I'm pretty sure that the "dual input touchscreen" is totally new. I'm not sure, but I haven't seen that, even on high-end tablets.
Fair play, but it's pretty useless in a palm-held device. You only have one-thumb and single-handed operation is a must in these devices. Microsoft made that big mistake in their 2003 Mobile OS and all subsequent ones have focused on fixing this. Two hands is fine when you are at a desk, but it's not really useful out on the street. Trust me, I've always been a bleeding-edge cell-phone user and I've felt the pain on this. I've even ran bootleg OS's to move up to the most recent builds just to get these enhancements.
I also cannot think of many useful applications for dual input, but time will tell on that one. I've seen the tech demos incorporating lava-lamp graphics demos and so on, so I'm familiar with the technology. I just can't think of any software on a portable device that would benefit from it.
I'm just a little confused with all of the excitement here. Normally a cell-phone that tries to converge gets nothing but derision on slashdot. Now Apple make one, that really doesn't add anything new (apart from looking sexy-as) and everyone is reaching for the Kleenex. It's completely dumbfounding to me as someone who has been defending convergence-phones for years in slashdot discussions.
If they can get Remote Desktop to work on this (there is a client MS released for OSX, but it is slow as shit) then I guarantee every admin at my company will be trying to expense this thing.
Remote Desktop and VNC have been available on the Windows Mobile platform for at least three years. WiFi is a necessity though if you want to actually get anything useful done.
How much time do you want to spend SSH'ing from a terminal without a keyboard?
Been there, done that. It's absolutely horrid. I've done it with T9 input devices and on-screen keyboards. After a while I resolved that all future devices for me have a keyboard.
My current device already has OpenVPN, SSH, VNC and most importantly, a keyboard. I'm not seeing many admins quite excited as you make out, but I do know a few that use them. It makes being on-call from the pub easy!
Is that because everybody you know works at the same place you do? I'll make a bet with you that less than 10% of american workers have camera phone restrictions. Are you in?
Well, that number is certainly increasing. Given recent coverage of mobile phone footage (e.g. Iraq), what do you think will change? Will people stop doing bad things? Or will they just tighten down on recording devices?
You can't take a camera phone into some cinemas now. The employment thing is suprisingly common, so much so that the phone/PDA I currently use comes in an alternative model minus the camera. I'll take their marketing info that led to that decision over your glib comment any day.
I'm late on this one, but I definitely think that mobile phones which play MP3s are a waste of time. I've never used the MP3 playback facility on the various phones I've had, because mp3 playback hasn't been core to the device - it's always been an ill thought out added extra, and the phone has been just that - a phone. With a mp3 player. With a crap cut down internet browser. With woeful email capability.
Really? I've been using a phone as my primary portable media player for at least four years. The mere fact that you always have it with you is killer for me. You don't need to think to bring your player as you have it anyway. Great for walks home from the pub and such like.
My current device has several full-featured internet browser (including Opera) and the email is more than adequate. Full POP/IMAP functionality with optional SSL encrytion (which is a must IMHO). Attachments work as normal as well, plus you can forward an SMS to email and vice-versa.
I second the other replies suggestion of getting a protector. I've had a touchscreen PDA or phone for years and since my first one got a scratch I've always had a protector. A $10 shield to protect a $300 display is worth every penny.
It's only slightly higher than existing smartphones that have fewer features.
Sorry, but that's just plain wrong. The phone I've had for the past two years does everything this iPhone does AND it has a slide out keyboard. WiFi, Skype, mp3/wma/mpeg/avi/ogg/ogm playback, camera, data, full HTML browser, pop/imap. Complete free dev kit so if it doesn't run it you can write it yourself. Useful apps like OpenVPN and PuTTY have been ported to it.
The only thing that gives this the potential to really stand out are form-factor and user-interface. Apple normally excel at these subjects, so it's definitely interesting times.
Besides, Windows Mobile is intentionally crippled to not be this cool. It has a screen resolution limit, supposedly to differentiate itself from PocketPC.
There is zero truth in that statement. The phones have the same resolution, in fact the newer phones have double the resolution of the old Pocket PC devices.
