Apple do not take a lower profit on the iPad because the App Store/iTunes is making hay for them - they have stated repeatedly (and in official earning statements) that the store is break even/small profit for them. The vast, vast bulk of their profit is in hardware sales of iPhones and iPads.
The App Store and iTunes Store are the things that they run at very low profit (for Apple - the two stores are very profitable for content owners like the music industry and software developers) in order to drive hardware sales.
Apple had little choice - they went to the carriers and AT&T were the only ones who said yes, but in exchange wanted an exclusive deal. No one other than Apple really believed that Apple's "iPhone, whatever that is" would take off - remember, the previous attempt was that Motorola disaster (the ROKR was it?) that was launched at Macworld and had iTunes integration and so on.
Once it was a success, AT&T were well placed with their very long exclusivity deal in the US. You can be damn sure Apple wanted to give it to other carriers (namely Verizon) as soon as they were contractually able to - they are a hardware company that makes the bulk of their money on hardware sales!
So, you *still* need to buy an adapter, but because it's an adapter for the camera, not the Android tablet that has the microSD port it doesn't count as a negative against the tablet...
The ranty McRanterson post up there was frothing about the iPad needing adapters to give it "basic functionality", and it has been pointed out that many Android tablets are in exactly the same boat. It's one or the other - either the argument is a bogus criticism, or it's an argument that applies to a large number of non-Apple tablets too.
Ah, so when it's convenient, the "clueless user" defence is ok (compared to all the times when the reverse is true, e.g. when news of android malware comes up "clueless users get what they deserve! that's the price of free [as in beer] software!" etc etc.
Plus, why is Quicktime adding itself to your login items? Do you mean iTunes Helper?
Ah yes, the optional file extension change, that you can say no to.
It's also more than just a video player, but you knew that.
iTunes uses Quicktime for all of its media playback, that's why it's there. I don't have any videos on my iPhone either, but both it and iTunes use Quicktime daily.
Nice that you are attempting to equate the requirement for a bailout with a socialised healthcare system though, as if that had anything to do with the reason the economies of Italy, Ireland and especially Greece are in serious trouble.
I mean, my car ran out of fuel the other day, and I realised it was because it runs on diesel, not gasoline! Silly me, that's why it ran out! It's so obvious now.
I think you'll find it is - reference any of the stories on slashdot about the way the 3G system works, and how the packets are identified on the network.
You're now changing your argument, since you seem to be no longer denying that the iPhone "can't" tether, so it seems like I'm arguing with someone who started from an incorrect position and it learning and changing their argument as they go. Perhaps you should familiarise yourself with all the facts before getting into a debate, especially if your opening argument is to state something factually incorrect to "correct" me on something that I am doing with my phone right this second.
Being propped up by Germany and several other EU nations, as are Italy and Ireland.
Greece is what happens when you take things like the Bush Tax Cuts and turn them into a national motto. Their economy is in the tank because they simply do not raise enough tax revenue to cover expenditure. It has nothing to do with the fact that they have socialised healthcare.
I was being facetious, since the argument was very silly to start with - that somehow union workers 'don't live in the real world' (i.e., the implication that they are coddled, live the life of riley and have cushy salaries and benefits - in other words, all the things the right wing media and the corporations want you to believe)
Please do. The USA caused more political unrest in the Middle East over the course of its attempts to control access to oil than any other nation. You're the reason we're in this mess, and we have long been working our way out of it, especially on attempting to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.
Either way, it's irrelevant. We spend less than half the GDP per capita on healthcare that the US does (as do the bulk of countries with socialised healthcare) *despite* your large military spending. In other words, your bravado "America, World Police, Fuck Yeah!" doesn't help your point - we are already spending less per capita on healthcare than you are... so what? We're doing that because we are being "backed up" by the US military, and thus can afford to spend less on our own military? That is a total non-sequitur. It might make a tiny bit of sense if the figures were reversed (i.e., we spend twice as much per capita on healthcare, but we do not).
Funny, the UK spends less than half of the GDP per capita compared to the US, for a similar standard of care (and encompassing the entirety of our population, not just those who can afford it).
The propaganda machine worked very well to convince Americans that socialised health care systems were backward, stone age, expensive disasters when they are really.... not. They are not perfect, and will never claim that they are - the UK NHS does need some serious attention, but it is light years ahead of the US system. It's not even close.
