I *do* got to theaters. Once or twice a year, maybe.
Most of my movies are discs from Netflix, largely because the streaming selection is pretty limited. But I don't have a ton of time for TV or movies, so I don't get a lot watched, and I don't put a lot of priority on *recent*. Right now my Netflix queue is at about 5-7 years behind, and I'm just fine with that. Maybe I'll catch up after I retire -- or maybe not. Doesn't matter much.
In any case, I never put much stock in seeing movies the moment they came out, so this wouldn't be especially valuable to me.
For the most part, the power is free. You did notice how much Tesla has sunk into solar development? And batteries? I'm sure the fee is intended to offset building new ones and maintaining the old ones, but each station is supposed to charge its own batteries via the sun and then recharge you car from the batteries.
That's correct. MFT continued to be sold up until the 2016 model year, which is the first year that the QNX version (Sync 3) came out. I don't know if Sync 3 has been rolled out all across their line though.
Mine is a 2013, and it's My Ford Touch. The app interface apparently only ever worked on the earlier Sync system -- it showed up on the menu of MFT, but it was apparently never implemented, probably for the reason you mention.
The MFT menu system seems fine to me, other than functions that kept getting removed with each new version, apparently in an effort to trim the system down enough to be stable on the limited hardware. It will change time zones if you drive over a time zone boundary, yet you can't select Daylight Savings Time. Etc.
You're right that the nav system is pretty bad. The display is actually nicely thought out, but it tends to get confused a lot, and the POI database is minuscule. The only vehicle-moving crashes of the system I've had were related to trying to use navigation at the same time as playing music. Too much for it to handle, leading to a five to ten minute freeze followed by a reboot. After a couple tries like that, I simply stick the phone into a holder and use Waze.
My speaker phone performance hasn't been a problem. I've only used the voice commands to make phone calls, and they work pretty well.
I don't use voice commands for music, since I just put it on random play and never mess with it. So with music and nav out of consideration, I don't know why I would ever actually use the voice prompts, even if they worked perfectly.
The music system would be great, if it actually worked reliably. When it's working, it's doing just what I want, with a pretty good interface.
A previous time this came up, an anonymous poster claimed to be one of the engineers that worked on the interface. According to him, it was not the Microsoft nature of the system that was at fault, but insufficient hardware resources and the decision to build the interface in Flash.
There were a lot of complaints about how unintuitive the interface was, but I disagree strongly with that. The interface is fine. If only it worked reliably. I've had it crash while going down the road, and the music subsystem re-indexes if you look at it hard (which means it's essentially unusable for 5 or 10 minutes.) I've worked out some procedures that minimize that problem, but if you forget, or if it just feels cantankerous, it'll reset itself.
Access the *Internet*. That's part of what being a computer is. I didn't say being connected wasn't vital, I said being a phone wasn't vital.
I added the "is connected" criterion to my definition of "useful computer" somewhere around 1989. Even though "uses telephone technology" is part of what makes that work, the "is a phone" part isn't all that important.
I'm not saying that I don't use the phone as a phone. But it's not why I have it. If I had to choose between a portable phone without computer functions or a portable computer without phone functions (and could only have one) I'd probably make do with email.
There are folks on Slashdot that, after asking me to get off their lawn, seem very proud of their dumb phones. "It's a phone, dammit, that's what's important." And that's fine. Just not for me.
Personally, I'm buying a portable computer that fits in my pocket. That I can use it for phone calls or SMS is mildly convenient, but not ultimately vital.
As far as "most private things" go, there is some of that (but not a ton) and that's mostly encrypted. At least as far as what *I* put on there. What the phone gathers about me is a whole other thing.
For the immediate future, Ubuntu on Windows will be command-line only. I don't know if graphical apps are on the roadmap, but they're not scheduled for immanent release.
You can't do an open source hack of the software without reverse engineering it. That means you have to examine how it works. In order to do that, you must get past the DRM. According to the DMCA, that's illegal.
It is illegal to even *examine* how your DRM "protected" device works.
