If you get an HD movie off iTunes and normally play it on your main box, but decide to also watch it on your iPad now and again, even if the screen resolution isn't there. It's unlikely you're going to want to keep player-targeted encodes of everything you own. The ability of some theoretical software player on a mobile device being able to downsize on the fly/play back a scaled down HD video on a smaller screen from the source file does have its advantages.
And people might own an iPad because they had a use for the features it offers. That's generally why you buy a product.
The codec is not specified for html5 video - youtube is already serving h.264 via html5. Shoehorning some DRM into this is not the impossibility it is painted as.
Although, perhaps we will reach a situation where DRM is no longer needed - just as it is right now for music sold from the iTMS. Those purchased tracks are un-crippled AAC files that are merely tagged with your Apple ID and purchase date but are otherwise the same as any old regular AAC.
I think that Apple wants to push the movie/tv people this way if it is at all possible. (I know, I know, like asking the Pope to fuck a nun, but it might happen).
Apple are doing no such thing (damage control). Apple have simply stated "no flash" and left it at that.
Don't confuse a heavily biased pro-Apple site with actual Apple press releases.
FWIW, they are actively pushing the development of HTML5 as a replacement for Flash, even as a direct competitor to their own App Store. This has everything to do with money (licence per iPhone/iPad) and very little to do with technical issues about hovers/etc.
Apple are in support of HTML5, even as an app development market. Flash is off the iPhone/iPad purely for licensing cost reasons and secondarily due to the UI issues - it's got little to do with competing with the app store itself. They make the bulk of the money on hardware sales, the app store breaks even/has small profit.
Rapid temperature changes. You can operate and store the phone in high humidity but are meant to protect it if you suddenly move into a cold environment.
It's not unique to phones. Almost every tape-based camera has the same requirement since condensation affects the pinch rollers.
All mobile phones have these sensors now, but just like the iPod battery issue, this is getting blown up out of proportion because it is Apple. Maybe the sensors are in a bad location, being exposed to the air, and they should redesign it with internal ones.
The other issue is that people have said it is a *guaranteed* warranty failure, when there is no indication that it is the case - they are a guide to assist in the diagnosis of the life of the phone, not the only thing the repair techs will look at. Perhaps they can tell if normal humidity has triggered them vs an actual dunking (or the sensors gradually return to white after a while as part of their design - ie, they are red for a long enough to be useful during a genuine warranty repair). Who knows.
I think it is a little too exposed in the headphone socket - it should be deeper inside. The one in the dock connector I think is more covered.
Par for the course I'm afraid. I think it's mostly envy on the part of some people, who can't seem to get over the fact that Apple/Google/Microsoft/etc are successful and popular, despite not doing things exactly in line with open source/open development/or whatever way the poster thinks is the only way to do things.
It does generate some hilarious posts sometimes though, like the "worse than China" ones.
Apple are not the only company to use liquid sensors. They really started taking off in portable electronics due to the large number of insurance claims made against them. Very easy to brick a phone or mp3 player or laptop by getting it wet so it doesn't look physically damaged.
A real, modern IR camera while it can provide false colour viewing like the predator (red/white = hot, blue = cold etc), most are pretty good resolution greyscale images.
Just look at some of the footage taken with an IR camera mounted to a police chopper, or a search and rescue chopper - they can even tell the difference in temperature of grass that gets run over by a vehicle, so you can clearly see the tracks. Or the ability to pick out a near-freezing person who is barely above the temperature of the water they are in.
Obviously, these cameras are bigger than something you can fit in your eye, but they do work from 500 feet up!
Well, I don't live in the USA - I am in the UK on O2, and I don't hate my provider.
The turn by turn stuff is expensive for TomTom (££££££££) but less for the other apps - still, they do cost - I think the cheapest is £30 ($50-60). They are available though.
The iPhone has turn by turn navigation. Not by default, but there are several apps that provide it.
It's not necessarily about exclusive features - I'm not sitting here with my iPhone comparing it to an Nexus One and moaning that Android is improving. The more it improves the better - it will drive competition. The last thing we want is stagnation in this newly-ignited smartphone sector. When the time comes to either continue my contract or change phones, I will be looking at what is available at the time, Android among them.
If the iPhone continues to do exactly what I need, even if it has fewer features and is more "locked down" than Android, then why would I switch?
You can set that behaviour for OS X too - swapping the behaviour of the function key so that it either registers an F key when depressed or the special function (brightness/expose/dashboard/volume etc). This is in the System Prefs.
You can also swap those features to a different key combo, featuring command, shift, option or control or any combination of those if you want.
