I fully agree with the above two posts. It seems to be something particularly specific to Apple - e.g., also people referring to their "MacBook" or indeed "Mac" rather than generic terms like laptop, computer or PC. You can always tell an Iphone user, as they'll get out their phone and make a big thing of "I'm going to check a website On My Iphone" as so on, as if this was some impressive feat (it was impressive in 2001; it became bog standard on any old phone by about 2005). This probably helps lead to the myth that Apple are most popular, as the 95% with Nokias, Motorolas and so on simply don't mention it.
I wonder if these are the same people that hold their phones and beer bottles so everyone else can see the logo.
I'm surprised Apple haven't added a projector, so that the Apple logo can be projected onto a nearby wall, everytime they get out their phone.
It's even more bizarre and annoying when you get these people referring to "Iphone style devices". Yes, if only we had a generic term for the type of device that the Iphone was...
What - a cheque is less convenient and less secure than cash? And what if you don't have enough cash on you, exactly?
And I don't see how going to the bank to wire something is less hassle than simply writing a cheque there and then. Even if you mean online transfer, a cheque is still easier, especially if you don't have Internet access there and then, or you don't have the necessary physical security devices, or password information, or the website is down for maintenance, etc.
Cheques are a pain to receive, but there's yet to be a replacement that works in all situations.
Out of interest, what do you use to transfer money to another person instead? (Especially since with that timespan, it predates widespread Internet access.)
Although useful, and I do often do that myself, it's a long way of replacing cheques in all situations:
What if I want to give someone money when I don't have an Internet connection? (Similarly with a wire - I can't believe that the OP of this thread thinks going into a bank is easier than just writing out a cheque, although maybe these things have different names in the UK to the US?)
Or what if I don't have the security keypad device thing that my bank requires me to use? Or I don't have access to the strong passwords on me at that moment? What if the bank introduces new security measures, and you can't access the website until then (yes, mad as it sounds, Barclays pulled this one on me, when they started requiring the aforementioned keypad device things).
What if the website's "down for maintenance"?
What about liability? In the UK, there have been cases of people paying the wrong person, and it's their fault because they're the ones who typed it in - the recipient legally is entitled to the money. If there's a mistake due to the bank person typing it in wrong, it's harder for them to argue this.
Give me something that satisifies all of those, and I'll throw away my chequebook. Remember that most of the pain for dealing with a cheque is on the recipient - what incentive do I have to take on the issues listed above, if I'm giving someone money? (Of course if someone's able to accept cards, that's fine, but this doesn't work for personal transactions and some small businesses like B&Bs.)
And can you read off the Ipad in standby mode? If not, how is that comparable to an e-reader? And indeed, how is that any different to the long standby life mode of a dirt cheap netbook?
I don't get eye strain as such, but reading large amounts of text - we're talking a book, not Slashdot, code or a few PDFs - is far less enjoyable on an LCD screen. There's also the point about battery life.
But still, if you're happy with LCD, think yourself lucky - you can just use any dirt cheap tablet or netbook as an e-reader.
Indeed. They also have nothing to fear from a device that doesn't even exist yet. The more obvious factor would be netbooks and existing tablets, which have already sold tens of millions, but nonetheless there's still a market for dedicated readers with e-ink displays.
To be honest, it's sad that it's only because of the Ipad hype that he even needed to make that argument. Before, it was well understood the advantages of e-ink devices, and how an LCD wasn't in the same market. Consider how, on Slashdot, everytime there was an article about a "colour e-reader", there'd be no end of comments asking if it was really an e-reader (good display, long battery life). Yet now we have no end of comments claiming how the Ipad will be a wonderful colour e-reader killer, and giving us special pleading that the advantages of e-ink no longer matter.
I agree. And stories like this are worth remembering every time you hear people claiming that Apple "invented" so many new things and that everyone else just copied.
As an aside, I find it curious that this is in the "Apple" category, and not "Mobile", or indeed why not have a "Nokia" category. Nokia have 40% of the mobile market, Apple have, well, not very much at all, but it says it all about Slashdot's coverage these days that they're only interested in what affects Apple.
of course it's socialist; that's why its supporters like it!
Rubbish. I for one support national healthcare, and am not a socialist. But even if it was true, your argument is a logical fallacy - whether something is socialist or not is nothing to do with "why supporters like it".
As for your argument based on the amount being spent - the UK NHS budget around £100 billion ( http://www.hsj.co.uk/5000730.article ). The US military budget is £685 billion ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_budget_of_the_United_States ). Now the US is a factor of 5 times the population, but that still puts the US's military expenditure more than the UK's NHS. So if you think that the UK healthcare is socialist, and your criterion is the extent, then yes, you are claiming that the US military is socialist too.
