Stop complaining. The current Powerbooks have 64MB and 128MB VRAM, while the iBook hasn't had a VRAM upgrade in 3 years !! (6 upgrades) The iBook is still stuck at 32MB which is quite unaccepatable for a consumer laptop which quite a lot of people are going to use to play video games. Currently all video intensive video games require either 32MB VRAM or more, and this doesn't even take into account the games for the next 2 years.
Some SPAM should be considered free speech (e.g. spamming children with porn or viagra ads/images should be illegal), BUT using MY bandwidth and space on MY email server should be considered unlawful tresspass and should have fines and/or jail time associated with it.
BTW. I hate SPAM, but I'd rather have a world where I have to deal with SPAM and am allowed free speech, rather than one where everything is censored by some government/corporate entity.
The thing is that we (Canadians) feel a lot safer than the average American because the World has a better opinion of our country, our foreign policy and we have a system of government that's less prone to corruption (RIAA-/MPAA-/3-letter agencies/etc. bought politicians). Unlike the average American we prefer our privacy, annonymity, and the highly unlikely risk of a "terrorist attack", rather than have the ILLUSION of safety.
Just because we (Canadians) have a minority government that is troubled with a scandal doesn't mean that we should let our guard down. If it fails now (which it most likely will), doesn't mean that they won't try to create a similar or possibly worse bill later one.
"One should not allow even a drop of civil rights or human rights to be sacrificed... every bit you lose, the oppressor gains." Sivaram Velauthapillai
It's hard to argue that the iMac is "well priced" when I can get a 3Ghz machine with 1GB of RAM and an LCD for the same price.
Very true! Especially to people who don't care about how the OS works, how the machine looks, how QUIET it is and how many features it has (Firewire, USB 2.0, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, 802.11g, DVD+_RW DL, digital monitor connection, SATA, Gigabit ethernet, built in camera and remote). People who only shop for a computer based on cost or on its ability to run MS Word, play MP3s and surf the net are never going to be convinced that Apple computers are worth the slight increase in cost.
What really annoys me about some BIY PC owners is that they don't consider the warranty of the machine, the superior OS (Mac OS X), the lack of searching for/fighting with drivers, noise level, power consumption, astetics and sometimes feature sets, when they claim that their BIY PC cost them up to a couple hundred less than a Mac.
This law should apply only to businesses and governmental agencies because they have OUR personal information and quite a few don't care or don't know that it's vulnerable. If I, Average Joe, want to allow my neighbor to access my internet connection or copy my personal files because I didn't secure my WAP then that should be perfectly legal (barring the fact that it might be against my ISP AUP). But because businesses and the government are entrusted with the public's personal information, shopping details, etc. they should be fined if they can't keep that info secure. Especially if they can't even be bothered to turn on WEP.
you should subtract value from the iMac for not having PCI/graphics slots, only one memory slot, no DVI port, no serial ata ports, non-replaceable optical drive, and non-replaceablemonitor.
Why do you need extra PCI/graphics slots? The iMac has a quite good video card, USB 2.0, Firewire, Gigabit Ethernet, a nice sound card with DIGITAL in/out. What other PCI card do you need?
Why do you need 4 or more memory slots? So you can mix and match your memory?
The iMac doesn't need DVI output because it has a direct DIGITAL connection to the LCD display. Compare that to most LCD panels which DON'T have DVI input. (Barely any video cards support 2 or more DVI outputs.) Plus the iMac has VGA output for mirroring or spanning (with a firmware hack) and there is an optional adapter available for RCA/S-Video output.
The internal harddrive is Serial-ATA. A computer shouldn't have more than one internal harddrive. (With current HD sizes too much data can be lost if a HD fails). The iMac has USB 2.0 and Firewire through which one can connect external HDs.
Why would you need to replace a DVD+_RW DL drive? It's top of the line right now for features and at 8x its quite fast enough. BluRay and HD-DVD aren't going to be available for at least a year and you CAN replace the DVD drive in an iMac.
I'll grant you the fact that the LCD display isn't user servicable. The standard one year warranty will usually weed out most hardware defects and you can purchase an additional 2 years warranty.
Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 is $115 at NewEgg (non-sale price about $120). XP Home is $92. Apple doesn't give it's buyers a choice in OSs.
The difference between Windows XP Media Center and Windows XP Home is that XP Home is a CRIPPLED version of Windows in comparison. Mac OS X on the new iMacs ships with Front Row ("Media Center like program") without charging you any extra costs.
