I used an HP Jornada 680 for a while. I was sitting at my desk at the campus when some guy passed me and indirectly muttered something to me about it being a such status symbol (in the negative way). My mind did a backflip. All along I thought I was just a geek with an interest in electronic gadgets. But in reality, I must have subconsciously bought this obscure device (how can it be a status symbol if nobody knows what it is?) to tell everyone how much better I am than they are.
Of course, after a several months I dumped the PoS for a Palm Vx. The keyboard was great, but WinCE was horrible, the screen was bad in sunlight, and I learnt that a PDA is easily neglected, and therefore useless, if it doesn't comfortably fit in a pocket.
I'm sure for some apps, having to re-open it is a real pain. But most of the apps I use most of the time are very fast. I'm glad Apple have gone the "no multitasking" route, as it has forced developers to make their applications load quickly. Yeah, for some apps, either due to poor developers or the nature of the app, no multitasking is a serious problem. But I hear there is a solution in the works, and I hope the solution is done in such a way that most apps will still load fast and only the apps that really need multitasking get it. I suspect this is how Apple will implement it.
As for apps crashing, Safari did this once, but that's all for me. And given it is based on OS X, I see no reason why the underlying OS is at fault here, rather than the app itself. And as other people have pointed out, you can turn off auto-correction, and I suspect this is one area that will be improved in iPhone OS 3.0.
Pitty they don't actually compare it to another Palm keyboard. I know what the Treo 600 is like. If I hadn't decided to go with the iPhone, I'd be looking at the Pre and comparing it to the 600.
That doesn't make much sense to me. Why would Apple ever care about DRM if it wasn't part of an agreement with the recording industry? DRM doesn't benefit them in this area. You can rip a CD in iTunes and the files can be easily copied out and imported into any player that supports AAC (or MP3 if you chose to encode them that way). Apple don't care about 3rd party players, they have no need to when people are satisfied with the iTunes and iPod combo. Sure, they don't go out of their way to make it seamless to switch, but that's not the same as trying to prevent people from doing so. You can also import media from other online stores into iTunes as long as it has no DRM and isn't in some proprietary format. If you have evidence that the removal of DRM from music was opposed by Apple, please post it.
It's not really the same content. The normal page simply has too much stuff for a good interface on something as small as a mobile device. Much of the UI is missing, such as the left nav bars and the tabs for article history and discussion. Sure, you could hide the extra stuff with CSS, but on a mobile device, where CPU and bandwidth are bigger issues, that's not a good solution. It's just a case of the right tool for the right job. Some sites are better off making use of CSS for mobile devices and sending the same XHTML, but I don't think this case is one of them.
Let me know when they start censoring based criteria such as political ideas and civil rights.
Besides. All this ignores the fact that this is only temporary. If they continue to do the same after they have their content control system working, then it's something to talk about.
The other option here is that Apple aren't allowed discretion in what passes in their own store. Now if you want to talk about open vs. closed systems, then that's something else, IMHO.
I think this is similar how many people mistake freedom of speech as a right to be heard by whoever you want.
Not all Buddhists think reality is an illusion. Now, if you want to talk about how our perception of reality through our senses and mental constructs can be illusionary... Perhaps that is what you meant, but the wording you used can often be misinterpreted as another school of thought. I agree about the rest of your point, though.
Yes, and change is a lot easier if you have supportive, compassionate friends, rather than disconnected people who don't care if you throw your life away.
Perhaps that worked for you, but it doesn't work for everyone, and it can do more damage than good. This is not insightful advice -- it is almost textbook naive.
OK. So it's censorship. Then is it important? Are whistle-blowers being suppressed, are there controversial political issues here? Because in a store with no parental control, is it really that unexpected to not allow something of possible adult content? Keep in mind that Apple have parental control as a feature of their OS. So obviously anything else they do, they have to consider how it fits in with that.
If we call everything like this censorship, then I think we degrade the term for when it really matters.
I care because I use and develop applications for their platform. If they start making a lot more decisions like that, it'll make my life uncomfortable to the point where I'll look for alternatives.
Well, I guess that's what it comes down to. I don't think Apple will get worse. I think the situation will improve. But that's because I think they have their reasons for doing what they have done, even if it doesn't suit me.
