Apple? What do they have to do with this? Apple is a hardware vendor, Google only tangentially so. Google does advertising and web services, making most of its money on the former while spending it on the latter.
In what way would Google 'fall behind' Apple? Google's products are mostly operating-system and hardware agnostic, running equally well (or poor) on all supported platforms. For Apple to change this they'd have to exclude Google from their products. They tried, and failed, miserably. They might try again but even if they succeed in booting Google from iOS and OSX they'd only have limited impact given the (declining) market penetration of their product lines. Apple is good at serving its target group, but that group is only a small part of the entire market.
If you want command line access, Android - which runs on top of the Linux kernel which has been 'accused' of being excessively command-line 'friendly' by many a Windows-supporter - is your best bet. If you want to connect to just about any filesystem worth connecting to - and then some - the same is true. USB ports? Look no further than most low price tablets which, incidentally, usually run Android. Switching between apps? Ehhh... you do realise that Microsoft was rather late at this stuff, don't you? Even Apple got around to allowing multitasking on their iThings by the time Microsoft re-re-re-lauched their latest attempt at mobile. Just about the only thing you'll have to skip are those Microsoft apps you mention. Oh the horror of not being able to use Microsoft Works, Outlook or Excel on my phone or tablet... (guffaw, snicker...)
Just don't be to sad when Microsoft decides Surface needs to go the way of all their previous attempts and you're left with a sub-par skateboard deck.
This. So true. The only thing to be added is an icon in the style of Dick Bruna's 'Nijntje Konijntje' to appeal even the lowest of the lowest common of denominators.
Google can only do things on Android phones which have Google apps installed. Installing Google apps is optional for anyone with a rooted phone.
I have several devices running Android - tablets and phones. None of them run Google apps, nor the Google framework, nor any other Google-specific software. These devices run self-compiled Android distributions, some of them tailored to the application (eg. removed services from ServiceManager, etc).
That Nest thing is treated the same way as the original iphone - as if it 'totally re-invents the field' and 'revolutionises... (whatever)'. It is priced like an apple product, looks like an apple product and is obviously targeted at the apple core of the demography - people with lots of money to spend on things other people tell them they need to buy to earn their stay in their clan. It also attracts the same 'journalists' who fawn over the product without being able to rationally explain its appeal. A smart marketing move, sure.
iPhones are ubiquitous. At a glance, people can't tell one from another, especially once they're in their protective case.
Most cases I've seen for those phones have special holes to show the precious fruit so that anyone may be in awe of the person holding it. Those fragile things obviously need to be protected from the real world but showing that partly-eaten apple seems to be more important than providing more complete protection...
Well... comics have been around almost as long as written text, yet still books are written. The Nobel price for literature has yet to fall on a comics author. Both formats can bring across ideas and stories, yet most readers still seem to prefer written, sparsely or non-illustrated stories over comic novels.
So open the thing up already, or 'jailbreak' in that silly apple-related lingo. Why subject yourself to the whims of a for-profit company which clearly has its sights set on your 'ancient' hardware, ready to pull the trigger? Make a backup which *you* can restore without any interference by them. Take a sledgehammer to that wall surrounding the garden before winter strips it of its fruit...
Then again, you can buy many Android tablets for the price of a fruitpad. While you are often guaranteed not to get any software updates *from the vendor* for these things, you are free to drop whatever custom distribution from the 'net on them. As the hardware in these things often is not that dissimilar to others using the same SoC it is fairly easy to create a new port. I made one for an rk3066-based tablet in less than a day. That tablet can be had for the price of less than 1/4 of a similar apple tablet.
In short, while apple might excel when it comes to creating a solid product which is likely to be supported for a few years, they fail when it comes to pricing that product and allowing their customers to use their (the customers') purchase in any way they please.
If these comparisons make you think of an earlier example of apple tightening the thumbscrews a tad to far you're right. It is quite comparable to the early PC scene vs Mac heads. Back then the clones won the war...
If pilots are doing 500+kts at altitudes reachable by grasshoppers, I'd be worried about the dents caused by trees. And small children.