Microsoft Works Suite is $70 at NewEgg. It's $46 at Vio Software. MS Works Suite is Works plus MS Word, Money, Digital Image, Encarta, and Streets & Trips.
But can all those programs work together seamlessly AND were they designed with ease of use as the primary objective?
When comparing Macs and PCs remember that Apple provides the best Customer Support and Service in the industry for a few years running (according to Consumer Reports). They also assemble the computers themselves (at the factory) so you don't have to waste time and money (fried components) doing it yourself. The software integrates with the hardware a lot better than Windows or Linux does with a computer because it was written by the same company that builds the computer. The reason why people buy Macs instead of assembling a PC themselves is because they value their time, want a good warranty, apprieciate the design of Macs and prefer Mac OS X to Windows or Linux.
Students who participate in extracurricular activities that require higher standards of conduct, such as cheerleading, band, and athletics, may face consequences for publishing inappropriate web photos or information that identify their role in the school.
Higher standard of conduct my a$$. The students who were on teams, clubs and other groups including student council were give leway and quite frequently behaved worse than students who weren't in any teams, clubs, etc. Almost none of them behaved in ways that would get them suspended or expeled, but they were more arrogant, anoying and pretended to be superior.
So according to this "I" (I actually don't go to this high school or any for that matter - graduated) could face consequences for creating a web site which has photos and identifies that I am on some team, club or what I've accomplished at the school. Give me a break!
If you start asking people that don't know much about IT or IT Security they tend become wary and usually assume that you're trying to "hack" it and either won't give you info or will try to hand you over to the authorities to "stop you from commiting any more crimes". Some IT people have this much paranoia and lack of understanding as well. Not many people know that almost no one is out to get them or their network/computer(s).
Another way the other studios could identify where a copy came from would be to randomly position the black/white scenes in the screeners and have a database of who has what sequence of black/white scenes.
Of course a dedicated "pirate" would try to stitch 2 or 3 such screeners together but getting their hands on 2 or 3 would be quite a bit harder. Plus, the studio could make it so that the b/w sequences overlap quite a bit. If they got a mathematician to work out the spacing of the b/w sequences they could possibly make it so that even if a pirate had 3 or 4 different screeners, the studio could still idenitify the particular screeners that were ripped.
If you have anything to do with DVD/VHS creation and intend to use this idea/scheme you acknowledge that this IS my idea and hence MY copyright. If you still want to use it, you agree to donate half of the proceeds from any SciFi movie to the advancement of science and space exploration.
You don't have to re-buy all your apps. I don't remember which one but I believe Adobe will give you Mac OS X cds of the same version of software if you send in your Windows version cds. A few companies will also allow you to cross upgrade.
eg. You have version 8.0 for Win. You'll be able to buy the upgrade version 9.0 for Mac legally.
The only reasons to stay with Windows are as follows:
- You prefer Windows or aren't willing to change to another platform.
- You prefer playing games on Windows to playing games on a console or you play games that aren't available on Mac or a console (Almost all of the popular games are now ported within a year to Mac or released at the same time as the Windows version)
- You use a program that uses lots of RAM/CPU (programs that don't require large amounts of RAM/CPU power can be run under Virtual PC) and is only available for Windows. (AutoCAD, Soundforge, etc.)
- You program for the Windows platform and either use Windows specific APIs or you aren't willing or don't have enough time/money/manpower/knowlegde to write cross-platform software.
- You prefer to upgrade your system instead of replacing it with another. The reasons for this might be sentimental, monetary or educational.
When you're comparing Windows PCs to Macs make sure that you take the following into consideration:
- Apple supports both the hardware and the software so if there's a problem between the two a fix will be issued relatively quickly.
- Macs have a longer lifespan and are worth more in resale than Windows PCs.
- With Windows you're more likely to play phone tag between Microsoft and the software or hardware vendor.
- Macs are build with future use in mind. How many PC models have Firewire, USB 2.0, Bluetooth 2.0 EDR, DVD+_RW DL, SATA HDs, DVI output, 802.11g Wifi built in? Granted you might not use all of those but with PCs each extra component costs anywhere from $20 to $100. If you consider this than you'll realize why people claim that Macs are more expensive, even though most of them aren't doing price comparisons based on computer components.
- Because the software on Macs is written by the same company that designs the hardware, there's almost no chance that you'll have problems finding drivers for parts.
- Mac OS X is designed with ease-of-use in mind so the learning curve for going from any OS to Macs is smaller that any other OS change.