I guess you could say I use Google Play -- but it's all my own music. When they first announced Google Music, I uploaded all my music to their cloud, and it's now available to play where ever I have an internet connection. They used to periodically pitch me on signing up for their paid service, but I think they've given up (or maybe I just don't notice anymore.)
If I do get new music, I buy the CD and rip it to flac. Google Play uploads it and converts it to whatever format they're using. I keep a secondary mp3 repository (converted from the flac) for my car. Those high-capacity, low profile USB drives are great.
I'm mostly done converting all my LPs to digital format. The ones that were in bad shape I bought replacement CDs, but mostly I listen to the digitized copy.
I thought about doing something like this, but when I went looking for a "dumb computer monitor" of appropriate size, it turned out it was *much* more expensive than any TV.
Hybrids and electric vehicles barely have any brake wear. It's not zero, but damned close. When you brake any vehicle capable of regenerative braking (electrics or hybrids) you simply use the motor as a generator and turn your forward motion to battery charge. The brake pads only make contact as you come to a stop at the very end, or if you are braking harder than the battery can accept charge.
So I call bullshit on the methodology of whoever did the study.
Some of us also don't care for the touchscreen either. I want to be able to handle the e-reader (shift my grip, etc.) without having to worry that a non-intended touch will cause something unexpected to happen.
It's less of an issue with a phone. What I read on a phone is constantly interactive -- I don't do long-form reading on a phone.
The Oasis has a touchscreen, and for me that's a negative. But it has a large gripping surface, and it should be possible to hold it comfortably (with little worry about brushing against the screen) and still read with a finger on the button. Just clicking 'next... next... next' should be below the level of conscious thought, and won't disrupt the flow. It's a one handed operation, so reading at meals, etc. is easier.
I guess I was being a little hyperbolic when I said "the only one on the planet.":-)
There used to be vendors in the US that sold Pocketbook, but that lo longer seems to be the case.
The Kindle3 was the only non-touch e-reader on the planet, and now there aren't any. But the Touch Lux 3 looks like it might be a better choice than the Oasis, once my current Kindle3s die. Does PocketBook still use the same kind of system software that the 360 had? With folders and so on?
Maybe if PocketBook notices that Amazon is copying their design, they'll figure that there is a market for the 360 again. I'd jump on that in a heartbeat.
I agree with you on the price, but on nothing else.
I had an e-reader several years ago with just this sort of design. Big mechanical buttons (almost paddles) all on one side. It was the most comfortable reader I've ever used. I was *really* upset when I left it in a restaurant.
You don't scroll pages. The text flows to fit the page. You click a button to turn the page. If you change the font size, it fills the page differently and you get more (or less) on each page. Big deal.
I'll admit that the form factor might make it less pocket friendly, I'd have to see it to be sure. It's a similar form factor to the old Pocketbook 360, and I had no trouble getting that into my pockets.
Price is a problem. This is pretty expensive. But I don't see a problem with all the telemetry you're talking about. It's trivially disabled. My current Kindle doesn't know my wifi password any more than my "smart" TV does. I don't have any DRM-laden books.
The sub-$100 versions *used* to be perfect. Then they got rid of the buttons.
Fortunately I saw this happening and got a couple of spares from Staples as they were closing them out. I've since broken one screen, but these should last me for several more years. At that point, if this thing is still around and still has buttons, I'd consider it.
The old PocketBook 360 worked this way, but the automatic switching wouldn't have fit his use case. He's talking about reading it sideways. I'm assuming that you can lock the orientation. The 360 allowed this, with fairly easy manual switching of the orientation. that would work for what he wants to do.
The fact is, the 360 provided the most comfortable reading experience of any e-reader I've ever used, specifically because of the asymmetric design.
Slashdot Mirror
I *do* got to theaters. Once or twice a year, maybe.
Most of my movies are discs from Netflix, largely because the streaming selection is pretty limited. But I don't have a ton of time for TV or movies, so I don't get a lot watched, and I don't put a lot of priority on *recent*. Right now my Netflix queue is at about 5-7 years behind, and I'm just fine with that. Maybe I'll catch up after I retire -- or maybe not. Doesn't matter much.
