The iPod shuffle must be a joke, else why is Apple laughing all the way to bank, every single day, with a ton of cash.
I'm discussing features, not sales. If you want to go by sales, then I guess you must think Windows is the best OS ever, and IE is the best browser ever, right? And Microsoft are the best software company ever, much better than Apple, as they're laughing all the way to the bank, every single day, with a ton of cash? By your logic, no one can ever criticise a Microsoft product.
Anyhow, your argument is pointless, as Sandisk are also making millions of dollars in profits.
The shuffle is perfect as a nice small shiny, good looking mp3 player for taking to the gym.
And there are far better ones for the same price, or far cheaper ones that fit those requirements. But yes, thank you for confirming that people buy Apple products for reasons of it being "nice", "shiny", "good looking".
And is this really the level that debating technology products has now stooped to on Slashdot? It's "shiny"?
Indeed, and that just shows you how stupid most buyers are, and confirms the idea that people buy Apple because they're expensive, not in spite of it.
Note that the Sansa's SD slot is purely an optional extra - it works fine with the 8GB of internal memory, which is already double what the largest Shuffle offers anyway. Also if this was really true, why are card slots so common for phones and cameras? I find it odd that mp3 players so rarely have them, when surely they're the one device where expandable memory is most useful... (My music collection grows with time. The amount of required space on my camera is constant, because photos get copied to computer or printed; and the only reason I'd need expandable memory on a phone is for playing music anyway.)
Sorry you're quite right, it was 2GB I saw alongside a Sansa at 8GB. And I could have got a whopping 4GB if I'd paid extra for the Shuffle. Apple are sure catching up!
Let me guess - the only thing you do know about any Apple product is that you hate it.
Ah, the classic Apple myth - if someone doesn't use an Apple product, it can only be out of some irrational hatred.
The only Ipod at the low end is the Shuffle, which is a joke. No options other than random play, and only offering 1GB to say the Sandisk Sansa's 8GB (which also has an expandable microSD slot).
You do realise that the vast majority of phones these days do far more than that (i.e., they do Internet, email, web browsing, apps, touch screens and basically all what the Iphone does)? Yet they still get categorised as "feature phones" instead of "smart phones".
Yep, Apple are successful at selling overpriced products to a niche number of people, and making money from that. News at eleven. This is about as relevant as that ridiculous "Apple are the number one PC seller for really expensive PCs" story we had a while back. I bet Amiga do a good profit too.
But the rest of us are more interested in what 95% of the market are buying, not niche players like Apple.
What? Try the likes of the 5800, the N97, as well as large numbers of smartphones that existed long before the Iphone was even thought of.
Now, what smartphone does Apple offer? A phone that can't even multitask or do some things that even feature phones can do? That's not a smartphone.
Your reference is Yet Another Pro-Apple Media story. So the biggest phone manufacturer maintains their market share - why is that a bad thing? And a newcomer increases their tiny market share - well what a surprise. Are they related? No they're not. Why does the article only mention Nokia and Apple, and not Samsung, LG, Motorola or RIM? Apple are a niche player, and do not deserve to be mentioned in that article at all - it's an advert. Spam. So stop spamming us.
Indeed, although even in the smartphone market, Nokia are still at 40% - they are dominant at all levels.
"Smartphone" is ill-defined anyway, and the Iphone doesn't really belong in that category (Apple fans: give me a definition of smartphone that includes the Iphone, but doesn't include most feature phones? It can't even multitask, for god's sake).
If you're a non-elderly male, you're far more likely to be a terrorist (or a criminal in general) than grandmothers. So let's start with strip searching you. Even better - you can go off on your own plane where everyone gets strip searched and shackled, and leave the rest of us in peace, thanks.
Cops do it all the time for local investigations and the FBI does it for interstate crime. Why are we not allowed to do it, or why are some people against doing it, for terrorism?
Citation that people are strip searched just because of their race, please?
Oh don't worry, I'm sure that they'll happily insist extra checks are now done at airports for any flights going into the US. Countres like the US (where I am) happily do whatever the US demands, and gladly take the opportunity to increase their own stupid "security" checks.
I see British Airways already saying they'll be cutting hand luggage allowance (like WTF has that got to do with pants, anyway? And of course I bet they won't be increasing the checked luggage allowance or reducing the excessive charges...)