- Apple has the best customer service and satisfaction a couple of years running. (The statistics are compiled by indepentent third-parties like Consumer Reports.)
- Macs are designed to be pleasant to look at, QUIET and have lower power consumption.
- GHz to GHz comparisons mean nothing because the CPU architecture is different. Software optimization and not running every available program and process at once will allow even older computers to function normally. (I have a PIII 500MHz which functions well enough to browse the Internet, do word processing, file downloading/serving, play music and video [without frame dropping]. The only thing it can't do is play DVDs correctly because it doesn't have a MPEG2 hardware decoder and software decoding requires at least 600 MHz.)
The U.S. should foot the bill not for all the pollution, but for a major part of it because a large percentage of the products that are creating the pollution in China, Taiwan, etc. are sold to the U.S.. U.S. consumers aren't willing to produce these products in their own country because they would cost atleast twice as much and would pollute the U.S.. Hopefully the U.S. will lose it's scientific advantage (I believe it already has) and financial advantage (China is catching up) and will be forced to stop buying as many things from poorer countries and start creating their own.
The U.S. as a country needs a collective kick in the ass to learn that they can't treat the rest of the world as their cheap labour and as if they were inferior. Otherwise sooner or later (probably within the next 10-25 years) they will be surpassed and then we'll see how the rest of the world feels like treating the U.S..
BTW the retoric about the U.S. being "the leader of the free world" is pure bullshit. A leader of the Free World wouldn't invade/disrupt other countries/governments just because they don't like their political ideology or the price of a certain natural resource.
He was referring to the theoretical situation where Iran created the Internet and the US wouldn't trust Iran (in his parent's post).
I agree with him that the EU should create their own root DNS servers and have weekly or monthly inspections of any changes that the US root DNS servers or others sent to them. This way if the US becomes a police state and starts destroying the Internet, they (the EU) can block the destructive changes for everyone under their juristiction.
The question is do you want Scientists in another country having access to your country's research?
The reason that the U.S.S.R. developed the atomic bomb within a year of the U.S. was because Oppenheimer decided that to suceed (and relatively quickly) with the project open collaboration was a must. The Soviets stole the research and created their own weapon.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm all for open collaboration and people doing things and research for all of humanity. But, most countries are greedy paranoid bastards who will not allow out-sourcing valuable research to foreign Scientists.
Works on Mac OS X (10.4.2) with Safari. Runs in the video in full-screen mode with a wide-screen movie. The resolution on High looks to be about 300-400 across so it looks barely better than a VCD-rip of a DVD.
I applaud them for trying and succeding in convincing another person to see it before it comes out on DVD.
Now that Google has Google Maps out of beta, is buying up dark fiber, and is creating free Wifi in San Francisco, Google should team up with one of the Pocket PC/Palm companies (or one of the MP3 manufacturers) and release a handheld PDA that has Wifi (802.11b NOT g - no need for g), Bluetooth (where there is no Wifi, but you have a phone), and a screen the size of current PDAs. The main app should be Google Maps with support for Street, Satellite and Overlay modes. The secondary app should be a mail viewer with access to GMail. It should also have other small, typical PDA apps like a calculator w/ tip calculation, calendar, notes, etc. Sell this in two versions a B/W (~ $200 US) and a Color (~ $300 US) one.
The key things they would have to consider when making a device such as this are as follows:
- don't try to make it a cell phone, MP3 player or another PDA!!
- don't sell the color version for more than $350 US
- make sure the battery lasts for at least 4 hours in use (over 3 days on standby)
- allow people to add waypoints which would be sent to your GMail account and possibly other GMail users.
- come out with a GPS add-on for no more than $100 US that increases the depth of the device a bit and has a GPS antenna that sticks out the top of the device.
- for the GPS add-on have the map be able to follow/center on the current GPS position of the device.
- possibly make the device not have a touch screen (only a joypad, a few buttons and a scrool wheel for alphanumeric input)
- possibly add a SD/MMC or a CompactFlash slot. (Allow maps to be cached to this card with more used maps.)
I sure as hell would buy one and so would a lot of other people.
Slashdot Mirror
Stop complaining. The current Powerbooks have 64MB and 128MB VRAM, while the iBook hasn't had a VRAM upgrade in 3 years !! (6 upgrades) The iBook is still stuck at 32MB which is quite unaccepatable for a consumer laptop which quite a lot of people are going to use to play video games. Currently all video intensive video games require either 32MB VRAM or more, and this doesn't even take into account the games for the next 2 years.
