The mention of the number of accounts with credit cards was a response to the seemingly popular opinion that I have seen many times on slashdot that "developing for iOS is not a sensible business decision".
They are pointing out to developers that the installed base for iOS is huge, and profit is there to be made.
The whole keynote was full of stuff like this, with subtle ripostes to all of the criticism levelled at them - re, the price of the iPad and how it was "too high", or the install base, or the supposed "iPad will be shown up by all these Android tablets, just you wait" talk. Well, the new iPad came out and what do we have? The Xoom - an excellent tablet, but still more expensive than the iPad and still with no Flash, the supposed "necessary" thing that was missing from the iPad.
As far as trying to control users, it seems to fly in the face of what they're doing on OS X - their calendar and addressbook stuff is all open source, and they have been merging it into one project to make it more seamless, and their formats are all standards, many fully open.
Yes, they want to make a vertically integrated ecosystem that works top to bottom, but they also want you to be able to get in and out if you like with your data. Their ideal situation, I believe, is a closed ecosystem, supported by OSS in some areas, on top of open standards and formats - which is precisely what they are trying to build in OS X.
It's not that bad - overselling it like this just hurts your argument.
I have a 3G that I use everyday and it is far from "a slideshow". It certainly struggles with some tasks, especially if the GPS chip is activated - the location thread brings the thing to a crawl until it gets a lock on where it is.
It did get much better with the latest update though, so it went from "good" (on 3.x) to "terrible" at 4.0, and has been getting better as they work out the bugs. At least they are still trying - it's not like they have left 3G users out in the cold, and have been working on performance improvements for it still.
They all already are. This is a total non story. Any app that can access the web and that doesn't follow the Parental Controls in the OS has a "17+" warning that you have to click through (it doesn't stop you) to download it.
This is to keep Apple on the safe side of lawsuits from overly sensitive parents who might otherwise think their kids were "safe" online because the Parental Controls were switched on.
This "story" is just a quick way to stir up some flames and crucially, to get angry neckbeard Apple haters to click on the link and generate some ad revenue and page hits.
Apple (and many others) have put *a lot* into Webkit to make it what it is today - they have never claimed they invented it, but they chose KHTML specifically because it was an excellent open source project to start with, but to say it's simply "renamed" KHTML now is just utterly disingenuous. Apple are one of the primary reasons it is now a viable third option alongside Trident and Gecko for rendering HTML.
They sell 15 million of the first generation in 9 months - one of the most successful product launches ever, and the new one is very similar with some incremental updates and new features and you say they "missed the mark again"?
How could they have been any more successful if they tried? They were selling them as fast as they could make them!
The iPad also does support a stylus, Apple just doesn't sell one, but there are a number of third party ones and a number of apps that make use of them.
You can do that *right now* with iPad 1 - the adapter has CF and SD slots and a standard USB port on it. It connects to the dock connector, and supports (officially) USB mass storage and PTP and unofficially other stuff (like usb keyboards and so on).
Well, price wasn't really an issue before - people using Apple stuff paid the premium price, and just had to deal with a ton of neckbeards yelling "zomg its overpriced!!".
Now the tables are turned for the moment and no one seems to be able to make a decent tablet for less than or equal to the iPad's price (and now the iPad 2), despite the 6 to 7 months of crowing from the/. crowd that "cheaper, better Android tablets" would soon come along and topple the iPad's dominance.
Instead, we had a virtually unchallenged revision 1 product at a price point that was initially much lower than the estimates on the run up to the release that has just not been caught yet. The best shot so far has been the Xoom, which looks excellent, but is $799. As good as the iPad 2, but more expensive than the comparable model (by $70) and *a lot* more expensive than the non-3G ones (one of the few times Apple has lower-spec options and competitors don't if you really don't want the 3G).
They sold 15 million of them, uncontested, in 9 months, more than every other tablet ever made combined, and are now on revision 2 - matching many of the the Xoom's advantages (faster cpu, graphics, gyro, cameras) and still coming in at less than it costs.
Yet *still* neckbeards are saying it is too expensive. Perhaps for them - it doesn't seem to be affecting the sales.
Bluetooth keyboard works on the iPad 1. As of some time ago!
And no flash support, but is anyone really missing it all that much? It doesn't support Silverlight either, but there doesn't seem to be much clamouring over that.
It really did need an SD slot though - I really hoped they would add one.
I believe it uses "assistance" from Wifi to try and track where it is - probably via google knowing where your wifi hotspot is after driving past it with a van, plus geographical info from your public ip address.
And not all apps require the 3G data service for maps - the Tom Tom app, or numerous satnav apps all keep data on the device itself. The Motion GPS app lets you cache large amounts of map data for a specific area (limited only by your memory space) from its terrain and road maps for use when you've got no 3G/WiFi signal etc.