See the internet features more as a projection of the future - I can't see myself paying my network at their data rates to use them, or even at most wifi hotspots, but I spend most of my day at work or home, within range of private WiFi networks, and I could see myself using a device like this for a lot of light browsing tasks (reading email, etc)
I completely agree. I've had a phone with built in WiFi for a couple of years and it's great being able to check your email or remote control Winamp for free. Prior to that I had a similar device lacking in WiFi and I rarely used the GPRS data connection. Not only is it slow, but it's costly.
Having OpenVPN, SSH and VNC in my pocket at all times is extremely useful.
From a business perspective, Fujitsu-Siemens would better advertise their hidden fully-functional USB ports rather than keep them secret: This laptop was advertised as having 3 USB ports, and if at that time I wasn't in a hurry I could have preferred another laptop with 4 ports. As a customer I generally prefer lots of USB ports, so from a marketing perspective Fujitsu-Siemens fails to advertise a feature of their laptops that could potentially be good for their sales.
Agreed on the USB count, my current laptop has 5! Very very handy. I reckon that the odd number is because the sixth one is the webcam. Under Windows you can see this in the device manager when "view devices by connection".
But as the other reply says, your internal port is for the bluetooth module. I find it quite encouraging that they are using standard protocols for these devices. IIRC the BT module on mine (also optional) uses a proprietary connection.
Not advertising this as a feature means that they are either too stupid, too busy to document their own systems, or too secretive. The scary thing is that such a USB port in that place could potentially be used for spying or tracking laptop usage. Sure, it may be useful if I am a business and I want to track how my employees use the company's laptops, but one could also use such a "secret" USB port for attaching an antenna or keylogger on it and then selling or giving the laptop to a victim, and then collecting credit card numbers and passwords.
There is worse than that out there! Many business laptops have RF technology built into a chip on the board as standard. The site admin can set up a receiver at the companies door to track when the device leaves the building. On some it's even possible to lock the laptop if it's not supposed to leave the site. This is built into the BIOS eprom on some IBM laptops for example. Knowledge of this functionality is not very public; the only reason I know about it is that I used to work in a place that used them and had friendly sys-admins always willing to talk tech to a fellow geek.
Besides, unless you wipe the OS that comes bundled, are you really sure that you don't have a keylogger already?;-) And, there was yesterdays story about the ActiveX control on Acer laptops that allows full remote scripting from any website...
Not seen many myself, but when I recently was shopping for laptops a number of Acer models caught my eye. They had a fairly decent range at good prices. Not sure on the quality, but with IBM no longer making them your choices for well made laptops are diminishing.
You don't pay escorts for that sort of thing. You pay them to go away and not bother you again when you are done with them. Wining and dining a chick is a similar cost just to get into their knickers, but then you have to put up with their nonsense after that! Unless it's someone you actually connect with of course!
I tend to find that when you start talking dirty to them, you get what you want. Just ask "what are you wearing?" and they'll want you off the line asap! Works best with cold-callers; quickest way to get yourself removed from their list. Their employees could sue them as you are a liability!;-)
most probably the extra port was there for bluetoth support. however, i did not like the fact that as a customer I was not told about it.
That's an insane attitude. Do you have any idea how many other unused parts there are in any PC? Strip it down to the motherboard and you'll find blank places for additional ports. Sometimes these even have blankers on the case in laptops. I used to work as an engineer in a laptop factory and one of our models had the places for a 9V adapter (it had a mains adapter as standard) as well as space for more video ram and a COM port. Never once were these ever used in any models we made, apart from a couple of prototypes. You'd need to see the board or the schematics to even know about their existence.
You got what you paid for. Consider the "hidden" usb port a bonus. My current laptop has a built-in webcam hooked up to one of these ports. The internal architecture really isn't all that important to me as an end-user.
I also do the unique email thing and it's left me pleasantly surprised. Not one company has sold my address. However, my personal one which I give to friends and family gets a lot of the recent stock spam. I can only guess that someone who has my email address has had their PC zombied. This can happen even in forwarded email as the malware can scan messages for addresses too.
It's as if these companies and corporations don't have proper protocols or procedures for cancellation.
Not really. The whole point of the article (and much of the comments here) is that these systems have been specifically designed to make the cancellation difficult. AOL are particularly bad; there was a case in the media (and here on/.) where a subscriber recorded the bullshit he went through trying to cancel. Most of the time it's completely artificial hurdles that they put in place to keep the customer.
He was tried in Finland using Finish law. As the link you provided says, he was prosecuted by the Finish authorities after a request from the USA. That's quite different to this case.