Some SPAM should be considered free speech (e.g. spamming children with porn or viagra ads/images should be illegal), BUT using MY bandwidth and space on MY email server should be considered unlawful tresspass and should have fines and/or jail time associated with it.
BTW. I hate SPAM, but I'd rather have a world where I have to deal with SPAM and am allowed free speech, rather than one where everything is censored by some government/corporate entity.
The thing is that we (Canadians) feel a lot safer than the average American because the World has a better opinion of our country, our foreign policy and we have a system of government that's less prone to corruption (RIAA-/MPAA-/3-letter agencies/etc. bought politicians). Unlike the average American we prefer our privacy, annonymity, and the highly unlikely risk of a "terrorist attack", rather than have the ILLUSION of safety.
Just because we (Canadians) have a minority government that is troubled with a scandal doesn't mean that we should let our guard down. If it fails now (which it most likely will), doesn't mean that they won't try to create a similar or possibly worse bill later one.
... every bit you lose, the oppressor gains." Sivaram Velauthapillai
"One should not allow even a drop of civil rights or human rights to be sacrificed
It's hard to argue that the iMac is "well priced" when I can get a 3Ghz machine with 1GB of RAM and an LCD for the same price.
Very true! Especially to people who don't care about how the OS works, how the machine looks, how QUIET it is and how many features it has (Firewire, USB 2.0, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, 802.11g, DVD+_RW DL, digital monitor connection, SATA, Gigabit ethernet, built in camera and remote). People who only shop for a computer based on cost or on its ability to run MS Word, play MP3s and surf the net are never going to be convinced that Apple computers are worth the slight increase in cost.
What really annoys me about some BIY PC owners is that they don't consider the warranty of the machine, the superior OS (Mac OS X), the lack of searching for/fighting with drivers, noise level, power consumption, astetics and sometimes feature sets, when they claim that their BIY PC cost them up to a couple hundred less than a Mac.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/3214/02.ht ml The researchers at one of the Universities used rockets to cause lightning to strike an area repeatedly during cloudy weather.
You're welcome. God P.S. Johnny I know that was you, don't try to hide from me.
This law should apply only to businesses and governmental agencies because they have OUR personal information and quite a few don't care or don't know that it's vulnerable. If I, Average Joe, want to allow my neighbor to access my internet connection or copy my personal files because I didn't secure my WAP then that should be perfectly legal (barring the fact that it might be against my ISP AUP). But because businesses and the government are entrusted with the public's personal information, shopping details, etc. they should be fined if they can't keep that info secure. Especially if they can't even be bothered to turn on WEP.
you should subtract value from the iMac for not having PCI/graphics slots, only one memory slot, no DVI port, no serial ata ports, non-replaceable optical drive, and non-replaceablemonitor.
Why do you need extra PCI/graphics slots? The iMac has a quite good video card, USB 2.0, Firewire, Gigabit Ethernet, a nice sound card with DIGITAL in/out. What other PCI card do you need?
Why do you need 4 or more memory slots? So you can mix and match your memory?
The iMac doesn't need DVI output because it has a direct DIGITAL connection to the LCD display. Compare that to most LCD panels which DON'T have DVI input. (Barely any video cards support 2 or more DVI outputs.) Plus the iMac has VGA output for mirroring or spanning (with a firmware hack) and there is an optional adapter available for RCA/S-Video output.
The internal harddrive is Serial-ATA. A computer shouldn't have more than one internal harddrive. (With current HD sizes too much data can be lost if a HD fails). The iMac has USB 2.0 and Firewire through which one can connect external HDs.
Why would you need to replace a DVD+_RW DL drive? It's top of the line right now for features and at 8x its quite fast enough. BluRay and HD-DVD aren't going to be available for at least a year and you CAN replace the DVD drive in an iMac.
I'll grant you the fact that the LCD display isn't user servicable. The standard one year warranty will usually weed out most hardware defects and you can purchase an additional 2 years warranty.
Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 is $115 at NewEgg (non-sale price about $120). XP Home is $92. Apple doesn't give it's buyers a choice in OSs.
The difference between Windows XP Media Center and Windows XP Home is that XP Home is a CRIPPLED version of Windows in comparison. Mac OS X on the new iMacs ships with Front Row ("Media Center like program") without charging you any extra costs.
Microsoft Works Suite is $70 at NewEgg. It's $46 at Vio Software. MS Works Suite is Works plus MS Word, Money, Digital Image, Encarta, and Streets & Trips.
