>> However after playing with the "toys" a few weeks, we began to set the override button "on" because we do not do the same things at the same time each day.
In trying to dismiss the Nest you've just pointed out exactly why it's better than normal programmable thermostats.
...which is also why there isn't one in my house. "Network-connectable thermostat that I can control from a smartphone and which has a simple UI on top of decent intelligence?" Sure! "Has to phone-home to a company instead of working stand-alone or with a fairly simple piece of software that I can monitor and maintain myself because I'm a competent sysadmin at a company much larger than Nest?" Whoops, this product stays on the store shelf.
The whole point of the Nest is that it is a piece of the smart home automation world without the complexity. If they made it so it had to be tied to a program on your computer, or you had to run your own server it would have been a total flop.
>> This one manages to unleash a metal slug at a speed you can literally out run if you're in shape. I can throw a baseball faster than this thing, and it'll cause more damage too.
Wow, you can run at 140km/h? Why don't you compete in the olympics?
>> You must be somewhat mathematically challenged, because even if you and Apple are right, targeting a subset of 75% of the market is still better than targeting nearly all of 17% of the market.
And yet, 75% of app revenue is from iOS. So as a developer the 75% marketshare means nothing if those people aren't buying apps.
>> That's a false dilemma you've got there. Android includes tools to manage the fragmentation. If you're having to individually target particular handsets, you're doing it wrong.
Hahahahhaha. Clearly you've never developed a serious app for android.
>> I want a generic revolution in smart phones. Android goes part way there, but not far enough.
The iPhone has been all the way there since it was created. Nothing comes from the carrier except the packets and the bill. Problem solved.
>> Phones should be modular. Want to upgrade the phone battery? Or radio? Add a keyboard? Not a problem.
This is nonsense. Upgrade the radio? You have no idea how infeasible that is unless you'd like to return to suitcase phones from the 80s. And you can already add a keyboard, it's called Bluetooth.
No luck needed. JS/HTML5 apps are essentially dead for everything except really simple things. It's no coincidence that Facebook dropped their HTML5 apps completely and replaced them with native. Every developer I've talked to that started with HTML5 for mobile apps has been completely disillusioned by the lack of tools, performance problems, and general buggyness and limitations. It's not a serious way to develop apps unless your app is essentially a repacked website.
Wrong. Qt is perfectly capable of doing the integrated toolbar on Mac. Just because Texworks chose not to do it that way (because they wanted additional flexibility in the toolbars which a unified toolbar doesn't offer) doesn't mean Qt can't do it.
>> The icons look all out of place
Icons are 100% the responsibility of the software creator, not Qt. Clearly you don't understand how software works.
>> There is this company called Amazon - I guess you haven't heard of them...
Oh, you mean that company lost $274 million in Q3, had earnings collapse by 45% in Q4, and is anticipating a big loss in Q1 2013? Not sure that is a model to follow.
Amazon sold lots of Kindles because of the low price that's it. They're bleeding money on that venture hoping to make it up in content sales. That doesn't work for Blackberry.
The new site is terrible. I really tried to use it for a couple weeks but had to go back (iPhone 4).
The new site is significantly slower first of all, which essentially kills it right off the bat. Speed should be your #1 feature. If you can't make it faster on mobile, don't bother with the redesign just tweak the existing layout.
It's also very glitchy as others have pointed out.
- Scrolling down often results in a click.
- After the page loads it jumps to the top again if you scroll down too fast
- transitions are glitchy and slow. Don't use them they don't add anything.
As for the announcement it is just full of fail.
>> We've built this new mobile interface optimized exclusively for your touch smartphones and tablets.
Why? The revolutionary part of the iPhone was that it could handle regular desktop sites and we could do away with WAP. Now we suddenly need a special site again? Just make sure that the layout scales well and you're done for mobile on a site that is purely about content. It's a different story if you're something like an online retailer where people want quick access to a few key functions (search, store locator, inventory, my account, etc).