Good to know. Same as the Mac then, although I don't know if you can drag it to do this - you have to right click on the divider and you can choose screen position
I have no idea about Word itself, but it's not limited to windows - the Mac version of Word also uses noticeable cpu cycles when it is completely idle (ie, far more than any other idle app).
My only thought is some sort of virtual hamster wheel.
On the specific laptops they put an icon on the key if they have moved the location - on the bluetooth KB they put the exposé and dashboard keys over on F3,4,5, but you can change it easily in the system prefs to whatever key combo you need.
The Adobe and Quark apps have always been a bit problematic with shortcuts. The apps themselves have so many, they always seem to clash. What I hate about the Adobe CS suite is that they block the system key combos that clash - for example Command+H is hide app in *everything* except Adobe Apps, where I believe it is "hide selection", and then they made Hide Photoshop Command+Shift+H.
I just wish they could be consistent! In pretty much everything else though, the shortcuts follow the system shortcuts, and you can change some of these in System Prefs, and define application specific ones if you need. (I just checked - it doesn't look like you can edit the "master" ones from here, like command+Q and command+H etc).
It's not just apple fanboys that do that - it's all fanboys. Pretty much any opinion is fair game to someone with an axe to grind and modpoints to use. It's not unique to apple zealots.
Command+Tab and Command+~ are the shortcuts you are looking for. No need to use Exposé - I am a pretty hardcore Mac user and I very rarely ever use it. Only really ever use the "show Desktop" command so I can grab a file and drop it onto an open app. I don't switch apps or windows with Exposé.
(Or if you don;t know the keyboard command, go to System Preferences, click on "Dock" and tick the box that says "automatically hide and show the dock" - you can also tun off the animation here if you like, and change the size of the Dock itself, its position on the screen and whether it magnifies when you hover over it)
It's pretty intuitive really - all of the UI options are in System Prefs. Even better, the help box on that app responds to the Windows keywords for what you are changing. For example, if you type in "Wallpaper" it highlights the Desktop and Screensaver icon, and indicates that on Mac OS X that is called "Desktop Picture". So, if you have found it hard to use, you must not have read the little intro thing Apple produced which mentions this. (I just tried it - it is still working in 10.6).
I know a few people who keep their Dock on the left side of their screen because the display is wider than it is tall and they like it over on that side. Can you put the start menu/toolbar thing on the sides of the screen in Vista? I know you can change the size of it, but I haven't been in front of a Windows box since XP.
Right, so you are judging what I use the iPhone for as worthless.
I could make all the same arguments to you about Linux (except about it being a status symbol because the UI looks like garbage), since it can't do anything useful like run the apps I personally need, therefore it must be of no value whatsoever.
Just because it does not fit your needs does not make it a "flashy, useless, pointless" item.
What other option for a smartphone would you suggest for a Mac OS X user around the time of the iPhone 3G? Blackberry? Treo? Something running Windows Mobile? The iPhone did everything that I asked it to do and continues to do that, despite other phones (including the 3GS) coming out after it.
If owning a smartphone itself is a status symbol, then I suppose I shall have to concede that, however it is a necessary one. What would be truly stupid is if I ignored the iPhone, even if it was perfect for my needs because I might get confused for some flashy fashionista by a nerd raging AC on/. who can't see it's worth to him.
You think I should have gone with a less useful solution to my smartphone needs, just so I didn't get an iPhone? Even though the iPhone was better for me?
Should I go back to using payphones and internet cafes, just so I'm not in danger of looking like I own something that might possibly make me look as if I bought it to show off?
What if I don't use it with the supplied white headphones so people know I have one, even when it;s in my pocket? (I use my own, better headphones, so you can't tell) - have I broken some code? Surely according to you I'd use the white ones so everyone knows I am using an iPhone, even though it is concealed in my pocket.
I can only laugh that you think I am deceiving myself about how useful the iPhone is to me. I can't speak about anyone else, since I am not them, but for me it is an extremely useful device. You cannot possibly comment on that. *You* are deceiving yourself if you think you are the sole judge and jury on the worth of the iPhone. "Oh, some AC on slashdot says it's useless, I'd better not use it". Yeah, right.
Slashdot Mirror
If you get an HD movie off iTunes and normally play it on your main box, but decide to also watch it on your iPad now and again, even if the screen resolution isn't there. It's unlikely you're going to want to keep player-targeted encodes of everything you own. The ability of some theoretical software player on a mobile device being able to downsize on the fly/play back a scaled down HD video on a smaller screen from the source file does have its advantages.
And people might own an iPad because they had a use for the features it offers. That's generally why you buy a product.
The codec is not specified for html5 video - youtube is already serving h.264 via html5. Shoehorning some DRM into this is not the impossibility it is painted as.
