If you can do all your coding on one monitor without any productivity loss, you aren't writing serious code.
Please. Serious code, the kind that has kept finance and industry running for >30 years, was written on a legal pads by real programmers who passed it off to a clerk with half-a-days training to be keyed onto punch cards and paper tape.
If you need multiple monitors to write code productively, you aren't writing serious code.
Now you're confusing "object-oriented design" with "object-oriented programming". OOP is a feature of the language (or rather, a certain combination of traits exemplified by language features).
These arguments are hilarious because of comments like this. (I'm not picking on you specifically. There are better examples in the thread, but yours was last.)
Anyhow, neither term is formally defined, er, that is, in any way which is generally agreed upon.
Ugh, that was terribly unclear. Suffice it to say that pedantry here is not only unwarranted, it's impossible.
You're right. Google nor Apple, to my knowledge, has yet to sell me on "unbreakable" encryption and then turned around and made a deal with a foreign government to provide the tools to break said unbreakable encryption.
Wow, what an impressive fail post!
You know that only BIS users were affected by RIM giving in, right? BES users still enjoy unrivaled security, as they have come to expect.
Even funnier -- the only reason RIM was under pressure (and made the news) is that foreign governments could read everyone else's communications -- just not BB users! (As I've already pointed out, they STILL can't touch BES users.)
So... what were you saying about BlackBerry security again?
Android hasn't just "quickly cut" into the iPhone (ios) market share, it has already SURPASSED the iPhone market share and is zooming ahead more rapidly every month.
Android had iOS whipped long before that Nielsen report (Last Novevmber. IIRC). The big news in March was that Android had surpassed BlackBerry -- Something Apple hadn't been able to do.
On tablets, I'm still not convinced that they're really the "next big thing". In that respect, I agree that Apple will maintain their market position. If there is a real demand for them, I would expect lower-priced Android devices to quickly overtake Apple -- probably within two years.
Apple controls the whole experience and focuses on a few things at a time. This means that their products will often have less features, but those features will have much more thought put into them and have a tighter level of integration to them
Yeah, they really put a lot of thought into notifications...
Meanwhile, everybody else who learned in the last 20 years that user experience is more than some stats on a spec sheet may go ahead and get an iPad...
If you really cared about the user experience, you'd buy the PlayBook or wait for webOS or one of the newer Android tablets. (Even as incomplete as it is, the PB is still light-years ahead of iOS in terms of user experience.)
I'm completely serious here. What do you love, really, about the iOS UI? The wall of colorful icons or the intrusive, stop-what-you're-doing-now notifications?
I honestly don't know how Apple gets away with promoting these bizarre myths. It's like the "macs are better for graphics" nonsense all over again.
Resistive touchscreens are shit, and an instant dealbreaker.
Ah, the delusion of the uninformed!
Resistive touch screens offer a plurality of advantages over capacitive touch screens. (The reverse is also true). To call one or the other "shit" indicates to me that you don't know enough about the technology to make such a value judgement.
RIM has recently patented a hybrid resistive/capacitive touch screen. Given what you've learned above, why do you think they would patent such an invention?
Yup, RIM is really getting youth buzz in South Africa and Indonesia!
RIM is doing astonishingly well in emerging markets, but that isn't the only place where RIM is doing very well. In 2010, they were the best selling smartphone brand in Canada, the US, and the UK.
In December 2010, GfK estimates 500,000 Blackberry devices were sold (putting them at #1). That same month, they captured 36% of the smartphone market, 15% of the TOTAL mobile phone market, 51% of all pre-paid smartphones.
Of course, I'm a corporate shill because the facts don't match your preconceptions.
Instead of fixing the godawful BlackberryOS and wooing developers they go and create a 7-inch picture frame without any compelling features.
Except that "7-inch picture frame" is running QNX, not BB OS, and is loaded with compelling features. Have you taken a serious look at it? Not only that, it's also incredibly intuitive and makes iOS look outdated. Oh, and they HAVE been wooing developers -- where have you been all year?
As for BB OS, OS 6 is excellent -- It even gives you a much better user experience than iOS. Even the horrid old browser that everyone is ranting about is fantastic OS6 -- fast and modern.
When QNX hits BB phones in 2012, things will get even better. Of course, we don't need to wait that long, the upcoming line of phones for this year is really exciting and innovative. There really isn't anything on the market to compete with the new Bold Touch -- which is sure to turn heads.