The RDF grows evermore - even when Apple's product is non-existent, we still have fans claiming that companies are only doing things because Apple allegedly thought of it first!
Wow, so existing products will give Apple's a non-existent product a run for their money! Brilliant! Come on, can we not have a single Slashdot story that doesn't give a free Slashvertisement to Apple - even when they don't have a product out? (Although I suppose we should be lucky we get a story about a non-Apple company at all, here on Appledot.)
Sadly merely pointing this out will get me modded down - moderation simply doesn't work on Apple stories.
Indeed - but then by this reasoning, why is it news in the first place that a possible future version of an existing Apple product might have a 5 MP camera? If MP isn't relevant, this shouldn't be newsworthy in the first place.
Yeah, this is why we have a front page news story for every other technology, for every of their technology products, when there's a rumour that they might have a newer version at some point in the future, possibly.
Oh wait, we don't, unless it's for amusement value - the Iphone is the new Duke Nukem Forever.
I mean, nevermind all the far more popular companies in the phone market, if we really applied your standard of newsworthiness for every kind of techology, it would be flooded. It would, well in your own words, be completely insane.
Apple haters are just infuriated the iPhone remains so popular.
Except it isn't. And we're not haters - we're just one of the 95%+ of the market that use another brand of phone. They do exist, but you wouldn't know it if you only read Slashdot.
Indeed, your mistaken belief of the Iphone's market share demonstrates the problem: you seriously believe that it's one of the most popular phones, because that's all you hear about on Slashdot.
So the answer to the question is: 10 years ago. That basically supports his point.
Anyway, I could understand a bias towards Linux, because Slashdot was traditionally a place for supporting Linux and open source in general. Today though it's an Apple forum. Kind of ironic given that this was once a place to support open systems...
The point being, we get front page news about mere rumour items for the Iphone (even when the news is trivial anyway - what's that you say? Apple might be planning an Iphone 4 after their 3rd Iphone? My, I was thinking they'd come out with the 5th version first - how shocking!), whilst actual full product releases from other phone companies, despite having much higher market share (e.g., Nokia at 40%; LG, Samsung, Motorola, and RIM are also ahead).
the next iPhone, which is, believe it or not, a piece of technology
Right now, it's not a piece of technology, it's a rumour. Products such as the Nokia 5800 however, are, believe it or not, pieces of technology.
Next thing you know, people are going to start posting recipes to cooking websites!
If this was a cooking website, it would be like being full of rumours about what you might be able to make with apples, whilst completely ignoring actual receipes involving any other kind of fruit.
Surely that's true of most jobs - they're not sexy or cool.
How many people would continue doing their jobs for free? Indeed by that measure, judging by the amount of open source software, programming I'd argue is still considered cooler than many other jobs.
Indeed, in fact it's been in Opera for years, and probably the very first version that had "tabs", since they far more sensibly used standard OS features (e.g., MDI on Windows) rather than writing a custom windowing system.
Later on they also added their own custom windowing system ("tabs" rather than MDI or whatever), but I don't see the point. It was probably in response to criticisms that "tabs were better than MDI" from Firefox fans, but that makes no sense to me. Judging by the screenshots it looks like the latest change is doing this with their "tabs", but it seems like a waste of effort to reimplement what they already have.
I started using Opera before Firefox existed - long before it became trendy to switch from IE.
I'm not saying Firefox is a bad browser, but why should I switch over from Opera? Where's the killer feature?
(PS - Opera had tabbed browsing way earlier too, although it didn't use that terminology. And if you want an example of something Firefox still doesn't do, you don't have any flexibility over arranging the tabs, they always have to be full size, where as Opera allows you to resized the tabs, allowing you to view them side. Of course it's not a killer feature, but for heaven's sake, it's 2009 - browsers are mature, and no one browser is going to have a killer feature anymore.)
Slashdot Mirror
The iPod shuffle must be a joke, else why is Apple laughing all the way to bank, every single day, with a ton of cash.
I'm discussing features, not sales. If you want to go by sales, then I guess you must think Windows is the best OS ever, and IE is the best browser ever, right? And Microsoft are the best software company ever, much better than Apple, as they're laughing all the way to the bank, every single day, with a ton of cash? By your logic, no one can ever criticise a Microsoft product.
