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User: mccalli

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  1. Re:Confused product, and pre-announced on Apple's Stumbling HomePod Isn't the Hot Seller It Wanted (bloomberg.com) · · Score: 2

    JBL OnBeat - old 30 pin ones. Excellent sound, and I sometimes swap out the iPad and put a bluetooth to 30 pin adapter in to have pure streaming off the phone too.

  2. Confused product, and pre-announced on Apple's Stumbling HomePod Isn't the Hot Seller It Wanted (bloomberg.com) · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I wish I could find the post, think it was 9to5mac or similar, but they stated they'd been told the HomePod was originally a skunkworks product by the audio people. It wasn't a smart speaker, it wasn't even a product as such. It was a skunkworks high quality speaker.

    This shows. Everything compares it to things like the Echo, but according to what I reads that' the wrong way round. The Echo is Alexa with a speaker bolted on. The HomePod is a speaker with Siri bolted on. The market for expensive speakers is likely much smaller, and it doesn't help that reviews keep pitching it against the Echo - Echo sound quality is reputedly nowhere near the HomePod, but Alexa can do more than the HomePod Siri.

    It's a confused offering, and it's Apple's fault that this is so. Not the original skunkworks - by all accounts they've succeeded and produced exactly what they were trying to do, great sound from a smaller form factor. No, for once this is a product and marketing failure. It has been positioned wrong, it has been released without obvious features (no bluetooth? C'mon...), it has been priced high which might well be deserved from its sound alone, but it has been allowed to be seen to be an Echo competitor. Worse, an Echo also-ran.

    As I write this, I'm listening to SomaFM playing on an iPad 2 attached to a good quality speaker dock. I thought the HomePod might be a nice update. I actually am the target demographic for once. But naah - I'm not in for this as it stands. Needs to let my daughter's Android phone play too, needs to allow third party services so I could use SomaFM on it directly...arguably it could even do with a simple display. At the moment, I see my iPad-2-plugged-in-to-a-speaker-dock as a far better solution, and that should make Apple's product people give some serious thought to what they've released.

  3. They're furniture on Despite Having Unprecedented Access To Technology, Generation Z Is Already Bored (thedailybeast.com) · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I got into computing in the early 80s - the first home computing boom. They were new and fresh and exciting - I learned what I could about them, read obsessively in magazines about every home micro available, learned to code (badly in BASIC...) - it was all new.

    Now? Computers and smartphones are appliances - they're not fun, they're not novel - they're meant to just sit there doing their job. And this is natural, it's not current generation's 'fault' that they're not excited by this tech. I wasn't excited by the fact I didn't need to double declutch to learn to drive, it was just how things were and are.

    I'd be interested to know what is considered fresh and exciting in the same way. Seems that the use of these platforms is big, and the creation of things with them. But interest in the tech itself is less common, and I'm not surprised by this at all.

  4. Paging RMS... on Microsoft Releases New Tool To Get More Distros on Windows (zdnet.com) · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The one thing Windows Subsystem For Linux doesn't actually have is....Linux. For once, the argument about GNU/Linux is completely correct and relevant. Linux is the kernel - Windows is using its own kernel for ELF support and various APIs. It isn't Linux. Even the Wikipedia article on the naming controversy states that the shorter Linux "...serves as a generic term for systems that combine that kernal with software from multiple other sources".

    I mean, I'm not exactly getting bent out of shape over it. I just find it wryly amusing.

  5. " Fortunately for Qualcomm, they're still in the lead "....err....ahem.

  6. Re:youtube sucks on YouTube Will 'Frustrate' Some Users With Ads So They Pay for Music (bloomberg.com) · · Score: 3, Informative

    As a person with some music up on youtube - yes. You have to upload as HD video, otherwise it goes to...err...96kbps? Something like that. Uploading as HD video gets you 192kbps audio, so even though it's literally just a static picture of the album cover all my stuff is uploaded as HD.

  7. Re:The original free calling plan on There Are Still 100,000 Pay Phones In the US (cnn.com) · · Score: 1

    In the UK the emergency number is 999. For some reason I don't recall, payphones used to put themselves in emergency mode if you dialed 99, meaning the next bit was free.

    Allegedly this would then allow you to dial any number and use it without paying. Including international ones. Allegedly. Not that I would know this for certain you understand, and I certainly wouldn't have used it to keep in touch with a Boston-based university friend during some holidays during the early 90s.

  8. Re:Is storage space really a concern anymore? on Microsoft Brings Native HEIF Support to Windows 10 (thurrott.com) · · Score: 1

    Yes - mobile and cloud. That's why this was introduced on Apple phones a while back. Not sure about Android but I would be surprised if it didn't go that way.

  9. Re:MPEG on Microsoft Brings Native HEIF Support to Windows 10 (thurrott.com) · · Score: 1

    Everyone running iOS 11/High Sierra and compatible Apple gear is using HEVC natively, without ever knowing it. It most certainly is seeing a lot of use, it was just introduced transparently.

  10. Re:Work station features? on GNOME 3.28 'Chongqing' Linux Is Here (betanews.com) · · Score: 1

    Don't underestimate the font improvements mentioned for doing exactly what you're talking about. The typography of Linux vs OS X/macOS has always been pretty poor, and seeing effort put in here is greatly appreciated.

  11. Re:Who Cares About Adapters? on Apple Is Letting Companies Make 3.5mm To Lightning Cables Now (9to5mac.com) · · Score: 1

    See, I had previously hoped that as well but the release of their keyboards and mice and stylus, which charge over Lightning not USB C, now makes me think otherwise. I really would prefer all-USB C though.