As for BB being "synonymous with corporate and boring", you may want to take a look at how they're doing with the 15-24 demographic. Things are not as you see them.
What magnificent design team exists which will drop the next major jump onto the market to show that RIM is here now?
RIM very recently (December) acquired The Astonishing Tribe -- the Swedish UI design team that needs no introduction. Check out some of their stuff
They've actually made a good number of very smart acquisitions last year. QNX is obviously the most exciting. They also picked up Data Viz, the makers of the popular Documents To Go office suite, giving RIM's customers some very enticing software out-of-box.
RIM's lineup of phones this year is also rather exciting -- it's about time too! The Bold Touch is certainly going to be a hit with the enterprise and the BB faithful and, of course, it has its consumer-grade companion in the Curve Touch. For the touch-screen only crowd, the Monaco/Monza is (finally) an up-to-date and usable device, with the Torch 2 filling in the gap between pure productivity and entertainment.
The Bold Touch (and Curve counterpart) is a whole new concept that is sure to spawn imitators. In the mean time, it certainly stands out in the sea of touch-slab phones. The brilliant design, coupled with RIM's best-in-class messaging, is sure to be a hit with the both the youth and enterprise markets.
There's always someone who is convinced that virtual keyboards are superior because they can allegedly type faster on one than a physical keyboard. I can only assume that they're the slowest of the hunt-and-peck sort, the speed gained only by virtue of predictive text. Either that, or they're lying.
That said, GP is right, RIM has a huge advantage over the competition with its physical keyboard. Even the most ardent Apple or Android fanboy will readily admit that they have the best keyboard on the market. When it comes to entering text on a phone, you can't beat that iconic Blackberry keyboard.
Add to that RIM's unparalleled messaging and you'll find out why having tons of apps isn't really that important when it comes to using your phone for its intended purpose: communication.
How can a company that only really came about due to an innovative take on email (making it instant like SMS) release a tablet with no email capability?
To make it more attractive to their enterprise customers. With BB Bridge, you don't need to manage tablets like you need to manage your smartphone deployment -- you can just hand them out without worry. The user gets instant, secure, access to their email and files via their phone on the tablet. As RIM put's it, it's your blackberry amplified.
Considering first-day sales significantly exceeded expectations despite the slew of mediocre reviews, I'd say RIM made a pretty smart decision.
Proof you are correct can be seen with bottled water for drinking. Almost anyone in the USA can easily avail themselves of free tap water to drink, this is comparable to Android which is more or less widely available at no obvious cost. Yet there is a huge market for bottled water. I may buy fifty to a hundred cases at a clip, but then I appreciate the quality and convience of Zepherhills Spring Water (charateristics of Apple products) compared to common urban tap water.
I use tap water to flush the toilet but I would never use Zepherhills Spring Water for such a common task. Both surces of water have their place in life, the free one easily dumped into the sewer and the beter quality costly one which is safer and better tasting which I carry everywhere.
I like the tap water analogy. It's especially cool, as it can be extended even further without breaking down.
Most bottled water is no different in quality from tap water, Source, even though people believe that they're getting 'higher quality' water.
In short, people buy Apple for the same reason that they buy bottled water: The illusion of quality.
Slashdot Mirror
I bill out at a buck fifty five an hour.
If you're not relying on regular clients for your bread-and-butter, double it.
If you can do all your coding on one monitor without any productivity loss, you aren't writing serious code.
Please. Serious code, the kind that has kept finance and industry running for >30 years, was written on a legal pads by real programmers who passed it off to a clerk with half-a-days training to be keyed onto punch cards and paper tape.
If you need multiple monitors to write code productively, you aren't writing serious code.
So what other ebooks does the Kindle support?
Mobi files work fine. Additionally, there is nothing to prevent non-amazon bookstores from providing content for the device.
Now you're confusing "object-oriented design" with "object-oriented programming". OOP is a feature of the language (or rather, a certain combination of traits exemplified by language features).
These arguments are hilarious because of comments like this. (I'm not picking on you specifically. There are better examples in the thread, but yours was last.)
Anyhow, neither term is formally defined, er, that is, in any way which is generally agreed upon.
Ugh, that was terribly unclear. Suffice it to say that pedantry here is not only unwarranted, it's impossible.
Yeah... RISC is good...
I never use "Favorites", "Media", "Downloads", "Frequent" trays ever.