You're also one to talk about "black holes" in the national budget, keeping two wars off the books. The annual cost of the UK's healthcare provision (approximately 50 billion pounds, or 82/83 billion USD) is nothing compared to that, or the huge hole opened by the bush era tax cuts for the wealthy.
The UK spends 8% of its GDP per capita on healthcare and *everyone* is covered. The US spends 16% of its GDP per capita and there are millions of Americans who are not covered, and a huge number who get into crippling debt if they get sick.
The NHS is far from a "black hole" in our budget - it is certainly one of the most expensive things by a long chalk, but it is very cost effective for the care it provides. It suffered 20 years of neglect under a right wing government in the 80s that wanted to kill it but knew they couldn't do it outright, so they tried to starve it to death, and it is still recovering to this day (with bungling of modernisation by both sides of the political spectrum in the wake of the Thatcher years), but it is one of the shining examples of modern Britain to come out of the post war years.
Don't believe everything the right wing media tells you about "death panels" and "doctor rationing" and "financially crippling to the economy" - they are what as known as "lies".
We certainly don;t have the best example in Europe (Sweden and Norway are far better, as is France), but we are head and shoulders above the US. I have extensive experience of both systems, so I am well positioned to be able to directly compare them.
It's a shame, because the standard of care in US hospitals is excellent, there's just a massive impenetrable wall in front of the entrances, or more accurately, the hospitals are behind huge moats with sharks and rocks. You can buy a boat to get across, or you can pay insurance to be able to rent one if you need it. We just built a bridge over the moat here in the UK, and everyone chips in a few pounds per month from their paycheque to keep the bridge in good repair (but you can still go with private insurance and private healthcare if you like). The fact that everyone pays a little means that the costs are much, much, much lower for everyone.
I've got news for you - how you use the data *is* your carrier's decision if they so wish. They are not obligated to provide the service to you (i.e., the contract you sign is quite specific).
I'm not sure how I can explain it any more simply than "iPhone = tethering = I am doing it", so your claim that it "doesn't work" is simply fallacious. The US carriers disable it, although I just googled it - you *CAN* tether on AT&T with the iPhone. Funny that.
So, it seems even in the US they have come around, although you have to have a tethering plan.
Either way, the fact that it "works" on a nokia and not an iPhone is not a manufacturer issue - it's a detection by the carrier. You can see this easily by putting my O2 sim into a US iPhone and then tethering works right away (even on AT&T's network).
You're trying to spin this as some sort of "Apple is evil and cripples their phones!" conspiracy, but it's really nothing to do with them. They don't do anything on the phone that blocks the tethering ability - that is entirely enforced by the carrier that detects the type of phone being used.
well, I live in a different world altogether - I live under a national healthcare system, so the reason these particular strikes started in the first place was solved for us as a nation after WW2.
Here in the real world, everyone but the US solved this problem too, but in 2011 the supposed "leader of the world" is the last major developed nation to have such a backward, broken healthcare system.
I'm certainly not jealous, not even a little bit.
(And disclaimer, I have lived under both systems.)
"Apple" does not block features - the carriers block features. The version of iOS that runs on my phone is no different to the one you have in the USA (I know because I used to live there, and updated using the US version of iTunes etc). It's a *carrier* decision on wether to allow certain features, and as far as tethering goes, the iPhone supports it just fine. "Apple" is not blocking it in the US, which is demonstrated easily by putting in a SIM card from any other carrier (it's not just the UK, tethering is common in nearly all the countries where the iPhone is sold) into a standard US iPhone and tethering works immediately.
The phone has the ability - Apple are not blocking it at all. Amusingly, I can even tether my iPhone, over AT&T's network, using my O2 iPhone (although I tend not to when travelling to the US because of the roaming charges).
Now, on bluetooth, they just didn't give iOS the ability to transfer files over bluetooth - that *is* an Apple restriction, likely because of the way iOS handles files (it doesn't really expose a filesystem to the user)
Yes, I know it might be hard for you to understand but I am agreeing with your point about bluetooth file transfer, I was just addressing why I mentioned the link to OS X, since the bluetoth stack in iOS is essentially the exact same one that is in OS X.
And if by "small minority" of iPhone users who "can tether out of the box" you mean "everyone who is not in the USA" then, yes, I guess that is a "small minority".
The iPhone can tether out of the box, and it has been able to for a very long time. I use the feature frequently, and have been able to since I bought my first iPhone (a 3G). I now have a 3GS. It also tethers out of the box, with no need to jailbreak etc.