>> Read comments and stories in a mobile-friendly view (no more squinting!)
Never had to squint on the old site. what's the problem?
>> Most popular stories shown right at the top
If I passed by a story earlier in the day what makes you think I want to see it again?
>> See beautiful achievement badges
I have no words. This is so stupid.
>> Show off your latest Gravatar
Yep, that's why I'm here.
>> We built this app using the latest technologies and frameworks such as Backbone, Zepto, Underscore, Hamstache, Jasmine, and Sass.
So you jumped on the bandwagon of stupidly named frameworks and used all of them because that's the thing to do these days. Surprise surprise, the end result is too heavy.
>> Since there are so many mobile devices and capabilities, we targeted webkit browsers, and Android versions above 2.3.
Sounds like browser support got worse then. Say it like it is.
>> We didn't start sketching the blueprints based on what we thought a mobile experience should be - we asked YOU.
Ah, that's the problem then. Design by committee and it shows.
>> B.S. Due to economies of scale, Apples competitors could always produce the components for cheaper than Apple, assuming they know what they're doing, which apparently they do not.
Uhh.. What? Name one phone, music player, or tablet, that is produced in greater numbers than the iPhone/iPod/iPad. Economies of scale work in Apple's favour here.
So? Some people do the same with physical objects that have far longer return windows. Buy something you only need once, use it, return it. There is always going to be some fraud.
What you could do is only allow someone one return. If they've returned it once, the next time there is no return period (barring major version changes).
>> Because allowing the Skype PtP client on to office computers makes them insecure, and probably uncontrollably violates the Congress firewalls in the process.
Can you provide a link that discusses this in detail? I'd like to know what about Skype is inherently insecure.
Seamless wireless synching across mobile devices and pcs. If you don't have an iPhone you probably don't have a use for it. I do have an iPhone, and it is going to be awesome.
>> The current Skype client for iOS, Android, and Linux sucks. The current OS X client is very poor.
Skype for iOS works great. What do you want? Skype for Linux is a bit clunky, but not bad considering how small that market is and the fragmentation. Same goes for Android (fragmentation making development difficult). The OSX client works great. The 5.x series is essentially up to par with the Windows client.
>> I've always thought Apple has a great marketing machine. But really, their job is made unbelievably easy thanks to all the fanatics.
You've got this backwards. What do you think is more probable? 1. There is a huge base of natural "fanatics" out there, and Apple seems to have scooped most of them up through some magic. 2. Apple makes good products with a primary focus on usability, and many people therefore have grown to like them, some going too far into illogical "everything Apple does is good" land.
Apple is successful and has many devoted fans because their products are top notch. Some people take it too far like with any brand on earth, but that doesn't represent the majority.
No. They're not computers. They're phones. Just because something has a CPU doesn't mean that it should be exactly the same as a computer. It's not like you're losing functionality here. You're just not gaining new features, which is exactly the same as on a computer. I don't expect my 2 year old desktop to play the latest games without a hardware upgrade. So quit your bitching.
I also like to have choices. Currently I have an iPhone4, and love it, but sometimes I still miss functionality on certain sites. Most interesting video sites now support alternate formats, but there is still the occasional one that doesn't. Not the end of the world, but definitely a downside to using Apple products.
However, I do hate the idea of flash, and if Apple's refusal to allow it is what it takes to finally drive the web to never rely on it as the only way to deliver functionality, then that is a good thing. So I'm willing to put up with the inconvenience if it pushes the web towards that goal.
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>> However after playing with the "toys" a few weeks, we began to set the override button "on" because we do not do the same things at the same time each day.
In trying to dismiss the Nest you've just pointed out exactly why it's better than normal programmable thermostats.
...which is also why there isn't one in my house. "Network-connectable thermostat that I can control from a smartphone and which has a simple UI on top of decent intelligence?" Sure! "Has to phone-home to a company instead of working stand-alone or with a fairly simple piece of software that I can monitor and maintain myself because I'm a competent sysadmin at a company much larger than Nest?" Whoops, this product stays on the store shelf.