You could encounter a grasshopper flying at more than 700 m so this is not that strange. Stranger is that it only leaves a dent in the leading edge, I'd have expected more damage...
Usually this can be remedied using remote control (VNC et al). If remote control from Windows does not cut it, use remote control from a Linux boot disk/stick - next time you visit your parents bring one and configure the PC to boot from it when present. This gives you full access to the machine. Don't subject your parents to the whims of those 'computer repair shops' unless you know for sure that the shop they'll take it to is legitimate. Yes, it takes some time to help. No, you should not feel the need to do this for all your friends.
This also works for Android devices by the way, handy to know in case they decide to get a tablet and manage to mess that up. Just connect the thing to the PC and access it through adb and/or a remote control program like teamviewer.
My parents live in another country yet I still manage to help them from the midst of the Swedish forests...
The rise of China is one of the great humanitarian stories in history
Don't you have that somewhat backward? China used to be pretty advanced compared to most other parts of the world for a long time. They lost this advance due to many reasons, eventually culminating in the wars which led to the communist takeover and the series of tragedies that followed (cultural revolution, etc). While the party in control of China still calls itself communist they don't have much in common with what Marx et al philosophized about. Maybe China will eventually be more advanced than the surrounding countries again, maybe not - time will tell.
At this point, I consider all Android or iOS (but especially Android) devices untrusted.
Why trust a closed system more than a partly open system? On Android you can at least verify and adapt the open part of the system. On iOS you are completely at the mercy of Apple, a company which might gain favours (like presidential veto's, lenient judges, stacked juries...) or lose them. While Google might be under the same pressure, at least you don't have to trust as you can verify...
The uncanny valley also seems to cover religious doctrines - any religion which is almost, but not quite like theirs is the spawn of Satan, in this case literally. It is a sad state of affairs when Homo Sapiens Sapiens - the 'thinking thinking humanoid' deliberately avoids using that brain power and instead ruts for whatever 'ultimate truth' their tribal elders have burdened them with. Thinking man, indeed.
It is rather incomprehensible that/. keeps on quoting F*SSpatents, even though it is known that this site is created by a well-known Microsoft/Oracle/anyone-else-who-cares-to-pay-him shill. There will be plenty of readers here who don't realise that everything written there should be taken with a ton of salt while half of what he writes is patently untrue or taken out of context in the first place.
Quoting F*SSpatents on patent issues is like quoting McDonalds on healthy eating habits or deBeers on the real value of diamonds. Maybe a warning could be added for the unwary?
'-SLASHDOT WARNS THAT READING F*SSPATENTS IS KNOWN TO CAUSE TEMPORAL DISTORTION OF TRUTH-'
we are heavily armed and educated. Everything we need to track down and hang the 1%.
Whoa there, with talk like that you'll soon find yourself on the business end of a pair of 'FBI special investigators'. I don't know what is more threatening to them in your call to action but I suspect the 'heavily educated' bit makes 'm chomp at the bit for adding your name to an alphabet soup of watch lists. No more fairground rides for subversive you!
That app better also recognize gangsta rap glorifying crime... and hate preachers of any denomination...
To make it perfect, add Justin Bieber to the list to make the world a safer place for all mankind.
Now excuse me while I'm trying my hand at the latest North-Korean hit songs entitled "We Shall Hold Bayonets More Firmly" and "The Joy of Bumper Harvest Overflows Amidst the Song of Mechanisation"...
Cases are for iPhones and similarly fragile design statements - a phone should not need one. This does put some constraints on the freedom the designers have - no glass to the edge, a buffer zone between fragile materials and the casing (which should not be made of a fragile material), etc. As the phone is first and foremost a tool this is not an unreasonable restriction.
We use Motorola Defy phones here on the farm. They seem to survive just fine without needing a case. They look rather similar to most touchscreen phones so the compromises needed for survivability are not that onerous.
Nonsense. The source is there, anything can be disabled, changed, added. The only thing keeping Android from being completely open is the amount of blob code needed to access device-specific hardware. Google has as much control over your phone as you want, from 'none at all' to 'they know who I'm about to meet'. The choice is yours.