  12. Clarification? on Apple Is Letting Companies Make 3.5mm To Lightning Cables Now (9to5mac.com) · · Score: 1

    "Unlike with Lightning receptacles, Apple does not allow the port to be used for passthrough charging or sync of an iOS device". -What does that mean? Does it mean I can't do a Lightning to USB C cable (which yes, I'm aware already exist) under this programme?

  13. Re:This could easily be solved on Reddit Admits Russian Trolls Got Into Website During 2016 Election (vice.com) · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Yes, that would work really well on an international web site...

  14. Unfortunately -not- the original Marin on The Hitchhikers Guide To the Galaxy Returns With the Original Cast (arstechnica.com) · · Score: 1

    Stephen Moore retired and apparently could not be persuaded to do the series. Jim Broadbent is doing it instead - have just finished listening to the episode and...well, he's good as ever. But he's not Stephen Moore.

  15. Re:That ex-Apple employee on Mysterious $15,000 'GrayKey' Promises To Unlock iPhone X For The Feds (forbes.com) · · Score: 1

    IMHO, should do both. I'm not normally into suing people who find ways round things, but in this case it's an ex-employee with privileged knowledge. Pour encourager les autres.

  16. Re:You're a what so you're a WHAT? on Bad iPhone Notches Are Happening To Good Android Phones (theverge.com) · · Score: 1

    Hmm - I'm also from the olden days, lost password to my original account but it's in the 12k range. I'm more luddite than ever. I keep seeing things being rehashed and recycled and often get worse too.

    The X - I have it, I like it but it feels a bit beta. FaceID is not better than TouchID in every way, it's better in one way only - no physical button. Other than that it's slower and more error prone. It can be more transparent in general use because you're already looking at your phone, but in other cases it's worse - try to unlock a phone that's lying flat on a table for instance.

    That said I still like the X overall and mostly agree with you about the gestures vs button. I would completely agree if they'd not made a silly UI choice and changed the "kill app" from swipe upwards to "press and hold, then active this tiny tiny little button that we've made out of purest elemental tiny". But that's a software UI blunder, not an indictment of the whole thing and I much prefer it overall.

    Anyway, point of post was luddite'ism - yes, it's alive and well in the old school like me. And growing too.

  17. Hmm. I don't know of course, but it sounds more likely that this character will be one of a class of characters which could trigger the bug. Just the most used one. I doubt there's anything unique about that particular character.

  18. Debian Popularity Contest on Ubuntu Wants To Collect Data About Your System -- Starting With 18.04 LTS (fossbytes.com) · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Looks like the Debian Popularity Contest mixed in with some hardware reports. Doesn't look that odd to me.

  19. Re:Stop posting qz garbage on AIs Have Replaced Aliens As Our Greatest World Destroying Fear (qz.com) · · Score: 1

    ...and Fritz Lang in the 20s with Metropolis.

  20. But it's not as clear cut... on Senate Cryptocurrency Hearing Strikes a Cautiously Optimistic Tone (techcrunch.com) · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I don't think it's a security. I can't go somewhere and pay for my coffee by directly handing over 20 shares of BigCorp. I can go places and pay directly using crypto. I know what he's trying to do, but it should be explicitly recognised as a category in its own right rather than "let's pretend it's a classic security".

  21. Re:What about the jaywalking problem? on Uber and Lyft Want You Banned From Using Your Own Self-Driving Car in Urban Areas (siliconbeat.com) · · Score: 1

    Not in London it wouldn't. The cars don't move anywhere near fast enough...

  22. Re:Abandoned games... on Blizzard Issues DMCA Notice to a Fan-Run 'WoW' Legacy Server (torrentfreak.com) · · Score: 4, Interesting

    There is an issue though - what is 'abandoned'? Let's take the 8 bit games legacy. When mobile gaming took off, suddenly these games were appearing once again but on mobile phones - things like Lords of Midnight, which by every rationale people previously would have considered abandoned. They turned out to be a viable revenue stream again. Or all the Nintendo ones that found a new life in the 'virtual console' on their newer platforms.

    Don't get me wrong - I also agree there should be some solution found. But I really don't think it's simple, because even the definition of 'abandoned' isn't clear cut, and we have a recent example where a technology shifts have rendered viable again things one previously considered abandoned

  23. Apple Pay (and Android Pay?) on the Web please on eBay Is Dumping PayPal For Dutch Rival Adyen (cnn.com) · · Score: 1

    Not many places use it, but it's good and convenient and secure. And this is not a platform war from me - if Android has similar then that too please.

    Would much rather go to a ubiquitous payment method everywhere than "I pay this way online, that way in person" etc.

  24. King Kong vs Godzilla on Slashdot Asks: What Are Some Sci-Fi Books, Movies, and TV Shows You're Looking Forward To? · · Score: 4, Funny
    Yeah - so sue me. Pointless popcorn entertainment a go-go.

    Besides which, almost any film can be improved by simply adding "vs Godzilla" to the end of it.
    • Bladerunner vs Godzilla
    • The Last Jedi vs Godzilla
    • Solo vs Godzilla
    • Obi-Wan: A Godzilla Story
    • Artemis vs Godzilla
    • The Cursed Child vs Godzilla
    • Fantastic Beasts vs Godzilla
    • Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. vs Godzilla
    • A Series of Unfortunate Events vs Godzilla
    • Godzilla vs Godzilla

    etc., etc., etc...

  25. Re:NYC CBS movie critic didn't like "Star Wars" .. on Netflix Executives Say 'Bright' Success Proves Film Critics Are 'Disconnected From Mass Appeal' (indiewire.com) · · Score: 2

    My dad took me to see Star Wars in 1979, I believe. That would make him 53. He loved it his whole life, and would often talk about the opening scene of the Star Destroyer coming overhead and making him sit up and take notice.