This is true, but there's only one Xoom. Isn't this what everyone rags on the iPhone 4, for? That the choice is limited compared to the many Android handsets out there? Choice is good!
If you don't need the 3G or the extra space you can save even more, but yes, a close-as-possible spec puts them at a $70 difference. People often say "Apple don't cater to the low end", but in this case I think they have.
Right, so right now at 1.5lb it's already lighter than most other tablets - it's 0.1 lb lighter than the Xoom, for example (and the new iPad 2 is 1.3 lb), so you have between 1.6 and 5 oz before you're even at the Xoom's weight.
You're just looking for ways to put it down. If you really can't handle having the extra weight in this outside use case of 10 hours battery not being enough, so you're into the 11th hour of a presentation, then just connect it to the external battery earlier in the day, or in your lunch break, or while it's in your bag if you really, really can't handle it being a smidge over 1.3 to 1.5 pounds (still less than any other tablets of its size).
It works, it's just not ideal. The iPhone 3G is a little RAM shy and a little slow, so it's somewhat limited. It has the same problem when I connect it to the stereo in my car - sometimes you have to plug it in a couple of times to prod it into replying. I sorted that by using an old iPod Touch with a smashed screen, which has no problems hooking up to the stereo. I think the 3G suffers a lot under iOS 4
Speaking of "own proprietary crap" it uses the standard USB mass storage, and PTP. So very "proprietary" it makes my had spin.
That's why it has sold 15 million units in the 9 months since its release.
Clearly so flawed that it just isn't useful to anyone, right?
Sure it could use a USB port, and I was hoping they'd put one on the iPad 2, but it doesn't seem to be affecting the utility of the product in any way. You think after 9 months someone might have noticed it has no USB port and requires an adapter.
There are several third party external batteries for the iPad and iPhone that power it in the event that 10 hours of charge is not enough for you. Some are separate items, the size and shape of batteries that you can plug into while your iPad is on a desk or in a bag or something, others are designed like iPad cases so you can continue holding it relatively unburdened (you just add the weight of the case+battery in this instance). These options take up no more space in your bag than a set of spare batteries for something with a replaceable set.
For the vast majority of cases, 10 hours is enough. For the smaller number of cases, there are ways around it. They chose to design it around the larger use cases though, hence, thin and light with non-removable odd-shape-fill-as-much-room battery.
So swap it for the other card, just like you would in the Xoom. What's the problem here?
Or do you think it's like windows where every new memory stick is a new piece of hardware it needs to "install" before use?
It's clear you're just looking for ways to hate the iPad, but you don't have to invent nonsensical reasons.
Say that you think the new covers are too expensive, and should really be free with the device (which I think they should), or that the HDMI adapter is expensive at $39.
Anything but "you can't put two SD cards into one slot, zomg fail".
By "Apple Police" you mean "The actual police, investigating an actual crime".
Apple does not have a police force, nor does it tell the actual real police force what to do. The actual police force will arrest people it suspects of a crime - sort of easy to do (and positive for the "crimes solved" figures for the department) when the 'journalists' in question post evidence of their criminal activity on their website. All Apple did was report the phone stolen, which is was - someone left it in a bar (or had it lifted from him) and it was not returned. Even ignoring Apple entirely and the supposed attempts to return it, the law in CA says you cannot sell it on without registering it as lost property with the local sheriff's office and then waiting 30 days. They broke the law, made it obvious they had the thing (trying to ransom it, posted photos of it) and then they complain when the police show up? Please.
It's this sort of hyperbole and ludicrous Apple bashing that is making people laugh at slashdot.
The iPad 2 keynote today contained a few barely-contained tongue-in-cheek jabs at the Apple hating folks, and at the supposed "imminent" arrival of something to beat the iPad, and a few well placed jabs about the price of the nearest competitor (hint, it's more expensive than 5 of the 6 model options of iPad 2).
If you want people to take you seriously, you need to actually articulate your arguments with a little more finesse. This sort of trolling only makes you look foolish.
Slashdot Mirror
The mention of the number of accounts with credit cards was a response to the seemingly popular opinion that I have seen many times on slashdot that "developing for iOS is not a sensible business decision".
They are pointing out to developers that the installed base for iOS is huge, and profit is there to be made.
The whole keynote was full of stuff like this, with subtle ripostes to all of the criticism levelled at them - re, the price of the iPad and how it was "too high", or the install base, or the supposed "iPad will be shown up by all these Android tablets, just you wait" talk. Well, the new iPad came out and what do we have? The Xoom - an excellent tablet, but still more expensive than the iPad and still with no Flash, the supposed "necessary" thing that was missing from the iPad.
As far as trying to control users, it seems to fly in the face of what they're doing on OS X - their calendar and addressbook stuff is all open source, and they have been merging it into one project to make it more seamless, and their formats are all standards, many fully open.
