Maybe I organise my time well enough such that I can forget about work and messages on short, cramped train journeys...
I'm sorry, I love my gadgets and "always on the Internet" life, but my character is strong enough to withstand the desparation of being out of communication with the rest of the world for a 10 minute tube train journey.
Open your mind to the possibilities of fact, rather than hearsay...
(* Set aside for a moment the fact that any Android phone without "Nexus" in its name is more locked-down than an iPhone.)
Dare yourself to go to a store in your local town that doesn't include a type of fruit in it's name...
Maybe ACTUALLY TOUCH an Android phone, just so you LEARN something about them before coming on here and making yourself look like a total plonker.
Because here, right before your eyes, is a FACT:
Having upgraded from a Google Nexus One to a HTC Desire Z (note the distinct lack of the word "Nexus" in the name) about 3 weeks ago, I can tell you categorically that going into "Settings -> Applications -> Unknown Sources" and ticking the box, allows me to install applications other than those on Android Market.
Having just gone through iOS 4 on my wife's iPhone, I can find no equivalent setting there to allow me to install non-Apple Store applications.
Please file this one away and consider yourself as having taking one big step away from stupidity as a result.
Are you serious? Weren't video cameras the defacto standard in just about every laptop and mobile phone when the iPad 1 came out? Didn't Lord Steve himself describe it as "magical" - though, in reality, not that magical when it came to recording your own video?
Incidentally, "think differently", not blinkeredly. Just because I neither like or want an iPad does not automatically mean I want a Xoom or indeed any of its competitors. I'm eagerly waiting someone who can convince me of the benefits of any tablet when my netbook does a lot more stuiff at half the price - and my life's not so self-important that I can't wait 30 seconds for my netbook to boot up when I need it.
I don't claim to be an accountant but "revenue" is not the same as "profit" and it's the profit (i.e. after every employee has been paid and every supplier been paid) that equates to the actual money you have in your coffers. You yourself admit they were not profitable that year, therefore that $1.163B and more was eaten up in outgoings.
And as I said already, why take the money from Microsoft unless you truly need it? I remember there being a huge fanboi backlash at the time this was reported, any company does not risk the wrath of its customers unless it has no choice.
It was a bailout - but plastered in corporate rhetoric to make it look like each party was doing the other a favour.
You get maximum interoperability (i.e. intercommunication with other devices) when the platform uses open standards that let YOU choose the best intercommunication protocols based on what it is you are trying to intercommunicate with.
For example, if I have, say, a Linux file server on which I store my photo collection and I happen to like using Photoshop in Windows to edit those photos, then I can use a protocol like SAMBA to share the photo directory over the network to the Windows PC and it works fine. I then buy an iPhone and would like to transfer the photos from it to the file server using the SAMBA server I am already happy with - but I CAN'T do it because Apple doesn't let me and I need to jailbreak the iPhone to put SAMBA on it.
And, sorry, but I fail to see how one app store is "better application support" than being able to put apps on from where I want to get them from.
Let me be honest here. I was using Android long before I looked at my first iOS device and, yes, I won't deny iOS is pretty slick. But having used Android first, it took me a while to work out how to do stuff in iOS - so what I'm trying to say is that usability comes from what you were used to using in the past compared to the new stuff you are about to use, it is not a fixed parameter.
My missus gave me her old iPod Touch when she went to iPhone and because I'd been using Banshee and MediaMonkey for MP3 tagging and media transfer to various devices, the first time I tried iTunes I found it completely uninituitive (and still do) - yet there are millions of people out there who like it and use it. Again, a demonstration that your vision of usability may be completely different to everyone else's.
I can't be bothered to provide links for you but if you're interested in seeing how completely WRONG you are, go and Google devices like the Netgear Stora (1 GHz CPU raid chassis that can be installed with your own Linux distro) or Pandora (600Mhz CPU handheld gaming computer that can do surfing, email, books, video, etc.)
