anything better than the number of apps, they're in serious trouble as the general public won't see that as a decent reason once they realize that all the decent apps are already available on both devices (or similar apps to do the same things)
reasons to use iOS (just to cite a few obvious and less controversial ones: firmware updates over longer periods,
Compared to some android devices, but not necessarily all of them, and something that is changing drastically recently in the Android community as Google has started to step in and pressure manufacturers to provide better support for their devices. Additionally you can find updates to your devices in the community even if your manufacturer has discontinued support for it, something you can't do with an iPhone.
UI consistency across apps,
That's one downside to iOS yes, the lack of freedom of the developers to innovate and find a better interface without Apple's blessing. As long as an app makes their interface obvious and intuitive (neither of which Apple does generally) then I'm all for them doing whatever is most appropriate (note: obvious and intuitive are very different from easy to use, something Apple does actually do well once you get past the hurdle of figuring out what they did and how)
virtually no malware,
Android also has virtually no malware, depending on your definition of "virtually", the average android user has never had any malware, and likely never will. Google does pull apps from the market for malware, and you can easily see the permissions every app uses before you install it, there are several anti-virus and firewall programs available as well. Sure you can work around all the safeguards and install malware if you really want, but that's actually a good thing in that it also means nobody can stop you from installing any other particular app just because they want to (something Apple has done many times in the past)
better/more hardware accessories,
more, maybe, better, not likely. additionally most Android devices don't even need accessories to do what the iOS accessories do, with built in USB and often built in HDMI ports, along with removable storage, and the ability to interface without proprietary protocols, I have never seen an iWhatever accessory that I could find any use for that I can't also find a similar generic accessory that does the same thing.
significantly higher customer satisfaction ratings,
Citation needed.
no hassle with task managers
Define hassle? if you completely ignore the Android task manager, you get what Apple decided you should have to start with (well, once they decided to allow multi-tasking, something Android had already been doing for some time), but if you decide to use it you have more control. The task manager has no downsides, and only positives.
I have honestly never figured out a single advantage to iOS devices over Android ones.
That said, I'm actually not anti-Apple believe it or not, in fact as a general rule I advise most non-techie people to buy Macs instead of PCs (in fact my girlfriend is just in the process of buying a Macbook Air as we speak, on my advice) I do think Apple does some things well. And they even made a decent product with the iPhone and iPad, It's just that their decent product has since been eclipsed by better products running Android.
Why build your own when you can get others to do the building, while you do the earning?
They didn't have to spend a penny or lift a finger to get the oil and gas revenues, they want the same deal with the wind power.
Almost every app I run on my android phone has a line listed in the changelog for the most recent version stating "adapted interface for use on large screen tablets" (or some similar line about honeycomb or even naming a tablet specifically)
Most of these updates have been within the past 2-3 months (the first major Android tablet only came out 4 months ago) so at this rate I foresee this problem vanishing very quickly.
That said, all the other apps still work on tablets, and will provide all the same functionality we love about them on the phones, only on a larger screen. So I'm having a very hard time seeing any reason to avoid an android tablet right now when there are 200,000 apps available, working, and providing all the features you want, with hundreds of them already optimized for tablets and more updating every day.
It's the same excuse the Apple fanboys use for the iPhone vs Android phones now, Apps, after Android phones surpassed iOS phones in sales, hardware and software features, apps is the only excuse they have left, and looking through apps, there has only been 1 app I have ever found that I wanted that was available on iOS and not on Android, and it was not exactly a mainstream app (in fact it was a proprietary one from my employer, luckily all the same information I need from it is also available in a PDF, and on a website, both of which my Android can access just fine (funnily enough, the iPhone can't access that same website due to the lack of flash support, maybe that's why they had to make an iPhone app....)
If your only reason for iOS over Android is Apps, then you're in a loosing situation, the apps most people will ever use are already there, and the rest will be there shortly, there's no good reason left to go with iOS.
Have you considered that maybe there is no such thing as the "right" screen size, and that each individual person will want a different size screen?
Personally I think the 10.1" screen is too small, and my ideal tablet would have a screen the same size as a standard A4 sheet of paper. Other people think 7" is too bit and want tablets with 4" screens because they fit nicely in any pocket. It all depends on your actual use of the device.
Now I do have to agree however with the original poster that anyone who says 10.1" is too big, but then claims the iPad screen at 9.7" is perfect is being a little ridiculous, considering that it is less than half an inch different, most people won't even know which one is which unless the two are side by side. Likely the only reason for such a statement is rabid fanoyism.
The established market player who first released their tablet more than a year ago has more market share than the newcomer who released their first serious tablet less than 4 months ago, and where many more tablets are still in the process of launching throughout the year... I'm shocked and amazed!
Come back next year (or better yet in 2-3 years) and we'll look at the numbers again.
As for "iOS vs Android" that's just a ridiculous statement because you're comparing an OS that's in phones, tablets, tv boxes, music players, and more, to an OS that has essentially been just a phone OS until early this year and is only just now branching out in to tablets.