The KK launcher ('home screen app') in Google apps is built around Google search. Don't want it? Just use another launcher, there is one for every need, some of them free software, others closed. The choice, again, is yours.
Play services does not equate Android, nor does Android need it. My Android-based devices do fine without any Google apps. While I mostly push stuff to them through adb (the Android Debug Bridge) I also have FDroid (an alternative, all-free-software) repository installed 'just in case'. Everything works fine. I build the distribution myself - except for the rather large quantity of binary blobs needed by the hardware, alas - and install it myself, disabling stuff I don't want (ThrottleService in ServiceManager, FM radio transmission, etc).
While Android has its quirks it is still an open system. the Google apps are not open but they are not necessary either, alternatives for just about any service they provide abound. The source is there for you to peruse, modify, build and distribute. The binary blobs are annoying and often a source of bugs and battery drain and most likely full of holes which enable the TLA to listen in on anything you do so if you want to tackle a *real* problem go ahead.
As to whether Google will start to use patents the way Apple and Microsoft do remains to be seen. Thus far they have not used them offensively unlike Microsoft and Apple (and many others). Microsoft and Apple abuse patents, Google thus fas has not done so. Yes, I intentionally write Microsoft and Apple in full rather than stating 'they' have abused patents because the fact is that Microsoft and Apple abuse patents while Google has not done this so far. They might start at any time but they have not thus far. The sheer amount of Google bashing going on on just about any venue in any language I read lately is flabbergasting, as to whether it is just performed by mindless trolls or by paid shills I don't know but they all have in common that they seem to ignore the real and present patent abuse by Microsoft and Apple while they try to portray anything done by Google in a bad light.
Notice that I advocate to remove Google services from your Android device so it does not make sense to start claiming I'm just another 'F-android' or some similar straw man. I keep my friends close and my enemies closer.
Liars - such as those who accuse others of misdeeds performed by the likes of Microsoft and Apple are neither friends nor enemies. They are just unwelcome.
The idea with location-based taxation would be to set different rates for different roads and times - it would be more expensive to drive a clogged road at rush hour than it would be to drive the same road at an earlier or later hour.
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Apple? What do they have to do with this? Apple is a hardware vendor, Google only tangentially so. Google does advertising and web services, making most of its money on the former while spending it on the latter.
In what way would Google 'fall behind' Apple? Google's products are mostly operating-system and hardware agnostic, running equally well (or poor) on all supported platforms. For Apple to change this they'd have to exclude Google from their products. They tried, and failed, miserably. They might try again but even if they succeed in booting Google from iOS and OSX they'd only have limited impact given the (declining) market penetration of their product lines. Apple is good at serving its target group, but that group is only a small part of the entire market.
If you want command line access, Android - which runs on top of the Linux kernel which has been 'accused' of being excessively command-line 'friendly' by many a Windows-supporter - is your best bet. If you want to connect to just about any filesystem worth connecting to - and then some - the same is true. USB ports? Look no further than most low price tablets which, incidentally, usually run Android. Switching between apps? Ehhh... you do realise that Microsoft was rather late at this stuff, don't you? Even Apple got around to allowing multitasking on their iThings by the time Microsoft re-re-re-lauched their latest attempt at mobile. Just about the only thing you'll have to skip are those Microsoft apps you mention. Oh the horror of not being able to use Microsoft Works, Outlook or Excel on my phone or tablet... (guffaw, snicker...)
Just don't be to sad when Microsoft decides Surface needs to go the way of all their previous attempts and you're left with a sub-par skateboard deck.
If that is true, every weapons manufacturer is guilty of murder.
This. So true. The only thing to be added is an icon in the style of Dick Bruna's 'Nijntje Konijntje' to appeal even the lowest of the lowest common of denominators.
Google can only do things on Android phones which have Google apps installed. Installing Google apps is optional for anyone with a rooted phone.
I have several devices running Android - tablets and phones. None of them run Google apps, nor the Google framework, nor any other Google-specific software. These devices run self-compiled Android distributions, some of them tailored to the application (eg. removed services from ServiceManager, etc).
Try that with iOS. Nice try.