In any case, I never put much stock in seeing movies the moment they came out, so this wouldn't be especially valuable to me.
For the most part, the power is free. You did notice how much Tesla has sunk into solar development? And batteries? I'm sure the fee is intended to offset building new ones and maintaining the old ones, but each station is supposed to charge its own batteries via the sun and then recharge you car from the batteries.
My Fusion Hybrid, aside from issues with My Ford Touch, is possibly the best car I've ever had.
That's correct. MFT continued to be sold up until the 2016 model year, which is the first year that the QNX version (Sync 3) came out. I don't know if Sync 3 has been rolled out all across their line though.
Mine is a 2013, and it's My Ford Touch. The app interface apparently only ever worked on the earlier Sync system -- it showed up on the menu of MFT, but it was apparently never implemented, probably for the reason you mention.
The MFT menu system seems fine to me, other than functions that kept getting removed with each new version, apparently in an effort to trim the system down enough to be stable on the limited hardware. It will change time zones if you drive over a time zone boundary, yet you can't select Daylight Savings Time. Etc.
You're right that the nav system is pretty bad. The display is actually nicely thought out, but it tends to get confused a lot, and the POI database is minuscule. The only vehicle-moving crashes of the system I've had were related to trying to use navigation at the same time as playing music. Too much for it to handle, leading to a five to ten minute freeze followed by a reboot. After a couple tries like that, I simply stick the phone into a holder and use Waze.
My speaker phone performance hasn't been a problem. I've only used the voice commands to make phone calls, and they work pretty well.
I don't use voice commands for music, since I just put it on random play and never mess with it. So with music and nav out of consideration, I don't know why I would ever actually use the voice prompts, even if they worked perfectly.
The music system would be great, if it actually worked reliably. When it's working, it's doing just what I want, with a pretty good interface.
A previous time this came up, an anonymous poster claimed to be one of the engineers that worked on the interface. According to him, it was not the Microsoft nature of the system that was at fault, but insufficient hardware resources and the decision to build the interface in Flash.
There were a lot of complaints about how unintuitive the interface was, but I disagree strongly with that. The interface is fine. If only it worked reliably. I've had it crash while going down the road, and the music subsystem re-indexes if you look at it hard (which means it's essentially unusable for 5 or 10 minutes.) I've worked out some procedures that minimize that problem, but if you forget, or if it just feels cantankerous, it'll reset itself.
Access the *Internet*. That's part of what being a computer is. I didn't say being connected wasn't vital, I said being a phone wasn't vital.
I added the "is connected" criterion to my definition of "useful computer" somewhere around 1989. Even though "uses telephone technology" is part of what makes that work, the "is a phone" part isn't all that important.
I'm not saying that I don't use the phone as a phone. But it's not why I have it. If I had to choose between a portable phone without computer functions or a portable computer without phone functions (and could only have one) I'd probably make do with email.
There are folks on Slashdot that, after asking me to get off their lawn, seem very proud of their dumb phones. "It's a phone, dammit, that's what's important." And that's fine. Just not for me.
Personally, I'm buying a portable computer that fits in my pocket. That I can use it for phone calls or SMS is mildly convenient, but not ultimately vital.
As far as "most private things" go, there is some of that (but not a ton) and that's mostly encrypted. At least as far as what *I* put on there. What the phone gathers about me is a whole other thing.
My phone has a 128G card in it right now. My boss got a phone earlier this year that had a 200G card in it.
Not as long as he's still being charged under the Espionage Act. Under that act, he is not allowed to defend himself. That's written into the law.
Are you suggesting that Richard Nixon was tried and convicted? Or that Gerald Ford did *not* pardon him?
It's been available ever since LTE came along. Doesn't work on CDMA, does work on LTE.
For the immediate future, Ubuntu on Windows will be command-line only. I don't know if graphical apps are on the roadmap, but they're not scheduled for immanent release.
You can't do an open source hack of the software without reverse engineering it. That means you have to examine how it works. In order to do that, you must get past the DRM. According to the DMCA, that's illegal.
It is illegal to even *examine* how your DRM "protected" device works.