I don't use downloads, but I find the other trays very convenient. I agree that it would be nice if you could configure them in the default theme.
That said, if you really hate the trays, just install a theme that doesn't use them. There are plenty to choose from.
You're right. Google nor Apple, to my knowledge, has yet to sell me on "unbreakable" encryption and then turned around and made a deal with a foreign government to provide the tools to break said unbreakable encryption.
Wow, what an impressive fail post!
You know that only BIS users were affected by RIM giving in, right? BES users still enjoy unrivaled security, as they have come to expect.
Even funnier -- the only reason RIM was under pressure (and made the news) is that foreign governments could read everyone else's communications -- just not BB users! (As I've already pointed out, they STILL can't touch BES users.)
So... what were you saying about BlackBerry security again?
That's what I thought. Pathetic.
Security at the expense of usability is not a feature I want.
You're in luck! You can get best-in-class security *and* best-in-class messaging (read: great usability) by switching to BlackBerry.
Only BIS users -- RIM can't hand the keys over for BES users because they don't have the keys.
Still, RIM only made the news because foreign governments could ALREADY read everyone else's emails, just not BB users.
HA they got all the bad press because they were TOO secure.
I know, it's such a bunch of nonsense. For the clueless: a "certificate of death" is OBVIOUSLY NOT THE SAME as a "death certificate".
Wake up Sheeple!
And of course, it is standing on the shoulders of Apple's design.
Yes, because we've never had slate-like devices that present a wall of icons before Apple...
a 2 year old can use the iPad, as can non-techie grandparents. that's why apple is selling them by the millions.
Ha, the "easiest to use" myth! That's a fun one -- like most Apple myths, this one was also never true.
Just for fun, take a look at this two-year-old expertly using the "unusable" PlayBook: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbIc5JTk5cA
Android hasn't just "quickly cut" into the iPhone (ios) market share, it has already SURPASSED the iPhone market share and is zooming ahead more rapidly every month.
Android had iOS whipped long before that Nielsen report (Last Novevmber. IIRC). The big news in March was that Android had surpassed BlackBerry -- Something Apple hadn't been able to do.
On tablets, I'm still not convinced that they're really the "next big thing". In that respect, I agree that Apple will maintain their market position. If there is a real demand for them, I would expect lower-priced Android devices to quickly overtake Apple -- probably within two years.
As for the moving to Blackberry option??!! LOL! They have already lost the "war", been knocked out of first place
LOL! You really need to go take a look at the numbers! Most companies only wish they were as "dead" as RIM.
Apple controls the whole experience and focuses on a few things at a time. This means that their products will often have less features, but those features will have much more thought put into them and have a tighter level of integration to them
Yeah, they really put a lot of thought into notifications...
Meanwhile, everybody else who learned in the last 20 years that user experience is more than some stats on a spec sheet may go ahead and get an iPad...
If you really cared about the user experience, you'd buy the PlayBook or wait for webOS or one of the newer Android tablets. (Even as incomplete as it is, the PB is still light-years ahead of iOS in terms of user experience.)
I'm completely serious here. What do you love, really, about the iOS UI? The wall of colorful icons or the intrusive, stop-what-you're-doing-now notifications?
I honestly don't know how Apple gets away with promoting these bizarre myths. It's like the "macs are better for graphics" nonsense all over again.
Resistive touchscreens are shit, and an instant dealbreaker.
Ah, the delusion of the uninformed!
Resistive touch screens offer a plurality of advantages over capacitive touch screens. (The reverse is also true). To call one or the other "shit" indicates to me that you don't know enough about the technology to make such a value judgement.
RIM has recently patented a hybrid resistive/capacitive touch screen. Given what you've learned above, why do you think they would patent such an invention?
I have heard that bullshit explanation before. It just does not hold water.
Which is why they sold twice as many tablets on launch day than they expected...
My prediction: RIM will cease to exist as an independent company before 2015.
Yeah, that massive growth they've had quarter after quarter is going to wipe them out!
Yup, RIM is really getting youth buzz in South Africa and Indonesia!
RIM is doing astonishingly well in emerging markets, but that isn't the only place where RIM is doing very well. In 2010, they were the best selling smartphone brand in Canada, the US, and the UK.
In December 2010, GfK estimates 500,000 Blackberry devices were sold (putting them at #1). That same month, they captured 36% of the smartphone market, 15% of the TOTAL mobile phone market, 51% of all pre-paid smartphones.