The whole point of the Nest is that it is a piece of the smart home automation world without the complexity. If they made it so it had to be tied to a program on your computer, or you had to run your own server it would have been a total flop.
>> This one manages to unleash a metal slug at a speed you can literally out run if you're in shape. I can throw a baseball faster than this thing, and it'll cause more damage too.
Wow, you can run at 140km/h? Why don't you compete in the olympics?
>> With the latest quad-core devices having enough power to run Touch-Wiz seamlessly
You know your software is a bloated piece of shit when...
Yes. There are already Qt based apps on the app store.
>> You must be somewhat mathematically challenged, because even if you and Apple are right, targeting a subset of 75% of the market is still better than targeting nearly all of 17% of the market.
And yet, 75% of app revenue is from iOS. So as a developer the 75% marketshare means nothing if those people aren't buying apps.
>> That's a false dilemma you've got there. Android includes tools to manage the fragmentation. If you're having to individually target particular handsets, you're doing it wrong.
Hahahahhaha. Clearly you've never developed a serious app for android.
Huh? Makes perfect sense to me. Maybe the reading comprehension test failed.
>> I want a generic revolution in smart phones. Android goes part way there, but not far enough.
The iPhone has been all the way there since it was created. Nothing comes from the carrier except the packets and the bill. Problem solved.
>> Phones should be modular. Want to upgrade the phone battery? Or radio? Add a keyboard? Not a problem.
This is nonsense. Upgrade the radio? You have no idea how infeasible that is unless you'd like to return to suitcase phones from the 80s.
And you can already add a keyboard, it's called Bluetooth.
>> Good luck fending off the javascript hordes.
No luck needed. JS/HTML5 apps are essentially dead for everything except really simple things. It's no coincidence that Facebook dropped their HTML5 apps completely and replaced them with native. Every developer I've talked to that started with HTML5 for mobile apps has been completely disillusioned by the lack of tools, performance problems, and general buggyness and limitations. It's not a serious way to develop apps unless your app is essentially a repacked website.
>> Qt doesn't do tool bars correctly.
Wrong. Qt is perfectly capable of doing the integrated toolbar on Mac. Just because Texworks chose not to do it that way (because they wanted additional flexibility in the toolbars which a unified toolbar doesn't offer) doesn't mean Qt can't do it.
>> The icons look all out of place
Icons are 100% the responsibility of the software creator, not Qt. Clearly you don't understand how software works.
>> There is this company called Amazon - I guess you haven't heard of them...
Oh, you mean that company lost $274 million in Q3, had earnings collapse by 45% in Q4, and is anticipating a big loss in Q1 2013? Not sure that is a model to follow.
Amazon sold lots of Kindles because of the low price that's it. They're bleeding money on that venture hoping to make it up in content sales. That doesn't work for Blackberry.
It seems this happens when you don't have JS enabled (or adblock enabled). I guess they never heard of a fallback.
The new site is terrible. I really tried to use it for a couple weeks but had to go back (iPhone 4).
The new site is significantly slower first of all, which essentially kills it right off the bat. Speed should be your #1 feature. If you can't make it faster on mobile, don't bother with the redesign just tweak the existing layout.
It's also very glitchy as others have pointed out.
- Scrolling down often results in a click.
- After the page loads it jumps to the top again if you scroll down too fast
- transitions are glitchy and slow. Don't use them they don't add anything.
As for the announcement it is just full of fail.
>> We've built this new mobile interface optimized exclusively for your touch smartphones and tablets.
Why? The revolutionary part of the iPhone was that it could handle regular desktop sites and we could do away with WAP. Now we suddenly need a special site again? Just make sure that the layout scales well and you're done for mobile on a site that is purely about content. It's a different story if you're something like an online retailer where people want quick access to a few key functions (search, store locator, inventory, my account, etc).
>> Read comments and stories in a mobile-friendly view (no more squinting!)