I don't think that - if we agree on this, then the claim "The left-wing cooks have been trying to spread their socialism" in US schools is nonsense in the first place. And tell that to all the people claiming that national healthcare plans are socialist.
Indeed yes, and even for the point being made - is distributing RC material illegal?
If it is, then they'd just argue that it already counts as "illegal" material anyway. (If it isn't, what's the point of the category?) If by "illegal" they mean "illegal to possess", they should make that distinction clear.
But unlike Microsoft, Apple is happy with a few percent market share.
Although I wonder if MS would be happy with that if the media hyped up their product pretending it was the market leader anyway, as they do for the Iphones.
Making a good product isn't good enough for Microsoft. It has to be an amazing product that is heavily marketed to seriously affect Apple and Google's momentum.
Momentum? But you've just picked the two companies with the smallest market share in mobile phones...
cf the Zune. Every review I have read, is positive. Anybody who has one, generally speaks quite well of it. Yet it still hasn't pulled much market share from the iPod.
How about we cf Windows versus OS X, instead? There's no reason why success in one market will carry over to another, whether it's the Ipod or Windows.
The big wildcard in this though, is Apple and their bad behavior. If Apple pisses off enough developers other platforms benefit. Unfortunately for Microsoft, I suspect Android will be gain more developers than Microsoft. A big part of making an amazing product comes from third parties.
Indeed yes, this probably explains why Nokia (and to a less extent, many other companies) continue to be more successful than Apple.
It's a very expensive phone - of course she thinks it's great. What makes you think that she wouldn't also think similarly of any other very expensive (or even, less costly ones like the 5800) phone from another company?
Yes, you could spend $2000 on the fastest Mac and I'm sure a random person would be thankful. But that has no bearing on how good the product is compared with others. Such anecdotes are worse than useless - they spread misleading ideas about what the product is really like.
Wow, just like my 5800. And my V980 before that, released years before the very first Iphone model.
The iPhone's paradigm has pretty quickly become the standard touch screen phone paradigm since then, yet touch screen phones existed for a long time before Apple decided to make one.
Which "paradigm" are you referring to, exactly? If you mean "pinch", that's not done on the 5800 (nor the N97 AFAIK), and Nokia are 40% of the market (including at the high end), so it's a stretch to call anything standard here. Maybe some companies copied, but so what? Apple copied off of everyone else when they made their Iphones. It's how progress is made.
I think a bigger problem to be sorted out first is that even if a person's opted in, the family then overrule that because they're not comfortable with the idea.
I don't see why it should be hard though. If people want to refuse treatment for themselves, fine. But it doesn't follow that they get to harm their child. Parents don't have absolute control over their children - there are all sorts of rules they have to follow, for everything from child abuse to compulsory education. I don't see why trying to prevent treatment for a child isn't treated as abuse.
Yet strangely, 40% of the market is owned by Nokia, whilst Apple have a few per cent of the market. Do you think that 40% are all engineers? And that the non-engineers who want a phone that "just works" are in a minority?
(If it needs to be jailbroken to get basic functionality working, that's not "just works".)
This article is nothing more than a troll non-story, trying to get yet more free publicity for a niche phone company. Whilst Eating Your Own Dog Food can be a useful process, (a) this isn't always a good thing (compare with the Not Invented Here syndrome), especially as making phones isn't Microsoft's main market; (b) that only really applies to what companies use, and doesn't apply to what employees privately own as personal products.
To use a car analogy, it's about as relevant as saying that Microsoft employees love a particular type of car.
Where are all the stories about all the companies where the employees love Nokia phones? Oh right, I forgot, this is Appledot so we only get coverage for the Iphones.
Where are all the stories about the non-Apple products that Apple employees own?
The irony in all this is that Apple spends less on R&D than Microsoft, yet whether it is through focused R&D or some other factor I feel they seem to capture the magic combination better.
By what measure of "better"? Because by market share, or company revenue, they aren't. If you mean "I think they do it better" - well fine, I think that Nokia make much better phones, and anyone else makes better computers.
Slashdot Mirror
If I wanted to give you money, you're able to accept debit/credit cards? Most people aren't able to do this, at least in the UK.
It's not the USA where cheques are still used - it's the world outside of Slashdot, i.e., people who don't sit at their computers all day long.
I fully agree with the above two posts. It seems to be something particularly specific to Apple - e.g., also people referring to their "MacBook" or indeed "Mac" rather than generic terms like laptop, computer or PC. You can always tell an Iphone user, as they'll get out their phone and make a big thing of "I'm going to check a website On My Iphone" as so on, as if this was some impressive feat (it was impressive in 2001; it became bog standard on any old phone by about 2005). This probably helps lead to the myth that Apple are most popular, as the 95% with Nokias, Motorolas and so on simply don't mention it.