Of course, I'm a corporate shill because the facts don't match your preconceptions.
Instead of fixing the godawful BlackberryOS and wooing developers they go and create a 7-inch picture frame without any compelling features.
Except that "7-inch picture frame" is running QNX, not BB OS, and is loaded with compelling features. Have you taken a serious look at it? Not only that, it's also incredibly intuitive and makes iOS look outdated. Oh, and they HAVE been wooing developers -- where have you been all year?
As for BB OS, OS 6 is excellent -- It even gives you a much better user experience than iOS. Even the horrid old browser that everyone is ranting about is fantastic OS6 -- fast and modern.
When QNX hits BB phones in 2012, things will get even better. Of course, we don't need to wait that long, the upcoming line of phones for this year is really exciting and innovative. There really isn't anything on the market to compete with the new Bold Touch -- which is sure to turn heads.
As for BB being "synonymous with corporate and boring", you may want to take a look at how they're doing with the 15-24 demographic. Things are not as you see them.
What buzz does RIM have with the 15-35 crowd?
BBM, of course. Did I mention that BBM (with it's 39 million users) is significantly cutting into SMS among the 15 to 24 crowd?
What magnificent design team exists which will drop the next major jump onto the market to show that RIM is here now?
RIM very recently (December) acquired The Astonishing Tribe -- the Swedish UI design team that needs no introduction. Check out some of their stuff
They've actually made a good number of very smart acquisitions last year. QNX is obviously the most exciting. They also picked up Data Viz, the makers of the popular Documents To Go office suite, giving RIM's customers some very enticing software out-of-box.
RIM's lineup of phones this year is also rather exciting -- it's about time too! The Bold Touch is certainly going to be a hit with the enterprise and the BB faithful and, of course, it has its consumer-grade companion in the Curve Touch. For the touch-screen only crowd, the Monaco/Monza is (finally) an up-to-date and usable device, with the Torch 2 filling in the gap between pure productivity and entertainment.
The Bold Touch (and Curve counterpart) is a whole new concept that is sure to spawn imitators. In the mean time, it certainly stands out in the sea of touch-slab phones. The brilliant design, coupled with RIM's best-in-class messaging, is sure to be a hit with the both the youth and enterprise markets.
There's always someone who is convinced that virtual keyboards are superior because they can allegedly type faster on one than a physical keyboard. I can only assume that they're the slowest of the hunt-and-peck sort, the speed gained only by virtue of predictive text. Either that, or they're lying.
That said, GP is right, RIM has a huge advantage over the competition with its physical keyboard. Even the most ardent Apple or Android fanboy will readily admit that they have the best keyboard on the market. When it comes to entering text on a phone, you can't beat that iconic Blackberry keyboard.
Add to that RIM's unparalleled messaging and you'll find out why having tons of apps isn't really that important when it comes to using your phone for its intended purpose: communication.
How can a company that only really came about due to an innovative take on email (making it instant like SMS) release a tablet with no email capability?
To make it more attractive to their enterprise customers. With BB Bridge, you don't need to manage tablets like you need to manage your smartphone deployment -- you can just hand them out without worry. The user gets instant, secure, access to their email and files via their phone on the tablet. As RIM put's it, it's your blackberry amplified.
Considering first-day sales significantly exceeded expectations despite the slew of mediocre reviews, I'd say RIM made a pretty smart decision.
It serves SQL, like a slave serves his master.
It serves data like a bartender serves beer.
Proof you are correct can be seen with bottled water for drinking. Almost anyone in the USA can easily avail themselves of free tap water to drink, this is comparable to Android which is more or less widely available at no obvious cost. Yet there is a huge market for bottled water. I may buy fifty to a hundred cases at a clip, but then I appreciate the quality and convience of Zepherhills Spring Water (charateristics of Apple products) compared to common urban tap water.
I use tap water to flush the toilet but I would never use Zepherhills Spring Water for such a common task.
Both surces of water have their place in life, the free one easily dumped into the sewer and the beter quality costly one which is safer and better tasting which I carry everywhere.
I like the tap water analogy. It's especially cool, as it can be extended even further without breaking down.
Most bottled water is no different in quality from tap water, Source, even though people believe that they're getting 'higher quality' water.
In short, people buy Apple for the same reason that they buy bottled water: The illusion of quality.