Anyhow, your argument is pointless, as Sandisk are also making millions of dollars in profits.
The shuffle is perfect as a nice small shiny, good looking mp3 player for taking to the gym.
And there are far better ones for the same price, or far cheaper ones that fit those requirements. But yes, thank you for confirming that people buy Apple products for reasons of it being "nice", "shiny", "good looking".
And is this really the level that debating technology products has now stooped to on Slashdot? It's "shiny"?
Indeed, and that just shows you how stupid most buyers are, and confirms the idea that people buy Apple because they're expensive, not in spite of it.
Note that the Sansa's SD slot is purely an optional extra - it works fine with the 8GB of internal memory, which is already double what the largest Shuffle offers anyway. Also if this was really true, why are card slots so common for phones and cameras? I find it odd that mp3 players so rarely have them, when surely they're the one device where expandable memory is most useful... (My music collection grows with time. The amount of required space on my camera is constant, because photos get copied to computer or printed; and the only reason I'd need expandable memory on a phone is for playing music anyway.)
Sorry you're quite right, it was 2GB I saw alongside a Sansa at 8GB. And I could have got a whopping 4GB if I'd paid extra for the Shuffle. Apple are sure catching up!
Let me guess - the only thing you do know about any Apple product is that you hate it.
Ah, the classic Apple myth - if someone doesn't use an Apple product, it can only be out of some irrational hatred.
The only Ipod at the low end is the Shuffle, which is a joke. No options other than random play, and only offering 1GB to say the Sandisk Sansa's 8GB (which also has an expandable microSD slot).
Apple don't have a smart phone either.
And even on smart phones, Nokia are still at 40%.
They are talk and text phones with WAP browsers.
You do realise that the vast majority of phones these days do far more than that (i.e., they do Internet, email, web browsing, apps, touch screens and basically all what the Iphone does)? Yet they still get categorised as "feature phones" instead of "smart phones".
Indeed - when pigs fly, Apple will be successful.
Yep, Apple are successful at selling overpriced products to a niche number of people, and making money from that. News at eleven. This is about as relevant as that ridiculous "Apple are the number one PC seller for really expensive PCs" story we had a while back. I bet Amiga do a good profit too.
But the rest of us are more interested in what 95% of the market are buying, not niche players like Apple.
What? Try the likes of the 5800, the N97, as well as large numbers of smartphones that existed long before the Iphone was even thought of.
Now, what smartphone does Apple offer? A phone that can't even multitask or do some things that even feature phones can do? That's not a smartphone.
Your reference is Yet Another Pro-Apple Media story. So the biggest phone manufacturer maintains their market share - why is that a bad thing? And a newcomer increases their tiny market share - well what a surprise. Are they related? No they're not. Why does the article only mention Nokia and Apple, and not Samsung, LG, Motorola or RIM? Apple are a niche player, and do not deserve to be mentioned in that article at all - it's an advert. Spam. So stop spamming us.
Indeed, although even in the smartphone market, Nokia are still at 40% - they are dominant at all levels.
"Smartphone" is ill-defined anyway, and the Iphone doesn't really belong in that category (Apple fans: give me a definition of smartphone that includes the Iphone, but doesn't include most feature phones? It can't even multitask, for god's sake).
If you're a non-elderly male, you're far more likely to be a terrorist (or a criminal in general) than grandmothers. So let's start with strip searching you. Even better - you can go off on your own plane where everyone gets strip searched and shackled, and leave the rest of us in peace, thanks.
Cops do it all the time for local investigations and the FBI does it for interstate crime. Why are we not allowed to do it, or why are some people against doing it, for terrorism?
Citation that people are strip searched just because of their race, please?
Well evidently plenty of us think it is important.
And why are you here commenting? Is "people commenting on something I don't care about" really the most important thing in your life?
Oh don't worry, I'm sure that they'll happily insist extra checks are now done at airports for any flights going into the US. Countres like the US (where I am) happily do whatever the US demands, and gladly take the opportunity to increase their own stupid "security" checks.
I see British Airways already saying they'll be cutting hand luggage allowance (like WTF has that got to do with pants, anyway? And of course I bet they won't be increasing the checked luggage allowance or reducing the excessive charges...)