They have made lots of arbitrary decisions like this which are beyond stupid lately...
I think the decisions they've made are not arbitrary, but are simply them deciding how to run their business, and since they have been delivering good products in the past, I trust that they have reasons for their decisions, at least for now. Why do you think that certain decision are arbitrary? Why would such a big company with a focus on making money via quality products make truly arbitrary decisions?
I think much of the restrictions and limitations of the iPhone and the App store are simply because Apple doesn't want to rush things (something I agree with), and limiting functionality and imposing restrictions is a good way to control the situation until everything is sorted out. Just like there was no App store at all to begin with. Just like the first iPhone was missing many features that are there now. Just like the NDA issues when development was opened up to 3rd parties. Just like there was no Exchange before, and how the next version will have CalDAV. Just like the next version of the App store will have a parental control/content ratings system.
Sorry, I keep going over your argument, but it doesn't make sense to me. Apple is not trying to suppress information in the same way some dictator does. They've made a decision to not allow certain content in their stores. Yes, they aren't doing a good job at it, but that's another story. Censorship is not when someone will not allow your product to be included into their exclusive store. Perhaps you could talk about anti-competitive practices, but I still don't see how you can call this real censorship with a strait face. Perhaps it meets a definition of censorship, but it's not the kind I consider as important. I think some people here don't know how to separate out the different aspects of an issue. There are many problems with the iPhone and the App store, but I don't think censorship is one of them.
Now, we can argue about the degree of restriction and classification of content in these cases, but if filtering out possible adult content in a store is censorship, then what is not selling porn to minors? Or do you support that idea? And exactly why is it "moronic, stupid, vile, idiotic, repugnant and pathetic"? Please keep in mind I'm not talking about the results of Apple's implementation, but their decision to do it.
Why would anyone boycott something that is obviously going to be fixed in the next version? This is hardly "shady" or censorship. What Apple are doing is annoying, but lets not blow it out of proportion like people here have done in the past regarding iPhone issues.
You can get the iPhone unsubsidised on Prepay. Then you can get 100MB a month with Broadband Lite for NZD$10 a month on top of however much you spend on Prepay. They just don't make this option obvious on their site, for obvious reasons. 100MB a month is enough for me. I don't actually want to use that much data, but I do want the speed. I'll probably end up spending NZD$15 a month, which is much more reasonable than NZD$40 -- no way would I ever pay that much.
I hardly ever maximise my window. But this is not about what I want, it's about what's the best solution for most people. I have to take into account the audience and many people don't know what they want, especially when it comes to usability. Doesn't work for you? There is a reason I use CSS and keep the HTML as semantic as possible. Ever seen a newspaper? Those sheets are pretty big, yet everything is still laid out in columns. When there is proper support for text columns in CSS, then liquid layouts will become more common, and rightly so.
Once a page I'm interested in reading makes it to the bookmarks, it's less likely to get read compared to if I leave the tab open. Eventually I'll get to it. I have a computer built within the last 2 years, so it can handle many pages being left open without crashing the system, or even hurting the performance at all. What's the problem?
I do actually have ADD, but that's probably besides the point. Often I'm reading about a topic, say neurology on Wikipedia, and I can very easily get more tabs than I can display as I branch off to subtopics or related topics. Eventually there is a peak, where after I slowly start closing many of the tabs down to some key topics. If I take my medication, it often leads to more tabs.
The thing is, though, it often makes sense to design for a maximum width. There are readability issues to consider -- studies have proven this, and the opinion of IT experts who don't know much about design and usability often think that their way is right. Having a column of text 1600px wide is not very readable. If you really want to do that, then you should be able to turn off CSS. If turning off CSS doesn't allow you to do that, then yes, there is a problem, although it may not be the designer's fault. And most, decent web designers stick with web fonts.
They lost out for me. Poor Mac support, lack of innovation in the Treo line, I decided to opt for an iPhone. The Pre was too little, too late. I suspect there are many in a similar position. The Pre does look like it will do well, but I think if they had keep innovating, they could have been much stronger when the iPhone came out.
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I used an HP Jornada 680 for a while. I was sitting at my desk at the campus when some guy passed me and indirectly muttered something to me about it being a such status symbol (in the negative way). My mind did a backflip. All along I thought I was just a geek with an interest in electronic gadgets. But in reality, I must have subconsciously bought this obscure device (how can it be a status symbol if nobody knows what it is?) to tell everyone how much better I am than they are.