But can all those programs work together seamlessly AND were they designed with ease of use as the primary objective?
When comparing Macs and PCs remember that Apple provides the best Customer Support and Service in the industry for a few years running (according to Consumer Reports). They also assemble the computers themselves (at the factory) so you don't have to waste time and money (fried components) doing it yourself. The software integrates with the hardware a lot better than Windows or Linux does with a computer because it was written by the same company that builds the computer. The reason why people buy Macs instead of assembling a PC themselves is because they value their time, want a good warranty, apprieciate the design of Macs and prefer Mac OS X to Windows or Linux.
I guess greed and money eventually will corrupt any legal system.
More like:
I guess greed and money corrupt any legal system.
Actually the only reason we don't see evil.google.com is because its still in ALPHA.
Students who participate in extracurricular activities that require higher standards of conduct, such as cheerleading, band, and athletics, may face consequences for publishing inappropriate web photos or information that identify their role in the school.
Higher standard of conduct my a$$. The students who were on teams, clubs and other groups including student council were give leway and quite frequently behaved worse than students who weren't in any teams, clubs, etc. Almost none of them behaved in ways that would get them suspended or expeled, but they were more arrogant, anoying and pretended to be superior.
So according to this "I" (I actually don't go to this high school or any for that matter - graduated) could face consequences for creating a web site which has photos and identifies that I am on some team, club or what I've accomplished at the school. Give me a break!
If you start asking people that don't know much about IT or IT Security they tend become wary and usually assume that you're trying to "hack" it and either won't give you info or will try to hand you over to the authorities to "stop you from commiting any more crimes". Some IT people have this much paranoia and lack of understanding as well. Not many people know that almost no one is out to get them or their network/computer(s).
Another way the other studios could identify where a copy came from would be to randomly position the black/white scenes in the screeners and have a database of who has what sequence of black/white scenes.
Of course a dedicated "pirate" would try to stitch 2 or 3 such screeners together but getting their hands on 2 or 3 would be quite a bit harder. Plus, the studio could make it so that the b/w sequences overlap quite a bit. If they got a mathematician to work out the spacing of the b/w sequences they could possibly make it so that even if a pirate had 3 or 4 different screeners, the studio could still idenitify the particular screeners that were ripped.
If you have anything to do with DVD/VHS creation and intend to use this idea/scheme you acknowledge that this IS my idea and hence MY copyright. If you still want to use it, you agree to donate half of the proceeds from any SciFi movie to the advancement of science and space exploration.
You keep telling yourself that and you'll still believe its true even when everyone will know different.
You the tax payer get what you always get.
SCREWED!!
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/10/2 2/047249&tid=14
There is no country called CANADA. It's USA Jr.
BTW I'm Canadian and dislike how much culture (or lack thereof)/food (fast food)/entertainment the US imports to Canada.
The U.S.S.R. was the biggest country in the world, but Canada became the biggest when the Soviet republic collapsed.
You don't have to re-buy all your apps. I don't remember which one but I believe Adobe will give you Mac OS X cds of the same version of software if you send in your Windows version cds. A few companies will also allow you to cross upgrade.
eg. You have version 8.0 for Win. You'll be able to buy the upgrade version 9.0 for Mac legally.
The only reasons to stay with Windows are as follows:
- You prefer Windows or aren't willing to change to another platform.
- You prefer playing games on Windows to playing games on a console or you play games that aren't available on Mac or a console (Almost all of the popular games are now ported within a year to Mac or released at the same time as the Windows version)
- You use a program that uses lots of RAM/CPU (programs that don't require large amounts of RAM/CPU power can be run under Virtual PC) and is only available for Windows. (AutoCAD, Soundforge, etc.)
- You program for the Windows platform and either use Windows specific APIs or you aren't willing or don't have enough time/money/manpower/knowlegde to write cross-platform software.
- You prefer to upgrade your system instead of replacing it with another. The reasons for this might be sentimental, monetary or educational.
When you're comparing Windows PCs to Macs make sure that you take the following into consideration:
- Apple supports both the hardware and the software so if there's a problem between the two a fix will be issued relatively quickly.
- Macs have a longer lifespan and are worth more in resale than Windows PCs.
- With Windows you're more likely to play phone tag between Microsoft and the software or hardware vendor.
- Macs are build with future use in mind. How many PC models have Firewire, USB 2.0, Bluetooth 2.0 EDR, DVD+_RW DL, SATA HDs, DVI output, 802.11g Wifi built in? Granted you might not use all of those but with PCs each extra component costs anywhere from $20 to $100. If you consider this than you'll realize why people claim that Macs are more expensive, even though most of them aren't doing price comparisons based on computer components.