Maybe you have more money than common sense but I would LOVE to have one single computing device that did ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING that I need to do on a computer - but the fact is, it does NOT exist, which is why I, like just about everyone else in this world, have to carry about a certain combination of devices depending on what it is I am trying to achieve at any specific moment in time.
The fact is, the ONLY way you will ever come close to having that one single device is by having it as at least a relatively open platform such that you can put on whatever software you need on it, and change out hardware components to give you the storage capacity, memory, expandability, etc. etc. that you need.
OK, I'll be generous and give you this link because it's interesting that they use the words "slate" and "tablet" almost interchangeably - which actually proves that you accept the limitations of your tablet device by virtue of having to invent some new category of device that isn't any different.
The correct question should be "does it have awesome native apps and games, support, and enough differentiation from the leading tablet to stand on its own?"
By your argument, I could ask the same question of iPhone since there are more Android phones than iPhones currently.
I don't buy Apple because I know damn well that with the current locked-down state of iOS, it will not run at least half the stuff that I want to on it. Period.
And I couldn't give a stuff about how much more usable the iOS interface is than Android because iOS does NOT do what I need a device to do.
Likewise, I'm not even sure I can find a reason to buy any tablet at the moment because I have a perfectly good netbook that lets me install what software on it I want to when I want to and I'm pleased that I don't have such a self-important lifestyle that waiting 30 seconds for a Linux netbook to boot up is really THAT important to me.
Oh, and for your information, I work in security and I like old games. Therefore I need to use packet-sniffing, IDS and white hat hacking tools, and in my spare time I run emulators like MAME, UAE and DOSBox. But Apple does not allow many of these things to be available on the App Store and you cannot go anywhere else for the software unless you jailbreak the device - probably voiding your warranty in the process and defeating the object of buying the device in the first place.
Finally, and most importantly, a computing device to me is a tool for productivity and entertainment - I could care less about what colour it is or whether it goes with the pullover I'm wearing. Consequently, I see no reason to pay a premium price just because a gadget "looks nice" - my muscular structure really isn't that fragile that I particularly care that an iPad probably weighs half of what my netbook does... life REALLY is too short to worry about a "0.7 kg weight difference" for example.
So therefore why didn't Apple say "Thanks anyway but we don't need your money, Microsoft".
If anything, that would have made Microsoft's claims about not being a monopoly a lot more shaky, and as a competitor to Apple would have weakened Microsoft somewhat.
Incidentally, as a Linux person who has never, in 30 years of computing never come across one Apple product that I've considered buying, would you not welcome the pragmatic views of an outsider to both the Microsoft and Apple camps? You fanbois have a very blinkered view of reality - i.e. being anti-Apple means pro-Microsoft.
Selling the woosh and swoosh of a single device against the entire Apple ecosystem takes some shallow customers to be successful.
Why do you describe someone who doesn't choose an Apple product as "shallow"? If Apple is as successful as you say it is, then someone choosing NOT to go with the in-crowd and selecting a device based on its merits, whether an iPhone or not, strikes me as being anything but shallow.
Android is just one self propagating destructive worm away from oblivion, which is a distinct possibility.
Rubbish. How many worms & viruses have hit Windows over the years, yet the number of Mac and Linux users on the desktop is peanuts by comparison - and I'm a Linux person.
Oh, and PLEASE listen to me. Just because Apple locks down iOS does NOT mean it is immune to viruses or worms - in any OS it is simply about finding a vulnerability due to a software coding bug that can be used to spread malware. Or is there some other reason why Apple releases fairly regular iOS updates?
It's just funny to watch what people think is important and how much emotion they put behind what they've chosen.
Actually, I think it's very sad that too many people buy gadgets based on their cool factor and how much they will impress their friends, rather than thinking about what this means to their personal freedoms and how much control they are handing over to an evil corporation.
I'm in the UK, have a mobile contract and I don't know if it's the same where you are.