Of course, after a several months I dumped the PoS for a Palm Vx. The keyboard was great, but WinCE was horrible, the screen was bad in sunlight, and I learnt that a PDA is easily neglected, and therefore useless, if it doesn't comfortably fit in a pocket.
I'm sure for some apps, having to re-open it is a real pain. But most of the apps I use most of the time are very fast. I'm glad Apple have gone the "no multitasking" route, as it has forced developers to make their applications load quickly. Yeah, for some apps, either due to poor developers or the nature of the app, no multitasking is a serious problem. But I hear there is a solution in the works, and I hope the solution is done in such a way that most apps will still load fast and only the apps that really need multitasking get it. I suspect this is how Apple will implement it.
As for apps crashing, Safari did this once, but that's all for me. And given it is based on OS X, I see no reason why the underlying OS is at fault here, rather than the app itself. And as other people have pointed out, you can turn off auto-correction, and I suspect this is one area that will be improved in iPhone OS 3.0.
I presume you have some surveys or stats to back that up?
Pitty they don't actually compare it to another Palm keyboard. I know what the Treo 600 is like. If I hadn't decided to go with the iPhone, I'd be looking at the Pre and comparing it to the 600.
That doesn't make much sense to me. Why would Apple ever care about DRM if it wasn't part of an agreement with the recording industry? DRM doesn't benefit them in this area. You can rip a CD in iTunes and the files can be easily copied out and imported into any player that supports AAC (or MP3 if you chose to encode them that way). Apple don't care about 3rd party players, they have no need to when people are satisfied with the iTunes and iPod combo. Sure, they don't go out of their way to make it seamless to switch, but that's not the same as trying to prevent people from doing so. You can also import media from other online stores into iTunes as long as it has no DRM and isn't in some proprietary format. If you have evidence that the removal of DRM from music was opposed by Apple, please post it.
It's not really the same content. The normal page simply has too much stuff for a good interface on something as small as a mobile device. Much of the UI is missing, such as the left nav bars and the tabs for article history and discussion. Sure, you could hide the extra stuff with CSS, but on a mobile device, where CPU and bandwidth are bigger issues, that's not a good solution. It's just a case of the right tool for the right job. Some sites are better off making use of CSS for mobile devices and sending the same XHTML, but I don't think this case is one of them.
Let me know when they start censoring based criteria such as political ideas and civil rights.
Besides. All this ignores the fact that this is only temporary. If they continue to do the same after they have their content control system working, then it's something to talk about.
The other option here is that Apple aren't allowed discretion in what passes in their own store. Now if you want to talk about open vs. closed systems, then that's something else, IMHO.
I think this is similar how many people mistake freedom of speech as a right to be heard by whoever you want.
Not all Buddhists think reality is an illusion. Now, if you want to talk about how our perception of reality through our senses and mental constructs can be illusionary... Perhaps that is what you meant, but the wording you used can often be misinterpreted as another school of thought. I agree about the rest of your point, though.
And why can't one take religious seriously and not be a violent extremist, or even a bigot?
Disclaimer: Hitting bottom is a psychological state, not a physical one. You don't need loose all your material possessions to get there.
Strict and caring parents, perhaps. Angry parents might just cause the situation to backfire.
Yes, and change is a lot easier if you have supportive, compassionate friends, rather than disconnected people who don't care if you throw your life away.
The bigger question here is; why don't YOU care?
Perhaps that worked for you, but it doesn't work for everyone, and it can do more damage than good. This is not insightful advice -- it is almost textbook naive.
OK. So it's censorship. Then is it important? Are whistle-blowers being suppressed, are there controversial political issues here? Because in a store with no parental control, is it really that unexpected to not allow something of possible adult content? Keep in mind that Apple have parental control as a feature of their OS. So obviously anything else they do, they have to consider how it fits in with that.
If we call everything like this censorship, then I think we degrade the term for when it really matters.
I care because I use and develop applications for their platform. If they start making a lot more decisions like that, it'll make my life uncomfortable to the point where I'll look for alternatives.