A carburettor used on BMW motorbikes?
That Nest thing is treated the same way as the original iphone - as if it 'totally re-invents the field' and 'revolutionises ... (whatever)'. It is priced like an apple product, looks like an apple product and is obviously targeted at the apple core of the demography - people with lots of money to spend on things other people tell them they need to buy to earn their stay in their clan. It also attracts the same 'journalists' who fawn over the product without being able to rationally explain its appeal. A smart marketing move, sure.
Most cases I've seen for those phones have special holes to show the precious fruit so that anyone may be in awe of the person holding it. Those fragile things obviously need to be protected from the real world but showing that partly-eaten apple seems to be more important than providing more complete protection...
Well... comics have been around almost as long as written text, yet still books are written. The Nobel price for literature has yet to fall on a comics author. Both formats can bring across ideas and stories, yet most readers still seem to prefer written, sparsely or non-illustrated stories over comic novels.
So open the thing up already, or 'jailbreak' in that silly apple-related lingo. Why subject yourself to the whims of a for-profit company which clearly has its sights set on your 'ancient' hardware, ready to pull the trigger? Make a backup which *you* can restore without any interference by them. Take a sledgehammer to that wall surrounding the garden before winter strips it of its fruit...
Then again, you can buy many Android tablets for the price of a fruitpad. While you are often guaranteed not to get any software updates *from the vendor* for these things, you are free to drop whatever custom distribution from the 'net on them. As the hardware in these things often is not that dissimilar to others using the same SoC it is fairly easy to create a new port. I made one for an rk3066-based tablet in less than a day. That tablet can be had for the price of less than 1/4 of a similar apple tablet.
In short, while apple might excel when it comes to creating a solid product which is likely to be supported for a few years, they fail when it comes to pricing that product and allowing their customers to use their (the customers') purchase in any way they please.
If these comparisons make you think of an earlier example of apple tightening the thumbscrews a tad to far you're right. It is quite comparable to the early PC scene vs Mac heads. Back then the clones won the war...
You could encounter a grasshopper flying at more than 700 m so this is not that strange. Stranger is that it only leaves a dent in the leading edge, I'd have expected more damage...
Usually this can be remedied using remote control (VNC et al). If remote control from Windows does not cut it, use remote control from a Linux boot disk/stick - next time you visit your parents bring one and configure the PC to boot from it when present. This gives you full access to the machine. Don't subject your parents to the whims of those 'computer repair shops' unless you know for sure that the shop they'll take it to is legitimate. Yes, it takes some time to help. No, you should not feel the need to do this for all your friends.
This also works for Android devices by the way, handy to know in case they decide to get a tablet and manage to mess that up. Just connect the thing to the PC and access it through adb and/or a remote control program like teamviewer.
My parents live in another country yet I still manage to help them from the midst of the Swedish forests...
Don't you have that somewhat backward? China used to be pretty advanced compared to most other parts of the world for a long time. They lost this advance due to many reasons, eventually culminating in the wars which led to the communist takeover and the series of tragedies that followed (cultural revolution, etc). While the party in control of China still calls itself communist they don't have much in common with what Marx et al philosophized about. Maybe China will eventually be more advanced than the surrounding countries again, maybe not - time will tell.
Why trust a closed system more than a partly open system? On Android you can at least verify and adapt the open part of the system. On iOS you are completely at the mercy of Apple, a company which might gain favours (like presidential veto's, lenient judges, stacked juries...) or lose them. While Google might be under the same pressure, at least you don't have to trust as you can verify...
The uncanny valley also seems to cover religious doctrines - any religion which is almost, but not quite like theirs is the spawn of Satan, in this case literally. It is a sad state of affairs when Homo Sapiens Sapiens - the 'thinking thinking humanoid' deliberately avoids using that brain power and instead ruts for whatever 'ultimate truth' their tribal elders have burdened them with. Thinking man, indeed.
It is rather incomprehensible that /. keeps on quoting F*SSpatents, even though it is known that this site is created by a well-known Microsoft/Oracle/anyone-else-who-cares-to-pay-him shill. There will be plenty of readers here who don't realise that everything written there should be taken with a ton of salt while half of what he writes is patently untrue or taken out of context in the first place.