Yes, they want to make a vertically integrated ecosystem that works top to bottom, but they also want you to be able to get in and out if you like with your data. Their ideal situation, I believe, is a closed ecosystem, supported by OSS in some areas, on top of open standards and formats - which is precisely what they are trying to build in OS X.
It's not that bad - overselling it like this just hurts your argument.
I have a 3G that I use everyday and it is far from "a slideshow". It certainly struggles with some tasks, especially if the GPS chip is activated - the location thread brings the thing to a crawl until it gets a lock on where it is.
It did get much better with the latest update though, so it went from "good" (on 3.x) to "terrible" at 4.0, and has been getting better as they work out the bugs. At least they are still trying - it's not like they have left 3G users out in the cold, and have been working on performance improvements for it still.
OSS software isn't even allowed to run in Apple's "Post-PC Era" devices.
Yes it is. There are many open source apps on the App Store, and always have been.
Where did you get the idea that OSS was "not allowed" to run on iOS? Oh, right, Slashdot! And they're always right, right?
Here are just a few: http://maniacdev.com/2010/06/35-open-source-iphone-app-store-apps-updated-with-10-new-apps/
But hey, don't let anything as silly as "facts" get in the way of a good Apple bash.
There is no DRM on iTunes music. It used to be sold with DRM a while ago, but that is all gone now. All iTunes Music Store music has *no* DRM.
Otherwise, your post stands.
Right, so why are iPods still selling so well, even in the face of "superior" and cheaper competitors?
A product is not overpriced simply because it has cheaper competitors available, especially if it is selling extremely well.
I could make the argument that Red Hat's support contracts are overpriced because I can use the internet to look up help files. It's just not so.
They all already are. This is a total non story. Any app that can access the web and that doesn't follow the Parental Controls in the OS has a "17+" warning that you have to click through (it doesn't stop you) to download it.
This is to keep Apple on the safe side of lawsuits from overly sensitive parents who might otherwise think their kids were "safe" online because the Parental Controls were switched on.
This "story" is just a quick way to stir up some flames and crucially, to get angry neckbeard Apple haters to click on the link and generate some ad revenue and page hits.
Apple (and many others) have put *a lot* into Webkit to make it what it is today - they have never claimed they invented it, but they chose KHTML specifically because it was an excellent open source project to start with, but to say it's simply "renamed" KHTML now is just utterly disingenuous. Apple are one of the primary reasons it is now a viable third option alongside Trident and Gecko for rendering HTML.
Tell that to everyone here saying that the new, even thinner, even lighter iPad 2 is *still* too heavy to hold comfortably in one hand, at 1.3 pounds.
I think it possibly more indicative that many slashdot geeks need to hit the gym...
Yes, but then you have an Archos, which is a serious downside ;)
Blame a VLC developer for that. He didn't want the app on the store, so they removed it at his request ^H^H^H demand.
"again"
They sell 15 million of the first generation in 9 months - one of the most successful product launches ever, and the new one is very similar with some incremental updates and new features and you say they "missed the mark again"?
How could they have been any more successful if they tried? They were selling them as fast as they could make them!
The iPad also does support a stylus, Apple just doesn't sell one, but there are a number of third party ones and a number of apps that make use of them.
You can do that *right now* with iPad 1 - the adapter has CF and SD slots and a standard USB port on it. It connects to the dock connector, and supports (officially) USB mass storage and PTP and unofficially other stuff (like usb keyboards and so on).
If by "never" you mean "right now, supported on the iPad 1 via the video out adapter", then you are correct.
Do Apple bashers even look up the nonsense they spout?
What next? "You'll never get audio out of an iPad!" ?
Well, price wasn't really an issue before - people using Apple stuff paid the premium price, and just had to deal with a ton of neckbeards yelling "zomg its overpriced!!".
Now the tables are turned for the moment and no one seems to be able to make a decent tablet for less than or equal to the iPad's price (and now the iPad 2), despite the 6 to 7 months of crowing from the /. crowd that "cheaper, better Android tablets" would soon come along and topple the iPad's dominance.
Instead, we had a virtually unchallenged revision 1 product at a price point that was initially much lower than the estimates on the run up to the release that has just not been caught yet. The best shot so far has been the Xoom, which looks excellent, but is $799. As good as the iPad 2, but more expensive than the comparable model (by $70) and *a lot* more expensive than the non-3G ones (one of the few times Apple has lower-spec options and competitors don't if you really don't want the 3G).
They sold 15 million of them, uncontested, in 9 months, more than every other tablet ever made combined, and are now on revision 2 - matching many of the the Xoom's advantages (faster cpu, graphics, gyro, cameras) and still coming in at less than it costs.
Yet *still* neckbeards are saying it is too expensive. Perhaps for them - it doesn't seem to be affecting the sales.
Yes, they're all canned replied to canned troll attempts.
Six of one, half a dozen of the other.