Well, I guess that's what it comes down to. I don't think Apple will get worse. I think the situation will improve. But that's because I think they have their reasons for doing what they have done, even if it doesn't suit me.
They have made lots of arbitrary decisions like this which are beyond stupid lately...
I think the decisions they've made are not arbitrary, but are simply them deciding how to run their business, and since they have been delivering good products in the past, I trust that they have reasons for their decisions, at least for now. Why do you think that certain decision are arbitrary? Why would such a big company with a focus on making money via quality products make truly arbitrary decisions?
I think much of the restrictions and limitations of the iPhone and the App store are simply because Apple doesn't want to rush things (something I agree with), and limiting functionality and imposing restrictions is a good way to control the situation until everything is sorted out. Just like there was no App store at all to begin with. Just like the first iPhone was missing many features that are there now. Just like the NDA issues when development was opened up to 3rd parties. Just like there was no Exchange before, and how the next version will have CalDAV. Just like the next version of the App store will have a parental control/content ratings system.
Sorry, I keep going over your argument, but it doesn't make sense to me. Apple is not trying to suppress information in the same way some dictator does. They've made a decision to not allow certain content in their stores. Yes, they aren't doing a good job at it, but that's another story. Censorship is not when someone will not allow your product to be included into their exclusive store. Perhaps you could talk about anti-competitive practices, but I still don't see how you can call this real censorship with a strait face. Perhaps it meets a definition of censorship, but it's not the kind I consider as important. I think some people here don't know how to separate out the different aspects of an issue. There are many problems with the iPhone and the App store, but I don't think censorship is one of them.
Now, we can argue about the degree of restriction and classification of content in these cases, but if filtering out possible adult content in a store is censorship, then what is not selling porn to minors? Or do you support that idea? And exactly why is it "moronic, stupid, vile, idiotic, repugnant and pathetic"? Please keep in mind I'm not talking about the results of Apple's implementation, but their decision to do it.
Why would anyone boycott something that is obviously going to be fixed in the next version? This is hardly "shady" or censorship. What Apple are doing is annoying, but lets not blow it out of proportion like people here have done in the past regarding iPhone issues.
Yeah, Snow Leopard was really just an excuse for the programmers to sit around doing nothing all year. Slackers...
You can get the iPhone unsubsidised on Prepay. Then you can get 100MB a month with Broadband Lite for NZD$10 a month on top of however much you spend on Prepay. They just don't make this option obvious on their site, for obvious reasons. 100MB a month is enough for me. I don't actually want to use that much data, but I do want the speed. I'll probably end up spending NZD$15 a month, which is much more reasonable than NZD$40 -- no way would I ever pay that much.
I hardly ever maximise my window. But this is not about what I want, it's about what's the best solution for most people. I have to take into account the audience and many people don't know what they want, especially when it comes to usability. Doesn't work for you? There is a reason I use CSS and keep the HTML as semantic as possible. Ever seen a newspaper? Those sheets are pretty big, yet everything is still laid out in columns. When there is proper support for text columns in CSS, then liquid layouts will become more common, and rightly so.
Once a page I'm interested in reading makes it to the bookmarks, it's less likely to get read compared to if I leave the tab open. Eventually I'll get to it. I have a computer built within the last 2 years, so it can handle many pages being left open without crashing the system, or even hurting the performance at all. What's the problem?
I do actually have ADD, but that's probably besides the point. Often I'm reading about a topic, say neurology on Wikipedia, and I can very easily get more tabs than I can display as I branch off to subtopics or related topics. Eventually there is a peak, where after I slowly start closing many of the tabs down to some key topics. If I take my medication, it often leads to more tabs.
The thing is, though, it often makes sense to design for a maximum width. There are readability issues to consider -- studies have proven this, and the opinion of IT experts who don't know much about design and usability often think that their way is right. Having a column of text 1600px wide is not very readable. If you really want to do that, then you should be able to turn off CSS. If turning off CSS doesn't allow you to do that, then yes, there is a problem, although it may not be the designer's fault. And most, decent web designers stick with web fonts.
They lost out for me. Poor Mac support, lack of innovation in the Treo line, I decided to opt for an iPhone. The Pre was too little, too late. I suspect there are many in a similar position. The Pre does look like it will do well, but I think if they had keep innovating, they could have been much stronger when the iPhone came out.