But each time I've changed is not because the phone is in anyway faulty but because I've been entitled to a phone upgrade after a certain time period. The first HTC I sold as a working phone on eBay, my second Nexus One phone works perfectly after 18 months of usage, and I've just got myself a HTC Desire Z with a slide out keyboard because I do a lot of remote SSH shell work to my home servers.
If anything, I'm looking at getting a handful of cheap pre-paid data sims for the now unused Nexus One so I can carry it around with me as a spare if I need a bit more data usage than the 500 MB a month I get on my contract.
Think how many laptops/desktops/servers/soon-to-be-tablets HP sells worldwide. Apple is bigger than that, by a lot.
Are you getting this? Can you hear me? You can? Great!
Listen, there was an accident in the lab, you were knocked unconscious, then you disappeared... but we've found you now.
You're in a parallel universe to ours, where our laws of counting servers by manufacturer are diametrically opposite to theirs where you are now. So stay calm, don't say anything stupid, and we'll open up a dimensional portal to get you back within the next 30 minutes.
While HP, Dell etc. have everything build by Foxconn - big difference.
Don't be an idiot.
HP & Dell have their own design people just like Apple do, else Foxconn would just be churning out identical black boxes that would just be re-badged by Dell and HP.
You clearly have no idea what you are talking about (or are too busy worrying about whether your computing device matches your pullover) else you would know, if you look back at the product catalogues of both companies, that a "Dell Inspiron" notebook has a certain look about it, as does an "IBM/Lenovo ThinkPad".
Just because the design aesthetic may not appeal to your snooty outlook on life does not mean it's not there.
Apple seems to be the only esthetic [wikipedia.org] company in IT today. The thought that making a computer or device look and feel good could help people feel more comfortable and so help them to better use those devices seems wholly foreign to the rest of the industry. Other companies can copy some aspects of the designs but they can't seem to grasp the philosophy behind it that makes it work.
Thank you.
Exactly what I have been saying for years, nice to hear it from the mouth of a fanboi.
"Apple makes fashion accessories."
And for those of us with our sanity still intact:
"Who gives a shit if a tool matches the colour of my man-bag."
Having a useful computing device that you can tweak to your heart's content is not the same as having a fashion accessory with a big silver logo on it that you can impress your friends with in a coffee shop.
A computing device is about self-expression and making a statement to the world! Only a selfish person would buy a computing device for his own personal productivity or entertainment, that is not the way of the world today.
I know of at least three people who have had to send iPhones back/replace iPhones because of easily-damaged cases, even my missus had to get her iPhone 3G back because audibly it was unusable unless she used it on hands free.
I'm on my third Android phone and don't recall ever having to reboot numbers 2 or 3 - I do remember boot number 1 a few times because of lock-ups.
You're clearly not living in the real world because otherwise you'd be fully aware that Android devices are far outselling iPhones currently - much of that is to do with the fact that many people do not want to live in Apple's locked-down "I don't own the device" world.
That's why we sent you criminal lot there a few hundred years ago - you weren't expecting an easy ride were you? We had to dump you somewhere with the greatest proportion per capita of deadly creatures!
Back home here in England, about the deadliest animal we have here would be an overwieght blind cow that accidentally trod on you if you feel asleep in its field.
Slashdot Mirror
Try using an iPad while water-skiing. So what?
Maybe I organise my time well enough such that I can forget about work and messages on short, cramped train journeys...
I'm sorry, I love my gadgets and "always on the Internet" life, but my character is strong enough to withstand the desparation of being out of communication with the rest of the world for a 10 minute tube train journey.
Here's an idea...
Open your mind to the possibilities of fact, rather than hearsay...
(* Set aside for a moment the fact that any Android phone without "Nexus" in its name is more locked-down than an iPhone.)
Dare yourself to go to a store in your local town that doesn't include a type of fruit in it's name...
Maybe ACTUALLY TOUCH an Android phone, just so you LEARN something about them before coming on here and making yourself look like a total plonker.
