For the love of god, can we hear one good thing about WP7 that is not from an AC?
It's unlikely.
Microsoft spent an enormous amount of money (half a billion dollars) with online and MSM reputation managers trying to generate a buzz around the "brilliant but misunderstood" WP7, but the reality for just about everyone who used one was that they're limited, corporate-kindergarten ugly, and shallow. I've tried a couple of their phones, including a recent Lumia and decided they bring nothing new to the table. Certainly nothing to attract people away from Android or iOS.
Turns out Microsoft is really interested in your conversation with your grandma.
Possibly not. But they would be interested in cooperating with governments for this sort of behaviour.
In 2001, the Australian government refused permission for the Norwegian ship MV Tampa to enter Australian waters because it was carrying 400 refugees who had been rescued from a sinking boat. Prime Minister John Howard sent Australian special forces to board the ship and prevent the refugees from being disembarked.
This created a major controversy in the run up to a general election.
Years later, the inspector general of Intelligence and Security found that in addition to the "extensive-and legal-surveillance of communications" to and from the Tampa, the government used illegal phone taps to monitor the communications between the lawyer for the shipping line and his clients.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tampa_affair
People who have turned hatred of a particular company into a sort of religion.
The foundations of most religions are based on common sense. Some of their beliefs and activities seem ridiculous now because they're responding to events or conditions that ended centuries or millennia ago.
For many contributors here, our distaste for matters Microsoft are based on things that happened during our lifetimes, and are often still happening.
Nokia's Windows phone is not being ignored because it is worse or disliked
Having tried several W7 phones, I agree with Tomi Ahonen. It's not good enough and doesn't do enough.
9. From TFA:
"Reason 9 - the OS is deficient. The Windows Phone OS can seem exciting when first seen with its 'Tiles' but on short usage it reveals how limited and unfinished it is. The tech reviews after using Windows Phone (and Lumia) are quite consistent that Windows Phone is not yet ready for prime time. It may become so in the future, but its not yet nearly competitive with advanced OS platforms out there."
Android works for me. iOS works for many others, and Microsoft's phones bring nothing compelling to the table to make either switch.
What happens when 50% of these things show up DOA?
Hasn't happened so far.
Failure rates don't seem to be significantly different from any other computers we've used, but at least these are cheap enough for us to carry plenty of spares.
It'll cost you a fraction of the price of the Lenovo or any other branded equivalent, look prettier for the kids and work fine with whatever distro you specify.
These things are commodities now, especially in an elementary school setting. Why pay a premium?
It'll be a huge boost to Apple's proprietary equivalent,
More likely it'll be huge boost to several scattered cross-platform alternatives like Tango, Viber, Fring or GTalk/VTok, at least in in the short term.
Google announced Tuesday, June 5, 2012, that it has bought Quickoffice, the maker of a widely used mobile application for working on documents created in Microsoft's programs for word processing, spreadsheets and presentations.
Have you seen what you can get for that sort of money these days?
http://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale?SearchText=microscope&CatId=0&manual=y&SortType=price_desc&filterCat=100005627%2C190405%2C15370799&page=31
In lots of 100 or more, you can get them for less than $75. Smaller resellers often package them with a reasonable version of Android pre-installed. I'm guessing they all count as a Windows phone sales.
It's vaguely possible Microsoft is floating the horrible W8 desktop interface in front of reviewers to generate the buzz, but then release an (expensive) "Enterprise" version that works exactly like a cosmetically enhanced W7. They'll release it with a fanfare saying "we listened to our adoring fans, and this is the result.".
MSM "journalists" will lap it up, comparing it favorably to the Metro'd atrocity doing the rounds now, and conveniently forgetting they'd just been presented with a lukewarm rehash of the OS they'd already paid for many years earlier.
Of course, the alternative view is that sales of Android rocketed past Windows licenses last year, and are looking set to double W7's sales figures well before the end of this year. That's got to be terrifying to a company structured so heavily around lock-in. Maybe W8 is the result of raw panic after all...
Slashdot Mirror
So what do you call an Australian in space?
Do you people even listen to yourselves?
That's the only people they ARE listening to.
They've saturated the tech discussion sites with so much astroturf it's like an echo chamber.
For the love of god, can we hear one good thing about WP7 that is not from an AC?
It's unlikely.
Microsoft spent an enormous amount of money (half a billion dollars) with online and MSM reputation managers trying to generate a buzz around the "brilliant but misunderstood" WP7, but the reality for just about everyone who used one was that they're limited, corporate-kindergarten ugly, and shallow. I've tried a couple of their phones, including a recent Lumia and decided they bring nothing new to the table. Certainly nothing to attract people away from Android or iOS.
Now that the deluge of astroturf is subsiding, real reviews are rising to the surface. This was one discussed here recently.
http://communities-dominate.blogs.com/brands/2012/03/brutal-truth-about-lumia-cannot-sustain-even-1-to-1-replacement-of-symbian-windows-phone-strategy-do.html
Who is offended, other than the people who type "M$" over and over again
Presumably the people who keep complaining about that particular shorthand. Oddly, "MS" doesn't seem to inspire the same level of aggravation.
And these are just words on a screen. How could they have any power to offend?
Turns out Microsoft is really interested in your conversation with your grandma.
Possibly not. But they would be interested in cooperating with governments for this sort of behaviour.
In 2001, the Australian government refused permission for the Norwegian ship MV Tampa to enter Australian waters because it was carrying 400 refugees who had been rescued from a sinking boat. Prime Minister John Howard sent Australian special forces to board the ship and prevent the refugees from being disembarked.