I guess you could say I use Google Play -- but it's all my own music. When they first announced Google Music, I uploaded all my music to their cloud, and it's now available to play where ever I have an internet connection. They used to periodically pitch me on signing up for their paid service, but I think they've given up (or maybe I just don't notice anymore.)
If I do get new music, I buy the CD and rip it to flac. Google Play uploads it and converts it to whatever format they're using. I keep a secondary mp3 repository (converted from the flac) for my car. Those high-capacity, low profile USB drives are great.
I'm mostly done converting all my LPs to digital format. The ones that were in bad shape I bought replacement CDs, but mostly I listen to the digitized copy.
Which is what I have done with my one smart TV. It doesn't know my wifi password, nor will it ever.
But it still probably cost an extra $50 to $75 for the additional hardware that I didn't want.
Good luck finding a "dumb" TV.
Everything you say is right, except that more and more "don't buy a smart TV" is equivalent to "don't buy a TV."
Well, almost everything. Curved TVs are every bit as useful as smart TVs (which is to say, not at all.)
I thought about doing something like this, but when I went looking for a "dumb computer monitor" of appropriate size, it turned out it was *much* more expensive than any TV.
Hybrids and electric vehicles barely have any brake wear. It's not zero, but damned close. When you brake any vehicle capable of regenerative braking (electrics or hybrids) you simply use the motor as a generator and turn your forward motion to battery charge. The brake pads only make contact as you come to a stop at the very end, or if you are braking harder than the battery can accept charge.
So I call bullshit on the methodology of whoever did the study.
Some of us also don't care for the touchscreen either. I want to be able to handle the e-reader (shift my grip, etc.) without having to worry that a non-intended touch will cause something unexpected to happen.
It's less of an issue with a phone. What I read on a phone is constantly interactive -- I don't do long-form reading on a phone.
The Oasis has a touchscreen, and for me that's a negative. But it has a large gripping surface, and it should be possible to hold it comfortably (with little worry about brushing against the screen) and still read with a finger on the button. Just clicking 'next ... next ... next' should be below the level of conscious thought, and won't disrupt the flow. It's a one handed operation, so reading at meals, etc. is easier.
I guess I was being a little hyperbolic when I said "the only one on the planet." :-)
There used to be vendors in the US that sold Pocketbook, but that lo longer seems to be the case.
The Kindle3 was the only non-touch e-reader on the planet, and now there aren't any. But the Touch Lux 3 looks like it might be a better choice than the Oasis, once my current Kindle3s die. Does PocketBook still use the same kind of system software that the 360 had? With folders and so on?
Maybe if PocketBook notices that Amazon is copying their design, they'll figure that there is a market for the 360 again. I'd jump on that in a heartbeat.
I agree with you on the price, but on nothing else.
I had an e-reader several years ago with just this sort of design. Big mechanical buttons (almost paddles) all on one side. It was the most comfortable reader I've ever used. I was *really* upset when I left it in a restaurant.
Have you ever used an e-reader?
You don't scroll pages. The text flows to fit the page. You click a button to turn the page. If you change the font size, it fills the page differently and you get more (or less) on each page. Big deal.
I'll admit that the form factor might make it less pocket friendly, I'd have to see it to be sure. It's a similar form factor to the old Pocketbook 360, and I had no trouble getting that into my pockets.
Price is a problem. This is pretty expensive. But I don't see a problem with all the telemetry you're talking about. It's trivially disabled. My current Kindle doesn't know my wifi password any more than my "smart" TV does. I don't have any DRM-laden books.
The sub-$100 versions *used* to be perfect. Then they got rid of the buttons.
Fortunately I saw this happening and got a couple of spares from Staples as they were closing them out. I've since broken one screen, but these should last me for several more years. At that point, if this thing is still around and still has buttons, I'd consider it.
The old PocketBook 360 worked this way, but the automatic switching wouldn't have fit his use case. He's talking about reading it sideways. I'm assuming that you can lock the orientation. The 360 allowed this, with fairly easy manual switching of the orientation. that would work for what he wants to do.
The fact is, the 360 provided the most comfortable reading experience of any e-reader I've ever used, specifically because of the asymmetric design.