Because here, right before your eyes, is a FACT:
Having upgraded from a Google Nexus One to a HTC Desire Z (note the distinct lack of the word "Nexus" in the name) about 3 weeks ago, I can tell you categorically that going into "Settings -> Applications -> Unknown Sources" and ticking the box, allows me to install applications other than those on Android Market.
Having just gone through iOS 4 on my wife's iPhone, I can find no equivalent setting there to allow me to install non-Apple Store applications.
Please file this one away and consider yourself as having taking one big step away from stupidity as a result.
Not having a feature !=incomplete.
Are you serious? Weren't video cameras the defacto standard in just about every laptop and mobile phone when the iPad 1 came out? Didn't Lord Steve himself describe it as "magical" - though, in reality, not that magical when it came to recording your own video?
Incidentally, "think differently", not blinkeredly. Just because I neither like or want an iPad does not automatically mean I want a Xoom or indeed any of its competitors. I'm eagerly waiting someone who can convince me of the benefits of any tablet when my netbook does a lot more stuiff at half the price - and my life's not so self-important that I can't wait 30 seconds for my netbook to boot up when I need it.
I don't claim to be an accountant but "revenue" is not the same as "profit" and it's the profit (i.e. after every employee has been paid and every supplier been paid) that equates to the actual money you have in your coffers. You yourself admit they were not profitable that year, therefore that $1.163B and more was eaten up in outgoings.
And as I said already, why take the money from Microsoft unless you truly need it? I remember there being a huge fanboi backlash at the time this was reported, any company does not risk the wrath of its customers unless it has no choice.
It was a bailout - but plastered in corporate rhetoric to make it look like each party was doing the other a favour.
Are you serious?
You get maximum interoperability (i.e. intercommunication with other devices) when the platform uses open standards that let YOU choose the best intercommunication protocols based on what it is you are trying to intercommunicate with.
For example, if I have, say, a Linux file server on which I store my photo collection and I happen to like using Photoshop in Windows to edit those photos, then I can use a protocol like SAMBA to share the photo directory over the network to the Windows PC and it works fine. I then buy an iPhone and would like to transfer the photos from it to the file server using the SAMBA server I am already happy with - but I CAN'T do it because Apple doesn't let me and I need to jailbreak the iPhone to put SAMBA on it.
And, sorry, but I fail to see how one app store is "better application support" than being able to put apps on from where I want to get them from.
Let me be honest here. I was using Android long before I looked at my first iOS device and, yes, I won't deny iOS is pretty slick. But having used Android first, it took me a while to work out how to do stuff in iOS - so what I'm trying to say is that usability comes from what you were used to using in the past compared to the new stuff you are about to use, it is not a fixed parameter.
My missus gave me her old iPod Touch when she went to iPhone and because I'd been using Banshee and MediaMonkey for MP3 tagging and media transfer to various devices, the first time I tried iTunes I found it completely uninituitive (and still do) - yet there are millions of people out there who like it and use it. Again, a demonstration that your vision of usability may be completely different to everyone else's.
Utter, utter crap!
I can't be bothered to provide links for you but if you're interested in seeing how completely WRONG you are, go and Google devices like the Netgear Stora (1 GHz CPU raid chassis that can be installed with your own Linux distro) or Pandora (600Mhz CPU handheld gaming computer that can do surfing, email, books, video, etc.)
Maybe you have more money than common sense but I would LOVE to have one single computing device that did ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING that I need to do on a computer - but the fact is, it does NOT exist, which is why I, like just about everyone else in this world, have to carry about a certain combination of devices depending on what it is I am trying to achieve at any specific moment in time.
The fact is, the ONLY way you will ever come close to having that one single device is by having it as at least a relatively open platform such that you can put on whatever software you need on it, and change out hardware components to give you the storage capacity, memory, expandability, etc. etc. that you need.
OK, I'll be generous and give you this link because it's interesting that they use the words "slate" and "tablet" almost interchangeably - which actually proves that you accept the limitations of your tablet device by virtue of having to invent some new category of device that isn't any different.