All of the UK carriers support it for certain, as do most of the carriers in all the other countries the phone is sold in. I think the exception to the rule is AT&T (and possibly Verizon), although I am not sure if they have changed their policies recently (it's been a while since I lived in the USA).
So, no "magical device", just a stock iPhone... that tethers, on my carrier. I could switch to any other carrier here and it would also be able to tether (oh, and my phone is not locked to one carrier either).
Oh I agree, but my point was to address the blanket statement that "gaming stinks" on touchscreen devices, when it clearly has a huge and ever-growing market of games that just weren't being adequately served by more "pure" gaming platforms - perhaps the DS was just about getting there, but the games were still expensive.
As a tangential point, that puts the PS Vitalite (ooooh, ooooh Vitalite!) in a slightly different demographic to the iPhone and iPod Touch, but certainly with some overlap.
My point re: bluetooth file transfer is that iOS uses the OS X bluetooth stack since it is derived from OS X. and OS X does do bluetooth file transfers, so there's no technical reason why the iPhone cannot - it wouldn't be hard to add it to iOS, especially if it was send-only on a per-app basis (to better fit with the way the filesystem is designed on iOS).
As far as "the iPhone can't do tethering", well my iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS would beg to differ. I use them with tethering all the time (and they are not jailbroken). It works just fine. So you might "really dunno what I'm talking about" because you are ignorant of the features of the phone and instead just repeating some often-modded-up lie on slashdot about it not being able to tether.
Just to make it clear: the iPhone 3g, 3GS and 4 support tethering by default out of the box with no jailbreaking.
Slashdot Mirror
Those were supposed to be two unequal lines, the iPad profit line being considerably longer.
App Store profits for Apple: ||
iPad profit on hardware sale: ||
Apple do not take a lower profit on the iPad because the App Store/iTunes is making hay for them - they have stated repeatedly (and in official earning statements) that the store is break even/small profit for them. The vast, vast bulk of their profit is in hardware sales of iPhones and iPads.
The App Store and iTunes Store are the things that they run at very low profit (for Apple - the two stores are very profitable for content owners like the music industry and software developers) in order to drive hardware sales.
Apple had little choice - they went to the carriers and AT&T were the only ones who said yes, but in exchange wanted an exclusive deal. No one other than Apple really believed that Apple's "iPhone, whatever that is" would take off - remember, the previous attempt was that Motorola disaster (the ROKR was it?) that was launched at Macworld and had iTunes integration and so on.
Once it was a success, AT&T were well placed with their very long exclusivity deal in the US. You can be damn sure Apple wanted to give it to other carriers (namely Verizon) as soon as they were contractually able to - they are a hardware company that makes the bulk of their money on hardware sales!
So, you *still* need to buy an adapter, but because it's an adapter for the camera, not the Android tablet that has the microSD port it doesn't count as a negative against the tablet...
The ranty McRanterson post up there was frothing about the iPad needing adapters to give it "basic functionality", and it has been pointed out that many Android tablets are in exactly the same boat. It's one or the other - either the argument is a bogus criticism, or it's an argument that applies to a large number of non-Apple tablets too.
Ah, so when it's convenient, the "clueless user" defence is ok (compared to all the times when the reverse is true, e.g. when news of android malware comes up "clueless users get what they deserve! that's the price of free [as in beer] software!" etc etc.
Plus, why is Quicktime adding itself to your login items? Do you mean iTunes Helper?
Ah yes, the optional file extension change, that you can say no to.
It's also more than just a video player, but you knew that.
iTunes uses Quicktime for all of its media playback, that's why it's there. I don't have any videos on my iPhone either, but both it and iTunes use Quicktime daily.
Because Quicktime is a core component of iTunes...
I'm not sure how it's anything but abusive to make me install X when I just want to to use a unix program with a GUI on OS X!
Similarly, it's just so abusive to make me install a Java VM when I want to run a Java app. I mean, it's simply intolerable!
Her stage name is Madame Palm and her Five Lovely Daughters.
One of the ones doing the bailing.
Nice that you are attempting to equate the requirement for a bailout with a socialised healthcare system though, as if that had anything to do with the reason the economies of Italy, Ireland and especially Greece are in serious trouble.
I mean, my car ran out of fuel the other day, and I realised it was because it runs on diesel, not gasoline! Silly me, that's why it ran out! It's so obvious now.