Quoting F*SSpatents on patent issues is like quoting McDonalds on healthy eating habits or deBeers on the real value of diamonds. Maybe a warning could be added for the unwary?
'-SLASHDOT WARNS THAT READING F*SSPATENTS IS KNOWN TO CAUSE TEMPORAL DISTORTION OF TRUTH-'
Nope, it is spelled Bering Strait, named after Vitus Bering, a Danish-born Russian explorer.
Whoa there, with talk like that you'll soon find yourself on the business end of a pair of 'FBI special investigators'. I don't know what is more threatening to them in your call to action but I suspect the 'heavily educated' bit makes 'm chomp at the bit for adding your name to an alphabet soup of watch lists. No more fairground rides for subversive you!
That app better also recognize gangsta rap glorifying crime... and hate preachers of any denomination...
To make it perfect, add Justin Bieber to the list to make the world a safer place for all mankind.
Now excuse me while I'm trying my hand at the latest North-Korean hit songs entitled "We Shall Hold Bayonets More Firmly" and "The Joy of Bumper Harvest Overflows Amidst the Song of Mechanisation"...
Cases are for iPhones and similarly fragile design statements - a phone should not need one. This does put some constraints on the freedom the designers have - no glass to the edge, a buffer zone between fragile materials and the casing (which should not be made of a fragile material), etc. As the phone is first and foremost a tool this is not an unreasonable restriction.
We use Motorola Defy phones here on the farm. They seem to survive just fine without needing a case. They look rather similar to most touchscreen phones so the compromises needed for survivability are not that onerous.
Nonsense. The source is there, anything can be disabled, changed, added. The only thing keeping Android from being completely open is the amount of blob code needed to access device-specific hardware. Google has as much control over your phone as you want, from 'none at all' to 'they know who I'm about to meet'. The choice is yours.
The KK launcher ('home screen app') in Google apps is built around Google search. Don't want it? Just use another launcher, there is one for every need, some of them free software, others closed. The choice, again, is yours.
Play services does not equate Android, nor does Android need it. My Android-based devices do fine without any Google apps. While I mostly push stuff to them through adb (the Android Debug Bridge) I also have FDroid (an alternative, all-free-software) repository installed 'just in case'. Everything works fine. I build the distribution myself - except for the rather large quantity of binary blobs needed by the hardware, alas - and install it myself, disabling stuff I don't want (ThrottleService in ServiceManager, FM radio transmission, etc).
While Android has its quirks it is still an open system. the Google apps are not open but they are not necessary either, alternatives for just about any service they provide abound. The source is there for you to peruse, modify, build and distribute. The binary blobs are annoying and often a source of bugs and battery drain and most likely full of holes which enable the TLA to listen in on anything you do so if you want to tackle a *real* problem go ahead.
As to whether Google will start to use patents the way Apple and Microsoft do remains to be seen. Thus far they have not used them offensively unlike Microsoft and Apple (and many others). Microsoft and Apple abuse patents, Google thus fas has not done so. Yes, I intentionally write Microsoft and Apple in full rather than stating 'they' have abused patents because the fact is that Microsoft and Apple abuse patents while Google has not done this so far. They might start at any time but they have not thus far. The sheer amount of Google bashing going on on just about any venue in any language I read lately is flabbergasting, as to whether it is just performed by mindless trolls or by paid shills I don't know but they all have in common that they seem to ignore the real and present patent abuse by Microsoft and Apple while they try to portray anything done by Google in a bad light.
Notice that I advocate to remove Google services from your Android device so it does not make sense to start claiming I'm just another 'F-android' or some similar straw man. I keep my friends close and my enemies closer.
Liars - such as those who accuse others of misdeeds performed by the likes of Microsoft and Apple are neither friends nor enemies. They are just unwelcome.
With a sign reading 'beware of the leopard' on the door, I assume?
The idea with location-based taxation would be to set different rates for different roads and times - it would be more expensive to drive a clogged road at rush hour than it would be to drive the same road at an earlier or later hour.