The correct question should be "does it have awesome native apps and games, support, and enough differentiation from the leading tablet to stand on its own?"
By your argument, I could ask the same question of iPhone since there are more Android phones than iPhones currently.
If that's the case then why did iPad 2 come out only ONE YEAR after iPad 1?
Nothing to do with iPad 1 being rushed out without a camera, by chance?
I don't buy Apple because I know damn well that with the current locked-down state of iOS, it will not run at least half the stuff that I want to on it. Period.
And I couldn't give a stuff about how much more usable the iOS interface is than Android because iOS does NOT do what I need a device to do.
Likewise, I'm not even sure I can find a reason to buy any tablet at the moment because I have a perfectly good netbook that lets me install what software on it I want to when I want to and I'm pleased that I don't have such a self-important lifestyle that waiting 30 seconds for a Linux netbook to boot up is really THAT important to me.
Oh, and for your information, I work in security and I like old games. Therefore I need to use packet-sniffing, IDS and white hat hacking tools, and in my spare time I run emulators like MAME, UAE and DOSBox. But Apple does not allow many of these things to be available on the App Store and you cannot go anywhere else for the software unless you jailbreak the device - probably voiding your warranty in the process and defeating the object of buying the device in the first place.
Finally, and most importantly, a computing device to me is a tool for productivity and entertainment - I could care less about what colour it is or whether it goes with the pullover I'm wearing. Consequently, I see no reason to pay a premium price just because a gadget "looks nice" - my muscular structure really isn't that fragile that I particularly care that an iPad probably weighs half of what my netbook does... life REALLY is too short to worry about a "0.7 kg weight difference" for example.
So therefore why didn't Apple say "Thanks anyway but we don't need your money, Microsoft".
If anything, that would have made Microsoft's claims about not being a monopoly a lot more shaky, and as a competitor to Apple would have weakened Microsoft somewhat.
Incidentally, as a Linux person who has never, in 30 years of computing never come across one Apple product that I've considered buying, would you not welcome the pragmatic views of an outsider to both the Microsoft and Apple camps? You fanbois have a very blinkered view of reality - i.e. being anti-Apple means pro-Microsoft.
Selling the woosh and swoosh of a single device against the entire Apple ecosystem takes some shallow customers to be successful.
Why do you describe someone who doesn't choose an Apple product as "shallow"? If Apple is as successful as you say it is, then someone choosing NOT to go with the in-crowd and selecting a device based on its merits, whether an iPhone or not, strikes me as being anything but shallow.
Android is just one self propagating destructive worm away from oblivion, which is a distinct possibility.
Rubbish. How many worms & viruses have hit Windows over the years, yet the number of Mac and Linux users on the desktop is peanuts by comparison - and I'm a Linux person.
Oh, and PLEASE listen to me. Just because Apple locks down iOS does NOT mean it is immune to viruses or worms - in any OS it is simply about finding a vulnerability due to a software coding bug that can be used to spread malware. Or is there some other reason why Apple releases fairly regular iOS updates?
It's just funny to watch what people think is important and how much emotion they put behind what they've chosen.
Actually, I think it's very sad that too many people buy gadgets based on their cool factor and how much they will impress their friends, rather than thinking about what this means to their personal freedoms and how much control they are handing over to an evil corporation.
Just to correct you somewhat.
I'm in the UK, have a mobile contract and I don't know if it's the same where you are.
But each time I've changed is not because the phone is in anyway faulty but because I've been entitled to a phone upgrade after a certain time period. The first HTC I sold as a working phone on eBay, my second Nexus One phone works perfectly after 18 months of usage, and I've just got myself a HTC Desire Z with a slide out keyboard because I do a lot of remote SSH shell work to my home servers.
If anything, I'm looking at getting a handful of cheap pre-paid data sims for the now unused Nexus One so I can carry it around with me as a spare if I need a bit more data usage than the 500 MB a month I get on my contract.