Yes, but the solution to that problem is not "eradicate unions", which was the thrust of the original AC's point.
To claim that unions are at fault is like blaming the iceberg for the Titanic sinking.
Yes, I would imagine so, since surface area is an important part of the model.
I think you'll find it is - reference any of the stories on slashdot about the way the 3G system works, and how the packets are identified on the network.
You're now changing your argument, since you seem to be no longer denying that the iPhone "can't" tether, so it seems like I'm arguing with someone who started from an incorrect position and it learning and changing their argument as they go. Perhaps you should familiarise yourself with all the facts before getting into a debate, especially if your opening argument is to state something factually incorrect to "correct" me on something that I am doing with my phone right this second.
Being propped up by Germany and several other EU nations, as are Italy and Ireland.
Greece is what happens when you take things like the Bush Tax Cuts and turn them into a national motto. Their economy is in the tank because they simply do not raise enough tax revenue to cover expenditure. It has nothing to do with the fact that they have socialised healthcare.
I was being facetious, since the argument was very silly to start with - that somehow union workers 'don't live in the real world' (i.e., the implication that they are coddled, live the life of riley and have cushy salaries and benefits - in other words, all the things the right wing media and the corporations want you to believe)
Please do. The USA caused more political unrest in the Middle East over the course of its attempts to control access to oil than any other nation. You're the reason we're in this mess, and we have long been working our way out of it, especially on attempting to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.
Either way, it's irrelevant. We spend less than half the GDP per capita on healthcare that the US does (as do the bulk of countries with socialised healthcare) *despite* your large military spending. In other words, your bravado "America, World Police, Fuck Yeah!" doesn't help your point - we are already spending less per capita on healthcare than you are... so what? We're doing that because we are being "backed up" by the US military, and thus can afford to spend less on our own military? That is a total non-sequitur. It might make a tiny bit of sense if the figures were reversed (i.e., we spend twice as much per capita on healthcare, but we do not).
Funny, the UK spends less than half of the GDP per capita compared to the US, for a similar standard of care (and encompassing the entirety of our population, not just those who can afford it).
The propaganda machine worked very well to convince Americans that socialised health care systems were backward, stone age, expensive disasters when they are really.... not. They are not perfect, and will never claim that they are - the UK NHS does need some serious attention, but it is light years ahead of the US system. It's not even close.
You're also one to talk about "black holes" in the national budget, keeping two wars off the books. The annual cost of the UK's healthcare provision (approximately 50 billion pounds, or 82/83 billion USD) is nothing compared to that, or the huge hole opened by the bush era tax cuts for the wealthy.
The UK spends 8% of its GDP per capita on healthcare and *everyone* is covered. The US spends 16% of its GDP per capita and there are millions of Americans who are not covered, and a huge number who get into crippling debt if they get sick.
The NHS is far from a "black hole" in our budget - it is certainly one of the most expensive things by a long chalk, but it is very cost effective for the care it provides. It suffered 20 years of neglect under a right wing government in the 80s that wanted to kill it but knew they couldn't do it outright, so they tried to starve it to death, and it is still recovering to this day (with bungling of modernisation by both sides of the political spectrum in the wake of the Thatcher years), but it is one of the shining examples of modern Britain to come out of the post war years.
Don't believe everything the right wing media tells you about "death panels" and "doctor rationing" and "financially crippling to the economy" - they are what as known as "lies".
We certainly don;t have the best example in Europe (Sweden and Norway are far better, as is France), but we are head and shoulders above the US. I have extensive experience of both systems, so I am well positioned to be able to directly compare them.
It's a shame, because the standard of care in US hospitals is excellent, there's just a massive impenetrable wall in front of the entrances, or more accurately, the hospitals are behind huge moats with sharks and rocks. You can buy a boat to get across, or you can pay insurance to be able to rent one if you need it. We just built a bridge over the moat here in the UK, and everyone chips in a few pounds per month from their paycheque to keep the bridge in good repair (but you can still go with private insurance and private healthcare if you like). The fact that everyone pays a little means that the costs are much, much, much lower for everyone.
I've got news for you - how you use the data *is* your carrier's decision if they so wish. They are not obligated to provide the service to you (i.e., the contract you sign is quite specific).
I'm not sure how I can explain it any more simply than "iPhone = tethering = I am doing it", so your claim that it "doesn't work" is simply fallacious. The US carriers disable it, although I just googled it - you *CAN* tether on AT&T with the iPhone. Funny that.