I wonder if these are the same people that hold their phones and beer bottles so everyone else can see the logo.
I'm surprised Apple haven't added a projector, so that the Apple logo can be projected onto a nearby wall, everytime they get out their phone.
It's even more bizarre and annoying when you get these people referring to "Iphone style devices". Yes, if only we had a generic term for the type of device that the Iphone was...
What - a cheque is less convenient and less secure than cash? And what if you don't have enough cash on you, exactly?
And I don't see how going to the bank to wire something is less hassle than simply writing a cheque there and then. Even if you mean online transfer, a cheque is still easier, especially if you don't have Internet access there and then, or you don't have the necessary physical security devices, or password information, or the website is down for maintenance, etc.
Cheques are a pain to receive, but there's yet to be a replacement that works in all situations.
Cheques are a pain to receive, but I'd rather that than everyone switching to Paypal, and being dependent on them.
I used them, until they randomly decided they wouldn't accept my cards anymore, no reason given. They have no means of contact, so that was that.
They behave like a bank and people use them like a bank, but the problem is they're not, AFAIK, subject to the same rules as banks.
when the U.S. could move to a much better system
What system is that? Not Paypal, I hope.
Out of interest, what do you use to transfer money to another person instead? (Especially since with that timespan, it predates widespread Internet access.)
Although useful, and I do often do that myself, it's a long way of replacing cheques in all situations:
What if I want to give someone money when I don't have an Internet connection? (Similarly with a wire - I can't believe that the OP of this thread thinks going into a bank is easier than just writing out a cheque, although maybe these things have different names in the UK to the US?)
Or what if I don't have the security keypad device thing that my bank requires me to use? Or I don't have access to the strong passwords on me at that moment? What if the bank introduces new security measures, and you can't access the website until then (yes, mad as it sounds, Barclays pulled this one on me, when they started requiring the aforementioned keypad device things).
What if the website's "down for maintenance"?
What about liability? In the UK, there have been cases of people paying the wrong person, and it's their fault because they're the ones who typed it in - the recipient legally is entitled to the money. If there's a mistake due to the bank person typing it in wrong, it's harder for them to argue this.
Give me something that satisifies all of those, and I'll throw away my chequebook. Remember that most of the pain for dealing with a cheque is on the recipient - what incentive do I have to take on the issues listed above, if I'm giving someone money? (Of course if someone's able to accept cards, that's fine, but this doesn't work for personal transactions and some small businesses like B&Bs.)
How does one punish the Government?
And can you read off the Ipad in standby mode? If not, how is that comparable to an e-reader? And indeed, how is that any different to the long standby life mode of a dirt cheap netbook?
I don't get eye strain as such, but reading large amounts of text - we're talking a book, not Slashdot, code or a few PDFs - is far less enjoyable on an LCD screen. There's also the point about battery life.
But still, if you're happy with LCD, think yourself lucky - you can just use any dirt cheap tablet or netbook as an e-reader.
Indeed. They also have nothing to fear from a device that doesn't even exist yet. The more obvious factor would be netbooks and existing tablets, which have already sold tens of millions, but nonetheless there's still a market for dedicated readers with e-ink displays.
To be honest, it's sad that it's only because of the Ipad hype that he even needed to make that argument. Before, it was well understood the advantages of e-ink devices, and how an LCD wasn't in the same market. Consider how, on Slashdot, everytime there was an article about a "colour e-reader", there'd be no end of comments asking if it was really an e-reader (good display, long battery life). Yet now we have no end of comments claiming how the Ipad will be a wonderful colour e-reader killer, and giving us special pleading that the advantages of e-ink no longer matter.
I agree. And stories like this are worth remembering every time you hear people claiming that Apple "invented" so many new things and that everyone else just copied.
As an aside, I find it curious that this is in the "Apple" category, and not "Mobile", or indeed why not have a "Nokia" category. Nokia have 40% of the mobile market, Apple have, well, not very much at all, but it says it all about Slashdot's coverage these days that they're only interested in what affects Apple.
of course it's socialist; that's why its supporters like it!
Rubbish. I for one support national healthcare, and am not a socialist. But even if it was true, your argument is a logical fallacy - whether something is socialist or not is nothing to do with "why supporters like it".