Allofmp3 operates completely inside of russia - only their customers are in the US. Yes, we can get a judgement and arrest them, but it isn't legal.
Tell that to David Carruthers, who has been on house arrest in his hotel for the last six months while awaiting trial. Quote:
The charges are several, including 'Mail Fraud', 'Transmission of Wagers/Wagering Information', 'Interstate Transportation of Gambling Paraphernalia', and 'Interference with Administration of Internal Revenue Laws', specifically the evasion of Federal wagering excise taxes[10].
Coming straight after the controversial extradition of the NatWest Three, to which it has been compared because both cases involve the indictment of non-US persons for actions taken outside the United States, the Carruthers case has attracted much media attention.
As it stands, well, it doesn't - you can't sue someone in NY state for something they did in Russia and never brought to the actual state.
That's incorrect I'm afraid. Take the example of the casino guys who were arrested when they touched down at an US airport on a business trip. It's actually very similar to this case and I'm sure that the USA isn't on the AllofMP3's guys vacation plans for this reason.
Slashdot Mirror
Fair play, but it's pretty useless in a palm-held device. You only have one-thumb and single-handed operation is a must in these devices. Microsoft made that big mistake in their 2003 Mobile OS and all subsequent ones have focused on fixing this. Two hands is fine when you are at a desk, but it's not really useful out on the street. Trust me, I've always been a bleeding-edge cell-phone user and I've felt the pain on this. I've even ran bootleg OS's to move up to the most recent builds just to get these enhancements.
I also cannot think of many useful applications for dual input, but time will tell on that one. I've seen the tech demos incorporating lava-lamp graphics demos and so on, so I'm familiar with the technology. I just can't think of any software on a portable device that would benefit from it.
I'm just a little confused with all of the excitement here. Normally a cell-phone that tries to converge gets nothing but derision on slashdot. Now Apple make one, that really doesn't add anything new (apart from looking sexy-as) and everyone is reaching for the Kleenex. It's completely dumbfounding to me as someone who has been defending convergence-phones for years in slashdot discussions.
Remote Desktop and VNC have been available on the Windows Mobile platform for at least three years. WiFi is a necessity though if you want to actually get anything useful done.
Been there, done that. It's absolutely horrid. I've done it with T9 input devices and on-screen keyboards. After a while I resolved that all future devices for me have a keyboard.
My current device already has OpenVPN, SSH, VNC and most importantly, a keyboard. I'm not seeing many admins quite excited as you make out, but I do know a few that use them. It makes being on-call from the pub easy!
Well, that number is certainly increasing. Given recent coverage of mobile phone footage (e.g. Iraq), what do you think will change? Will people stop doing bad things? Or will they just tighten down on recording devices?
You can't take a camera phone into some cinemas now. The employment thing is suprisingly common, so much so that the phone/PDA I currently use comes in an alternative model minus the camera. I'll take their marketing info that led to that decision over your glib comment any day.
Really? I've been using a phone as my primary portable media player for at least four years. The mere fact that you always have it with you is killer for me. You don't need to think to bring your player as you have it anyway. Great for walks home from the pub and such like.
My current device has several full-featured internet browser (including Opera) and the email is more than adequate. Full POP/IMAP functionality with optional SSL encrytion (which is a must IMHO). Attachments work as normal as well, plus you can forward an SMS to email and vice-versa.
I second the other replies suggestion of getting a protector. I've had a touchscreen PDA or phone for years and since my first one got a scratch I've always had a protector. A $10 shield to protect a $300 display is worth every penny.
Sorry, but that's just plain wrong. The phone I've had for the past two years does everything this iPhone does AND it has a slide out keyboard. WiFi, Skype, mp3/wma/mpeg/avi/ogg/ogm playback, camera, data, full HTML browser, pop/imap. Complete free dev kit so if it doesn't run it you can write it yourself. Useful apps like OpenVPN and PuTTY have been ported to it.
The only thing that gives this the potential to really stand out are form-factor and user-interface. Apple normally excel at these subjects, so it's definitely interesting times.
There is zero truth in that statement. The phones have the same resolution, in fact the newer phones have double the resolution of the old Pocket PC devices.
I completely agree. I've had a phone with built in WiFi for a couple of years and it's great being able to check your email or remote control Winamp for free. Prior to that I had a similar device lacking in WiFi and I rarely used the GPRS data connection. Not only is it slow, but it's costly.