This created a major controversy in the run up to a general election.
Years later, the inspector general of Intelligence and Security found that in addition to the "extensive-and legal-surveillance of communications" to and from the Tampa, the government used illegal phone taps to monitor the communications between the lawyer for the shipping line and his clients.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tampa_affair
People who have turned hatred of a particular company into a sort of religion.
The foundations of most religions are based on common sense. Some of their beliefs and activities seem ridiculous now because they're responding to events or conditions that ended centuries or millennia ago.
For many contributors here, our distaste for matters Microsoft are based on things that happened during our lifetimes, and are often still happening.
Nokia's Windows phone is not being ignored because it is worse or disliked
Having tried several W7 phones, I agree with Tomi Ahonen. It's not good enough and doesn't do enough.
9. From TFA:
"Reason 9 - the OS is deficient. The Windows Phone OS can seem exciting when first seen with its 'Tiles' but on short usage it reveals how limited and unfinished it is. The tech reviews after using Windows Phone (and Lumia) are quite consistent that Windows Phone is not yet ready for prime time. It may become so in the future, but its not yet nearly competitive with advanced OS platforms out there."
Android works for me. iOS works for many others, and Microsoft's phones bring nothing compelling to the table to make either switch.
People there are switching to Viber in droves.
It's a fickle market these days.
No.
What happens when 50% of these things show up DOA?
Hasn't happened so far.
Failure rates don't seem to be significantly different from any other computers we've used, but at least these are cheap enough for us to carry plenty of spares.
It'll cost you a fraction of the price of the Lenovo or any other branded equivalent, look prettier for the kids and work fine with whatever distro you specify.
These things are commodities now, especially in an elementary school setting. Why pay a premium?
It'll be a huge boost to Apple's proprietary equivalent,
More likely it'll be huge boost to several scattered cross-platform alternatives like Tango, Viber, Fring or GTalk/VTok, at least in in the short term.
Or, I could spent a fiver, and the ad disappears.
For how long?
it's no different than App Creator
App inventor wasn't killed.
It was gifted to MIT. You can use it here: http://www.appinventor.mit.edu/
"Vivid roleplaying of homosexual violence (commonly found in sports)."
Don't complain.
At least playing rugby keeps them off our streets and out of our zoos.
I one can't wait. Where do I send my money?
Google.
Google announced Tuesday, June 5, 2012, that it has bought Quickoffice, the maker of a widely used mobile application for working on documents created in Microsoft's programs for word processing, spreadsheets and presentations.
http://www.boston.com/business/technology/2012/06/06/google-buys-maker-quickoffice-mobile-app/YGEpy0iBT7PxGI09lSXhpM/story.html
That's one of the reasons I'm betting this sort of gadget will be a game-changer.
Intel QX3
Maybe a decade ago.
Have you seen what you can get for that sort of money these days?
http://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale?SearchText=microscope&CatId=0&manual=y&SortType=price_desc&filterCat=100005627%2C190405%2C15370799&page=31
Windows phones probably are outselling iPhones in China because the iPhone still has limited carrier selectivity.
There might be other reasons.
Original samsung i900 8GB/16GB cell phone unlocked Windows 3G 5MP
Price: US $81.00 - 101.00 / piece
http://www.aliexpress.com/product-fm/566727336-original-samsung-i900-8GB-16GB-cell-phone-unlocked-windows-3G-5MP-wholesalers.html.
In lots of 100 or more, you can get them for less than $75. Smaller resellers often package them with a reasonable version of Android pre-installed. I'm guessing they all count as a Windows phone sales.
They're spending $28,000,000 to do the same thing.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-57449783-76/u.s-navy-turns-to-linux-to-run-its-drone-fleet/
Why would they bother when Microsoft is doing so well at that themselves?
I keep thinking they must have something else up their sleeve.
You may be right - they do have a history of using Queen's ducks to distract reviewers.
There was the mandatory Vista startup sound http://slashdot.org/story/06/08/31/2347201/vista-startup-sound-to-be-mandatory, 3 app limit for W7 starter http://tech.slashdot.org/story/09/04/21/1356245/windows-7-starter-edition-3-apps-only, etc etc.
It's vaguely possible Microsoft is floating the horrible W8 desktop interface in front of reviewers to generate the buzz, but then release an (expensive) "Enterprise" version that works exactly like a cosmetically enhanced W7. They'll release it with a fanfare saying "we listened to our adoring fans, and this is the result.".
MSM "journalists" will lap it up, comparing it favorably to the Metro'd atrocity doing the rounds now, and conveniently forgetting they'd just been presented with a lukewarm rehash of the OS they'd already paid for many years earlier.
Of course, the alternative view is that sales of Android rocketed past Windows licenses last year, and are looking set to double W7's sales figures well before the end of this year. That's got to be terrifying to a company structured so heavily around lock-in. Maybe W8 is the result of raw panic after all...
My dad has an old eMac on it's last legs. Should I tell him to sell it to a bank?
And wait.
The nightmare wrt google docs is writing a doc in word, passing it to google docs for somebody's editing,
That's the nightmare for ANYONE trying to inter-operate with Microsoft.
And since it's the result of deliberate efforts by Microsoft to fight open standards, it should result in them being banned from government tenders.
http://www.adjb.net/post/Microsoft-Fails-the-Standards-Test.aspx
http://www.consortiuminfo.org/standardsblog/index.php?topic=20051116124417686
http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/open-enterprise/2012/04/1how-microsoft-fought-true-open-standards-i/index.htm