As for your argument based on the amount being spent - the UK NHS budget around £100 billion ( http://www.hsj.co.uk/5000730.article ). The US military budget is £685 billion ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_budget_of_the_United_States ). Now the US is a factor of 5 times the population, but that still puts the US's military expenditure more than the UK's NHS. So if you think that the UK healthcare is socialist, and your criterion is the extent, then yes, you are claiming that the US military is socialist too.
Where do you get the one sixth figure from?
I don't think that - if we agree on this, then the claim "The left-wing cooks have been trying to spread their socialism" in US schools is nonsense in the first place. And tell that to all the people claiming that national healthcare plans are socialist.
Indeed yes, and even for the point being made - is distributing RC material illegal?
If it is, then they'd just argue that it already counts as "illegal" material anyway. (If it isn't, what's the point of the category?) If by "illegal" they mean "illegal to possess", they should make that distinction clear.
But unlike Microsoft, Apple is happy with a few percent market share.
Although I wonder if MS would be happy with that if the media hyped up their product pretending it was the market leader anyway, as they do for the Iphones.
Making a good product isn't good enough for Microsoft. It has to be an amazing product that is heavily marketed to seriously affect Apple and Google's momentum.
Momentum? But you've just picked the two companies with the smallest market share in mobile phones...
cf the Zune. Every review I have read, is positive. Anybody who has one, generally speaks quite well of it. Yet it still hasn't pulled much market share from the iPod.
How about we cf Windows versus OS X, instead? There's no reason why success in one market will carry over to another, whether it's the Ipod or Windows.
The big wildcard in this though, is Apple and their bad behavior. If Apple pisses off enough developers other platforms benefit. Unfortunately for Microsoft, I suspect Android will be gain more developers than Microsoft. A big part of making an amazing product comes from third parties.
Indeed yes, this probably explains why Nokia (and to a less extent, many other companies) continue to be more successful than Apple.
It's a very expensive phone - of course she thinks it's great. What makes you think that she wouldn't also think similarly of any other very expensive (or even, less costly ones like the 5800) phone from another company?
Yes, you could spend $2000 on the fastest Mac and I'm sure a random person would be thankful. But that has no bearing on how good the product is compared with others. Such anecdotes are worse than useless - they spread misleading ideas about what the product is really like.
May as well start boasting about your Gordon Gecko phone from the 80's.
From the 80s eh - I bet that phone must be almost as big as an Ipad?
Wow, just like my 5800. And my V980 before that, released years before the very first Iphone model.
The iPhone's paradigm has pretty quickly become the standard touch screen phone paradigm since then, yet touch screen phones existed for a long time before Apple decided to make one.
Which "paradigm" are you referring to, exactly? If you mean "pinch", that's not done on the 5800 (nor the N97 AFAIK), and Nokia are 40% of the market (including at the high end), so it's a stretch to call anything standard here. Maybe some companies copied, but so what? Apple copied off of everyone else when they made their Iphones. It's how progress is made.
I think a bigger problem to be sorted out first is that even if a person's opted in, the family then overrule that because they're not comfortable with the idea.
I don't see why it should be hard though. If people want to refuse treatment for themselves, fine. But it doesn't follow that they get to harm their child. Parents don't have absolute control over their children - there are all sorts of rules they have to follow, for everything from child abuse to compulsory education. I don't see why trying to prevent treatment for a child isn't treated as abuse.
Yet strangely, 40% of the market is owned by Nokia, whilst Apple have a few per cent of the market. Do you think that 40% are all engineers? And that the non-engineers who want a phone that "just works" are in a minority?
(If it needs to be jailbroken to get basic functionality working, that's not "just works".)
This article is nothing more than a troll non-story, trying to get yet more free publicity for a niche phone company. Whilst Eating Your Own Dog Food can be a useful process, (a) this isn't always a good thing (compare with the Not Invented Here syndrome), especially as making phones isn't Microsoft's main market; (b) that only really applies to what companies use, and doesn't apply to what employees privately own as personal products.
To use a car analogy, it's about as relevant as saying that Microsoft employees love a particular type of car.
Where are all the stories about all the companies where the employees love Nokia phones? Oh right, I forgot, this is Appledot so we only get coverage for the Iphones.
Where are all the stories about the non-Apple products that Apple employees own?
The irony in all this is that Apple spends less on R&D than Microsoft, yet whether it is through focused R&D or some other factor I feel they seem to capture the magic combination better.
By what measure of "better"? Because by market share, or company revenue, they aren't. If you mean "I think they do it better" - well fine, I think that Nokia make much better phones, and anyone else makes better computers.
So surely they'd also believe it's wrong to receive such harvested organs, and therefore have no problem with this law?
Because it seems to be a reasonably significant issue in the US (e.g., the attempts to teach Creationism/ID in schools).