Having OpenVPN, SSH and VNC in my pocket at all times is extremely useful.
In what way? Name one feature the iPhone has that these haven't had for several years.
Agreed on the USB count, my current laptop has 5! Very very handy. I reckon that the odd number is because the sixth one is the webcam. Under Windows you can see this in the device manager when "view devices by connection".
But as the other reply says, your internal port is for the bluetooth module. I find it quite encouraging that they are using standard protocols for these devices. IIRC the BT module on mine (also optional) uses a proprietary connection.
There is worse than that out there! Many business laptops have RF technology built into a chip on the board as standard. The site admin can set up a receiver at the companies door to track when the device leaves the building. On some it's even possible to lock the laptop if it's not supposed to leave the site. This is built into the BIOS eprom on some IBM laptops for example. Knowledge of this functionality is not very public; the only reason I know about it is that I used to work in a place that used them and had friendly sys-admins always willing to talk tech to a fellow geek.
Besides, unless you wipe the OS that comes bundled, are you really sure that you don't have a keylogger already? ;-) And, there was yesterdays story about the ActiveX control on Acer laptops that allows full remote scripting from any website...
Not seen many myself, but when I recently was shopping for laptops a number of Acer models caught my eye. They had a fairly decent range at good prices. Not sure on the quality, but with IBM no longer making them your choices for well made laptops are diminishing.
You don't pay escorts for that sort of thing. You pay them to go away and not bother you again when you are done with them. Wining and dining a chick is a similar cost just to get into their knickers, but then you have to put up with their nonsense after that! Unless it's someone you actually connect with of course!
I tend to find that when you start talking dirty to them, you get what you want. Just ask "what are you wearing?" and they'll want you off the line asap! Works best with cold-callers; quickest way to get yourself removed from their list. Their employees could sue them as you are a liability! ;-)
That's an insane attitude. Do you have any idea how many other unused parts there are in any PC? Strip it down to the motherboard and you'll find blank places for additional ports. Sometimes these even have blankers on the case in laptops. I used to work as an engineer in a laptop factory and one of our models had the places for a 9V adapter (it had a mains adapter as standard) as well as space for more video ram and a COM port. Never once were these ever used in any models we made, apart from a couple of prototypes. You'd need to see the board or the schematics to even know about their existence.
You got what you paid for. Consider the "hidden" usb port a bonus. My current laptop has a built-in webcam hooked up to one of these ports. The internal architecture really isn't all that important to me as an end-user.
I also do the unique email thing and it's left me pleasantly surprised. Not one company has sold my address. However, my personal one which I give to friends and family gets a lot of the recent stock spam. I can only guess that someone who has my email address has had their PC zombied. This can happen even in forwarded email as the malware can scan messages for addresses too.
You could also try becoming a suspect in a UK serial killer case. His account was cancelled within hours of it becoming publicly known that it was his.
Not really. The whole point of the article (and much of the comments here) is that these systems have been specifically designed to make the cancellation difficult. AOL are particularly bad; there was a case in the media (and here on /.) where a subscriber recorded the bullshit he went through trying to cancel. Most of the time it's completely artificial hurdles that they put in place to keep the customer.
And you score unusually high for anti-social traits. Methinks you don't get laid much.
Damn, there goes my argument, lost to a typo.
Big deal, I mixed up a Scandinavian country. Us Scots get it all the time, I'm sure they'll get over it.
Doesn't change the argument a bit. Your post could have been reduced to a simple "it's Norway, not Finland", if you hadn't been such a jerk.
He was tried in Finland using Finish law. As the link you provided says, he was prosecuted by the Finish authorities after a request from the USA. That's quite different to this case.
Tell that to David Carruthers, who has been on house arrest in his hotel for the last six months while awaiting trial. Quote:
In a sane world, I'm sure you'd be able to apologise to her for that. As things stand, you would just be setting yourself up for being sued.
There is. Go and see the artist on a tour, or buy other merchandise. They get far more out of those sales than through record sales.
That's incorrect I'm afraid. Take the example of the casino guys who were arrested when they touched down at an US airport on a business trip. It's actually very similar to this case and I'm sure that the USA isn't on the AllofMP3's guys vacation plans for this reason.
Judges? Sensible? What zip code is the rock you are living under? ;-)