- Because the software on Macs is written by the same company that designs the hardware, there's almost no chance that you'll have problems finding drivers for parts.
- Mac OS X is designed with ease-of-use in mind so the learning curve for going from any OS to Macs is smaller that any other OS change.
- Apple has the best customer service and satisfaction a couple of years running. (The statistics are compiled by indepentent third-parties like Consumer Reports.)
- Macs are designed to be pleasant to look at, QUIET and have lower power consumption.
- GHz to GHz comparisons mean nothing because the CPU architecture is different. Software optimization and not running every available program and process at once will allow even older computers to function normally. (I have a PIII 500MHz which functions well enough to browse the Internet, do word processing, file downloading/serving, play music and video [without frame dropping]. The only thing it can't do is play DVDs correctly because it doesn't have a MPEG2 hardware decoder and software decoding requires at least 600 MHz.)
The U.S. should foot the bill not for all the pollution, but for a major part of it because a large percentage of the products that are creating the pollution in China, Taiwan, etc. are sold to the U.S.. U.S. consumers aren't willing to produce these products in their own country because they would cost atleast twice as much and would pollute the U.S.. Hopefully the U.S. will lose it's scientific advantage (I believe it already has) and financial advantage (China is catching up) and will be forced to stop buying as many things from poorer countries and start creating their own.
The U.S. as a country needs a collective kick in the ass to learn that they can't treat the rest of the world as their cheap labour and as if they were inferior. Otherwise sooner or later (probably within the next 10-25 years) they will be surpassed and then we'll see how the rest of the world feels like treating the U.S..
BTW the retoric about the U.S. being "the leader of the free world" is pure bullshit. A leader of the Free World wouldn't invade/disrupt other countries/governments just because they don't like their political ideology or the price of a certain natural resource.
He was referring to the theoretical situation where Iran created the Internet and the US wouldn't trust Iran (in his parent's post).
I agree with him that the EU should create their own root DNS servers and have weekly or monthly inspections of any changes that the US root DNS servers or others sent to them. This way if the US becomes a police state and starts destroying the Internet, they (the EU) can block the destructive changes for everyone under their juristiction.
The question is do you want Scientists in another country having access to your country's research?
The reason that the U.S.S.R. developed the atomic bomb within a year of the U.S. was because Oppenheimer decided that to suceed (and relatively quickly) with the project open collaboration was a must. The Soviets stole the research and created their own weapon.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm all for open collaboration and people doing things and research for all of humanity. But, most countries are greedy paranoid bastards who will not allow out-sourcing valuable research to foreign Scientists.
Works on Mac OS X (10.4.2) with Safari. Runs in the video in full-screen mode with a wide-screen movie. The resolution on High looks to be about 300-400 across so it looks barely better than a VCD-rip of a DVD.
I applaud them for trying and succeding in convincing another person to see it before it comes out on DVD.
Now that Google has Google Maps out of beta, is buying up dark fiber, and is creating free Wifi in San Francisco, Google should team up with one of the Pocket PC/Palm companies (or one of the MP3 manufacturers) and release a handheld PDA that has Wifi (802.11b NOT g - no need for g), Bluetooth (where there is no Wifi, but you have a phone), and a screen the size of current PDAs. The main app should be Google Maps with support for Street, Satellite and Overlay modes. The secondary app should be a mail viewer with access to GMail. It should also have other small, typical PDA apps like a calculator w/ tip calculation, calendar, notes, etc. Sell this in two versions a B/W (~ $200 US) and a Color (~ $300 US) one.
.)
The key things they would have to consider when making a device such as this are as follows:
- don't try to make it a cell phone, MP3 player or another PDA!!
- don't sell the color version for more than $350 US
- make sure the battery lasts for at least 4 hours in use (over 3 days on standby)
- allow people to add waypoints which would be sent to your GMail account and possibly other GMail users.
- come out with a GPS add-on for no more than $100 US that increases the depth of the device a bit and has a GPS antenna that sticks out the top of the device.
- for the GPS add-on have the map be able to follow/center on the current GPS position of the device.
- possibly make the device not have a touch screen (only a joypad, a few buttons and a scrool wheel for alphanumeric input)
- possibly add a SD/MMC or a CompactFlash slot. (Allow maps to be cached to this card with more used maps
I sure as hell would buy one and so would a lot of other people.