Bluetooth keyboard works on the iPad 1. As of some time ago!
And no flash support, but is anyone really missing it all that much? It doesn't support Silverlight either, but there doesn't seem to be much clamouring over that.
It really did need an SD slot though - I really hoped they would add one.
I believe it uses "assistance" from Wifi to try and track where it is - probably via google knowing where your wifi hotspot is after driving past it with a van, plus geographical info from your public ip address.
And not all apps require the 3G data service for maps - the Tom Tom app, or numerous satnav apps all keep data on the device itself. The Motion GPS app lets you cache large amounts of map data for a specific area (limited only by your memory space) from its terrain and road maps for use when you've got no 3G/WiFi signal etc.
The iPad 1 has had an adapter almost since it came out with a CF/SD slot and a standard USB port on it if you want to move pictures on and off.
This is true, but there's only one Xoom. Isn't this what everyone rags on the iPhone 4, for? That the choice is limited compared to the many Android handsets out there? Choice is good!
If you don't need the 3G or the extra space you can save even more, but yes, a close-as-possible spec puts them at a $70 difference. People often say "Apple don't cater to the low end", but in this case I think they have.
Right, so right now at 1.5lb it's already lighter than most other tablets - it's 0.1 lb lighter than the Xoom, for example (and the new iPad 2 is 1.3 lb), so you have between 1.6 and 5 oz before you're even at the Xoom's weight.
You're just looking for ways to put it down. If you really can't handle having the extra weight in this outside use case of 10 hours battery not being enough, so you're into the 11th hour of a presentation, then just connect it to the external battery earlier in the day, or in your lunch break, or while it's in your bag if you really, really can't handle it being a smidge over 1.3 to 1.5 pounds (still less than any other tablets of its size).
It works, it's just not ideal. The iPhone 3G is a little RAM shy and a little slow, so it's somewhat limited. It has the same problem when I connect it to the stereo in my car - sometimes you have to plug it in a couple of times to prod it into replying. I sorted that by using an old iPod Touch with a smashed screen, which has no problems hooking up to the stereo. I think the 3G suffers a lot under iOS 4
Speaking of "own proprietary crap" it uses the standard USB mass storage, and PTP. So very "proprietary" it makes my had spin.
That's why it has sold 15 million units in the 9 months since its release.
Clearly so flawed that it just isn't useful to anyone, right?
Sure it could use a USB port, and I was hoping they'd put one on the iPad 2, but it doesn't seem to be affecting the utility of the product in any way. You think after 9 months someone might have noticed it has no USB port and requires an adapter.
So use the external boosters.
There are several third party external batteries for the iPad and iPhone that power it in the event that 10 hours of charge is not enough for you. Some are separate items, the size and shape of batteries that you can plug into while your iPad is on a desk or in a bag or something, others are designed like iPad cases so you can continue holding it relatively unburdened (you just add the weight of the case+battery in this instance). These options take up no more space in your bag than a set of spare batteries for something with a replaceable set.
For the vast majority of cases, 10 hours is enough. For the smaller number of cases, there are ways around it. They chose to design it around the larger use cases though, hence, thin and light with non-removable odd-shape-fill-as-much-room battery.
So swap it for the other card, just like you would in the Xoom. What's the problem here?
Or do you think it's like windows where every new memory stick is a new piece of hardware it needs to "install" before use?
It's clear you're just looking for ways to hate the iPad, but you don't have to invent nonsensical reasons.
Say that you think the new covers are too expensive, and should really be free with the device (which I think they should), or that the HDMI adapter is expensive at $39.
Anything but "you can't put two SD cards into one slot, zomg fail".
By "Apple Police" you mean "The actual police, investigating an actual crime".
Apple does not have a police force, nor does it tell the actual real police force what to do. The actual police force will arrest people it suspects of a crime - sort of easy to do (and positive for the "crimes solved" figures for the department) when the 'journalists' in question post evidence of their criminal activity on their website. All Apple did was report the phone stolen, which is was - someone left it in a bar (or had it lifted from him) and it was not returned. Even ignoring Apple entirely and the supposed attempts to return it, the law in CA says you cannot sell it on without registering it as lost property with the local sheriff's office and then waiting 30 days. They broke the law, made it obvious they had the thing (trying to ransom it, posted photos of it) and then they complain when the police show up? Please.
It's this sort of hyperbole and ludicrous Apple bashing that is making people laugh at slashdot.
The iPad 2 keynote today contained a few barely-contained tongue-in-cheek jabs at the Apple hating folks, and at the supposed "imminent" arrival of something to beat the iPad, and a few well placed jabs about the price of the nearest competitor (hint, it's more expensive than 5 of the 6 model options of iPad 2).
If you want people to take you seriously, you need to actually articulate your arguments with a little more finesse. This sort of trolling only makes you look foolish.