The sad thing is I honestly can't tell if this is real or you're joking anymore...
The RDF grows evermore - even when Apple's product is non-existent, we still have fans claiming that companies are only doing things because Apple allegedly thought of it first!
Wow, so existing products will give Apple's a non-existent product a run for their money! Brilliant! Come on, can we not have a single Slashdot story that doesn't give a free Slashvertisement to Apple - even when they don't have a product out? (Although I suppose we should be lucky we get a story about a non-Apple company at all, here on Appledot.)
Sadly merely pointing this out will get me modded down - moderation simply doesn't work on Apple stories.
Yes, news for nerds. Not rumours for Apple fans...
Indeed - but then by this reasoning, why is it news in the first place that a possible future version of an existing Apple product might have a 5 MP camera? If MP isn't relevant, this shouldn't be newsworthy in the first place.
Yeah, this is why we have a front page news story for every other technology, for every of their technology products, when there's a rumour that they might have a newer version at some point in the future, possibly.
Oh wait, we don't, unless it's for amusement value - the Iphone is the new Duke Nukem Forever.
I mean, nevermind all the far more popular companies in the phone market, if we really applied your standard of newsworthiness for every kind of techology, it would be flooded. It would, well in your own words, be completely insane.
The iPhone is popular
The factual market figures show that Nokia, LG, Samsung, Motorola and RIM are at least as popular. So I'm afraid you need to "get over it".
And tweaking prefs doesn't help with the Iphone Slashvertisements that creep into the mobile section too.
Apple haters are just infuriated the iPhone remains so popular.
Except it isn't. And we're not haters - we're just one of the 95%+ of the market that use another brand of phone. They do exist, but you wouldn't know it if you only read Slashdot.
Indeed, your mistaken belief of the Iphone's market share demonstrates the problem: you seriously believe that it's one of the most popular phones, because that's all you hear about on Slashdot.
So the answer to the question is: 10 years ago. That basically supports his point.
Anyway, I could understand a bias towards Linux, because Slashdot was traditionally a place for supporting Linux and open source in general. Today though it's an Apple forum. Kind of ironic given that this was once a place to support open systems...
The point being, we get front page news about mere rumour items for the Iphone (even when the news is trivial anyway - what's that you say? Apple might be planning an Iphone 4 after their 3rd Iphone? My, I was thinking they'd come out with the 5th version first - how shocking!), whilst actual full product releases from other phone companies, despite having much higher market share (e.g., Nokia at 40%; LG, Samsung, Motorola, and RIM are also ahead).
the next iPhone, which is, believe it or not, a piece of technology
Right now, it's not a piece of technology, it's a rumour. Products such as the Nokia 5800 however, are, believe it or not, pieces of technology.
Next thing you know, people are going to start posting recipes to cooking websites!
If this was a cooking website, it would be like being full of rumours about what you might be able to make with apples, whilst completely ignoring actual receipes involving any other kind of fruit.
...you say, posting on Slashdot.
Surely that's true of most jobs - they're not sexy or cool.
How many people would continue doing their jobs for free? Indeed by that measure, judging by the amount of open source software, programming I'd argue is still considered cooler than many other jobs.
Indeed, in fact it's been in Opera for years, and probably the very first version that had "tabs", since they far more sensibly used standard OS features (e.g., MDI on Windows) rather than writing a custom windowing system.
Later on they also added their own custom windowing system ("tabs" rather than MDI or whatever), but I don't see the point. It was probably in response to criticisms that "tabs were better than MDI" from Firefox fans, but that makes no sense to me. Judging by the screenshots it looks like the latest change is doing this with their "tabs", but it seems like a waste of effort to reimplement what they already have.
I started using Opera before Firefox existed - long before it became trendy to switch from IE.
I'm not saying Firefox is a bad browser, but why should I switch over from Opera? Where's the killer feature?
(PS - Opera had tabbed browsing way earlier too, although it didn't use that terminology. And if you want an example of something Firefox still doesn't do, you don't have any flexibility over arranging the tabs, they always have to be full size, where as Opera allows you to resized the tabs, allowing you to view them side. Of course it's not a killer feature, but for heaven's sake, it's 2009 - browsers are mature, and no one browser is going to have a killer feature anymore.)