So, it seems even in the US they have come around, although you have to have a tethering plan.
Either way, the fact that it "works" on a nokia and not an iPhone is not a manufacturer issue - it's a detection by the carrier. You can see this easily by putting my O2 sim into a US iPhone and then tethering works right away (even on AT&T's network).
You're trying to spin this as some sort of "Apple is evil and cripples their phones!" conspiracy, but it's really nothing to do with them. They don't do anything on the phone that blocks the tethering ability - that is entirely enforced by the carrier that detects the type of phone being used.
well, I live in a different world altogether - I live under a national healthcare system, so the reason these particular strikes started in the first place was solved for us as a nation after WW2.
Here in the real world, everyone but the US solved this problem too, but in 2011 the supposed "leader of the world" is the last major developed nation to have such a backward, broken healthcare system.
I'm certainly not jealous, not even a little bit.
(And disclaimer, I have lived under both systems.)
Perhaps one where the balance of power is only 97% swung towards the corporate overlords, instead of 99.97%.
"Apple" does not block features - the carriers block features. The version of iOS that runs on my phone is no different to the one you have in the USA (I know because I used to live there, and updated using the US version of iTunes etc). It's a *carrier* decision on wether to allow certain features, and as far as tethering goes, the iPhone supports it just fine. "Apple" is not blocking it in the US, which is demonstrated easily by putting in a SIM card from any other carrier (it's not just the UK, tethering is common in nearly all the countries where the iPhone is sold) into a standard US iPhone and tethering works immediately.
The phone has the ability - Apple are not blocking it at all. Amusingly, I can even tether my iPhone, over AT&T's network, using my O2 iPhone (although I tend not to when travelling to the US because of the roaming charges).
Now, on bluetooth, they just didn't give iOS the ability to transfer files over bluetooth - that *is* an Apple restriction, likely because of the way iOS handles files (it doesn't really expose a filesystem to the user)
Yes, I know it might be hard for you to understand but I am agreeing with your point about bluetooth file transfer, I was just addressing why I mentioned the link to OS X, since the bluetoth stack in iOS is essentially the exact same one that is in OS X.
And if by "small minority" of iPhone users who "can tether out of the box" you mean "everyone who is not in the USA" then, yes, I guess that is a "small minority".
The iPhone can tether out of the box, and it has been able to for a very long time. I use the feature frequently, and have been able to since I bought my first iPhone (a 3G). I now have a 3GS. It also tethers out of the box, with no need to jailbreak etc.
All of the UK carriers support it for certain, as do most of the carriers in all the other countries the phone is sold in. I think the exception to the rule is AT&T (and possibly Verizon), although I am not sure if they have changed their policies recently (it's been a while since I lived in the USA).
So, no "magical device", just a stock iPhone... that tethers, on my carrier. I could switch to any other carrier here and it would also be able to tether (oh, and my phone is not locked to one carrier either).
How cute that you think union workers don't live in the real world.
Oh I agree, but my point was to address the blanket statement that "gaming stinks" on touchscreen devices, when it clearly has a huge and ever-growing market of games that just weren't being adequately served by more "pure" gaming platforms - perhaps the DS was just about getting there, but the games were still expensive.
As a tangential point, that puts the PS Vitalite (ooooh, ooooh Vitalite!) in a slightly different demographic to the iPhone and iPod Touch, but certainly with some overlap.
My point re: bluetooth file transfer is that iOS uses the OS X bluetooth stack since it is derived from OS X. and OS X does do bluetooth file transfers, so there's no technical reason why the iPhone cannot - it wouldn't be hard to add it to iOS, especially if it was send-only on a per-app basis (to better fit with the way the filesystem is designed on iOS).
As far as "the iPhone can't do tethering", well my iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS would beg to differ. I use them with tethering all the time (and they are not jailbroken). It works just fine. So you might "really dunno what I'm talking about" because you are ignorant of the features of the phone and instead just repeating some often-modded-up lie on slashdot about it not being able to tether.
Just to make it clear: the iPhone 3g, 3GS and 4 support tethering by default out of the box with no jailbreaking.
Like what? Anything that can be done on a touchscreen can be done with a mouse.
Playing a game on the train, or bus, especially while standing up.
Playing a game for a few minutes while waiting in a queue.
Playing a virtual piano keyboard, or other multitouch input where the screen being right underneath works better than a trackpad.