Never had to squint on the old site. what's the problem?
>> Most popular stories shown right at the top
If I passed by a story earlier in the day what makes you think I want to see it again?
>> See beautiful achievement badges
I have no words. This is so stupid.
>> Show off your latest Gravatar
Yep, that's why I'm here.
>> We built this app using the latest technologies and frameworks such as Backbone, Zepto, Underscore, Hamstache, Jasmine, and Sass.
So you jumped on the bandwagon of stupidly named frameworks and used all of them because that's the thing to do these days. Surprise surprise, the end result is too heavy.
>> Since there are so many mobile devices and capabilities, we targeted webkit browsers, and Android versions above 2.3.
Sounds like browser support got worse then. Say it like it is.
>> We didn't start sketching the blueprints based on what we thought a mobile experience should be - we asked YOU.
Ah, that's the problem then. Design by committee and it shows.
>> A more apt comparison might be that I just bought a Samsung Galaxy S 3 for 50$ (plus 3yr contract of course)
So you spent at least $550 on the phone + 60 for the storage. So your total is $610 for a device with 80GB of storage. Not exactly cheap either.
And why are you comparing a phone with a tablet with an ultrabook?
>> B.S. Due to economies of scale, Apples competitors could always produce the components for cheaper than Apple, assuming they know what they're doing, which apparently they do not.
Uhh.. What? Name one phone, music player, or tablet, that is produced in greater numbers than the iPhone/iPod/iPad. Economies of scale work in Apple's favour here.
>> In many ways the iPod is the wallmart player, it shows the power of bulk purchasing and putting it in a saleable package but little else.
Usability. It's the feature that tech people don't think is a feature.
So? Some people do the same with physical objects that have far longer return windows. Buy something you only need once, use it, return it. There is always going to be some fraud.
What you could do is only allow someone one return. If they've returned it once, the next time there is no return period (barring major version changes).
>> Because allowing the Skype PtP client on to office computers makes them insecure, and probably uncontrollably violates the Congress firewalls in the process.
Can you provide a link that discusses this in detail? I'd like to know what about Skype is inherently insecure.
Seamless wireless synching across mobile devices and pcs. If you don't have an iPhone you probably don't have a use for it.
I do have an iPhone, and it is going to be awesome.
And they still don't have Skype video that works properly.
>> The current Skype client for iOS, Android, and Linux sucks. The current OS X client is very poor.
Skype for iOS works great. What do you want? Skype for Linux is a bit clunky, but not bad considering how small that market is and the fragmentation. Same goes for Android (fragmentation making development difficult).
The OSX client works great. The 5.x series is essentially up to par with the Windows client.
>> I've always thought Apple has a great marketing machine. But really, their job is made unbelievably easy thanks to all the fanatics.
You've got this backwards. What do you think is more probable?
1. There is a huge base of natural "fanatics" out there, and Apple seems to have scooped most of them up through some magic.
2. Apple makes good products with a primary focus on usability, and many people therefore have grown to like them, some going too far into illogical "everything Apple does is good" land.
Apple is successful and has many devoted fans because their products are top notch. Some people take it too far like with any brand on earth, but that doesn't represent the majority.
No. They're not computers. They're phones. Just because something has a CPU doesn't mean that it should be exactly the same as a computer. It's not like you're losing functionality here. You're just not gaining new features, which is exactly the same as on a computer. I don't expect my 2 year old desktop to play the latest games without a hardware upgrade. So quit your bitching.
I also like to have choices. Currently I have an iPhone4, and love it, but sometimes I still miss functionality on certain sites. Most interesting video sites now support alternate formats, but there is still the occasional one that doesn't. Not the end of the world, but definitely a downside to using Apple products.
However, I do hate the idea of flash, and if Apple's refusal to allow it is what it takes to finally drive the web to never rely on it as the only way to deliver functionality, then that is a good thing. So I'm willing to put up with the inconvenience if it pushes the web towards that goal.