For a more equal comparison lets compare phones only (the one place that both iOS and Android are both relatively well established (even if iOS did have a significant head start)) and suddenly we see a reversal of your figures where Android is currently outselling iOS by a huge margin.
Now to be fair, I don't think this is a case of Apple "send(ing) out the dogs" but more likely a case of an Apple fan boy who just hasn't done an unbiased review. But to say that Apple has nothing to be scared of is also a little ridiculous considering that, if history is any indicator, they are about to loose a huge portion of their market share (Not overnight, but in the long run.)
unlike the iPad, many of the android tablets have HDMI ports. so yes, plugging in to a projector is easy.
Because the planned wind farm wasn't going to give them a penny, the oil and gas though lines their pockets nicely.
The environmental claims are just a smoke screen for their greed.
no, it's "government of the people, by the corporations, for the corporations"... why after all would a corporation want to be governed, or have to follow any laws?
Do you know how many USD have been lost or destroyed? Does that make using the USD "not ok"?
Paper and coin currency don't have an expiration date, I don't really see how it's any different with Bitcoin.
Sure lost/destroyed coins can not be replaced, however as bitcoins can be subdivided in to very small fractions, it shouldn't really matter any more than people destroying their Cash USD in a house fire, laundry machine, or loosing coins in the couch.
Canada
you imply that the "greenback" is worth something...
but untill the carriers offer you a discount for bringing your own phone, who would be crazy enough not to take advantage of the FREE iPhone or android device you get from the carrier? (yes I know you pay for it as part of the contract... but you also pay for it if you DON'T take it, so you might as well save the several hundred dollars the iPhone costs from Apple)
Funny... Where I live the MS phones have the prime shelf space, and the dealers are pushing them hard... you even get a free xbox if you buy a (free) winphone7 on a 3 year contract... the posters outside the store are pushing them, and they are the first phones you see when you walk in the door.
Turns out, they can't give them away. for all the push the phones get here, and it's far more than Android, and even slightly more than iPhone, I have yet to see a single one "in the wild"
No. I don't. They specifically say they want to fight AGAINST dividing the internet up by country, but then they do EXACTLY the same thing with their coutry specific TLDs.
Additionally, in most countries they reroute you to your local TLD even if you specifically type a different one. meaning you don't even have a choice but to be "localized" the way google sees fit. If they don't let you choose, then why do it at different TLDs in the first place? they might as well just localize it all on a single domain name.
refuse to use electronic banking that relies on anything sent via my browser alone
In most countries that would completely rule out using any form of online banking at all.
Where I live, the only banks that don't charge me insane monthly fees are only available online, they have no tellers to visit. Additionally, no banks in the country offer any more secure banking than asking for a password. and worse yet, one of the banks I have dealt with in the past required the password to be exactly 6 characters long (no more, no less) and completely numeric.
You may be lucky enough to live somewhere with secure banking, but most of the world doesn't have anywhere near that luxury.
Why is it that Google isn't happy with one domain name, google.com? why on earth do they have any reason to have a domain name with every single extension available anyway?
Most people, no matter what country they are in, type google.com anyway, they only end up on their local one because google re-directs them there.
Google refuses to host servers in that country stating that it will fracture the internet, but they themselves are already causing that fracture by forcing people all over the world in to their own country's TLD instead of the .com that they actually type in their browser. Google are being a bit hypocritical here I think.
I think the larger point is that spending 4 years in college doesn't make someone a geek, there is no degree that transforms a non-geek in to a geek. Likewise, not going to college doesn't disqualify one from being a geek. Being a geek is who you are, not how you were educated.
Likely the geeks you knew in college were geeks long before they got to college, and the non-geeks likely didn't magically become geeks by going through the process.
What the rights holders want is irrelevant. What IS relevant is what is best for society as a whole. Intellectual property laws were introduced to encourage creation, not protect rights holders, that's just an unintended side effect.
If shortening the terms of protection cause more creative works to be available, regardless of why or how, it is the right thing to do.
If the original term was 7 years, in a world where publishing and distributing took months to years, why, in a world where publishing and distributing takes minutes, would a LONGER term make more sense? It would seem to me that if 7 years was a good length of time when copyright was first invented, 1 to 2 years should be plenty in the modern world.
Remember, the point of copyright is NOT to protect the creator, nor is it to make them rich. The point is to convince them to create for the benefit of mankind.
I was thinking more like an old ISP we used to have around here about 15 years ago. I believe they called themselves 3web, and thy provided you with a dialup client that opened a remote desktop session where you would run a browser, or FTP, or IRC, or mail client on their computers with the output being streamed back to yours through the dial-up connection. They claimed it meant you didn't need a powerfull computer to run such intensive apps as netscape navigator... The catch of course being that at the time, the bottleneck was the dial-up modem, not the processing power of your computer, so this resulted in a very painful web experience...