Think how many laptops/desktops/servers/soon-to-be-tablets HP sells worldwide. Apple is bigger than that, by a lot.
Are you getting this? Can you hear me? You can? Great!
Listen, there was an accident in the lab, you were knocked unconscious, then you disappeared... but we've found you now.
You're in a parallel universe to ours, where our laws of counting servers by manufacturer are diametrically opposite to theirs where you are now. So stay calm, don't say anything stupid, and we'll open up a dimensional portal to get you back within the next 30 minutes.
While HP, Dell etc. have everything build by Foxconn - big difference.
Don't be an idiot.
HP & Dell have their own design people just like Apple do, else Foxconn would just be churning out identical black boxes that would just be re-badged by Dell and HP.
You clearly have no idea what you are talking about (or are too busy worrying about whether your computing device matches your pullover) else you would know, if you look back at the product catalogues of both companies, that a "Dell Inspiron" notebook has a certain look about it, as does an "IBM/Lenovo ThinkPad".
Just because the design aesthetic may not appeal to your snooty outlook on life does not mean it's not there.
Apple seems to be the only esthetic [wikipedia.org] company in IT today. The thought that making a computer or device look and feel good could help people feel more comfortable and so help them to better use those devices seems wholly foreign to the rest of the industry. Other companies can copy some aspects of the designs but they can't seem to grasp the philosophy behind it that makes it work.
Thank you.
Exactly what I have been saying for years, nice to hear it from the mouth of a fanboi.
"Apple makes fashion accessories."
And for those of us with our sanity still intact:
"Who gives a shit if a tool matches the colour of my man-bag."
...that Apple wouldn't be making iPads today had Microsoft not bailed Apple out of bankruptcy to the tune of $150M in 1997?
Dear Tony
Unfortunately, you do not understand.
Having a useful computing device that you can tweak to your heart's content is not the same as having a fashion accessory with a big silver logo on it that you can impress your friends with in a coffee shop.
A computing device is about self-expression and making a statement to the world! Only a selfish person would buy a computing device for his own personal productivity or entertainment, that is not the way of the world today.
You are nobody unless you have brand loyalty. Queuing up outside Best Buy or PC World is uncool, but queuing up for the opening of a new Apple store is cool.
Once you get your iPad working, don't drop it because it'll break.
Your point is precisely what?
Have you seen the size of the car repair industry? Or the household heating servicing industry? Or the washing machine repair industry?
Machines go wrong sometimes. Deal with it.
Please explain.
I run both Linux and XP, I do not recall the last time I had a piece of malware on either.
I also do not recall the last time XP or Linux crashed on me either - the last downtime I had on Linux was installing a new kernel.
I wish you fanbois would quote facts.
Thanks for your time.
Please explain your logic as to how "working product" = "locked-down product".
Also, about 18 months ago, iPhones outnumbered Android phones - but not any more.
Apple were first to market with the iPad. Now the decent Android ones are coming out. How about we talk again in 18 months?
I've yet to see anything on iPad that gives a user-experience anywhere close to a netbook at half the price .
There. Corrected that for you.
It does.
You OWN an Android device, you LOAN an iOS one.
Keep drinking the Kool-Aid.
I know of at least three people who have had to send iPhones back/replace iPhones because of easily-damaged cases, even my missus had to get her iPhone 3G back because audibly it was unusable unless she used it on hands free.
I'm on my third Android phone and don't recall ever having to reboot numbers 2 or 3 - I do remember boot number 1 a few times because of lock-ups.
You're clearly not living in the real world because otherwise you'd be fully aware that Android devices are far outselling iPhones currently - much of that is to do with the fact that many people do not want to live in Apple's locked-down "I don't own the device" world.
That's why we sent you criminal lot there a few hundred years ago - you weren't expecting an easy ride were you? We had to dump you somewhere with the greatest proportion per capita of deadly creatures!
Back home here in England, about the deadliest animal we have here would be an overwieght blind cow that accidentally trod on you if you feel asleep in its field.