Although, perhaps we will reach a situation where DRM is no longer needed - just as it is right now for music sold from the iTMS. Those purchased tracks are un-crippled AAC files that are merely tagged with your Apple ID and purchase date but are otherwise the same as any old regular AAC.
I think that Apple wants to push the movie/tv people this way if it is at all possible. (I know, I know, like asking the Pope to fuck a nun, but it might happen).
Apple are doing no such thing (damage control). Apple have simply stated "no flash" and left it at that.
Don't confuse a heavily biased pro-Apple site with actual Apple press releases.
FWIW, they are actively pushing the development of HTML5 as a replacement for Flash, even as a direct competitor to their own App Store. This has everything to do with money (licence per iPhone/iPad) and very little to do with technical issues about hovers/etc.
Apple are in support of HTML5, even as an app development market. Flash is off the iPhone/iPad purely for licensing cost reasons and secondarily due to the UI issues - it's got little to do with competing with the app store itself. They make the bulk of the money on hardware sales, the app store breaks even/has small profit.
Slashdot, where "-1 Flamebait" means "I prefer Ubuntu to SUSE and any argument to the contrary is just needless flaming of the one true distro!"
Rapid temperature changes. You can operate and store the phone in high humidity but are meant to protect it if you suddenly move into a cold environment.
It's not unique to phones. Almost every tape-based camera has the same requirement since condensation affects the pinch rollers.
All mobile phones have these sensors now, but just like the iPod battery issue, this is getting blown up out of proportion because it is Apple. Maybe the sensors are in a bad location, being exposed to the air, and they should redesign it with internal ones.
The other issue is that people have said it is a *guaranteed* warranty failure, when there is no indication that it is the case - they are a guide to assist in the diagnosis of the life of the phone, not the only thing the repair techs will look at. Perhaps they can tell if normal humidity has triggered them vs an actual dunking (or the sensors gradually return to white after a while as part of their design - ie, they are red for a long enough to be useful during a genuine warranty repair). Who knows.
I think it is a little too exposed in the headphone socket - it should be deeper inside. The one in the dock connector I think is more covered.
That is also covered - the humidity requirement applies to the phone when it is on and off.
Welcome to Slashdot, you must be new here.
Par for the course I'm afraid. I think it's mostly envy on the part of some people, who can't seem to get over the fact that Apple/Google/Microsoft/etc are successful and popular, despite not doing things exactly in line with open source/open development/or whatever way the poster thinks is the only way to do things.
It does generate some hilarious posts sometimes though, like the "worse than China" ones.
Apple aren't a US High School - they're not going to record everything you do via the camera and mic.
Apple are not the only company to use liquid sensors. They really started taking off in portable electronics due to the large number of insurance claims made against them. Very easy to brick a phone or mp3 player or laptop by getting it wet so it doesn't look physically damaged.
It's the few who ruin it for the many.
A real, modern IR camera while it can provide false colour viewing like the predator (red/white = hot, blue = cold etc), most are pretty good resolution greyscale images.
Just look at some of the footage taken with an IR camera mounted to a police chopper, or a search and rescue chopper - they can even tell the difference in temperature of grass that gets run over by a vehicle, so you can clearly see the tracks. Or the ability to pick out a near-freezing person who is barely above the temperature of the water they are in.
Obviously, these cameras are bigger than something you can fit in your eye, but they do work from 500 feet up!
I'd honestly never tried, hence asking!
Well, I don't live in the USA - I am in the UK on O2, and I don't hate my provider.
The turn by turn stuff is expensive for TomTom (££££££££) but less for the other apps - still, they do cost - I think the cheapest is £30 ($50-60). They are available though.
The iPhone has turn by turn navigation. Not by default, but there are several apps that provide it.
It's not necessarily about exclusive features - I'm not sitting here with my iPhone comparing it to an Nexus One and moaning that Android is improving. The more it improves the better - it will drive competition. The last thing we want is stagnation in this newly-ignited smartphone sector. When the time comes to either continue my contract or change phones, I will be looking at what is available at the time, Android among them.
If the iPhone continues to do exactly what I need, even if it has fewer features and is more "locked down" than Android, then why would I switch?
You can set that behaviour for OS X too - swapping the behaviour of the function key so that it either registers an F key when depressed or the special function (brightness/expose/dashboard/volume etc). This is in the System Prefs.
You can also swap those features to a different key combo, featuring command, shift, option or control or any combination of those if you want.
Good to know. Same as the Mac then, although I don't know if you can drag it to do this - you have to right click on the divider and you can choose screen position
I have no idea about Word itself, but it's not limited to windows - the Mac version of Word also uses noticeable cpu cycles when it is completely idle (ie, far more than any other idle app).
My only thought is some sort of virtual hamster wheel.
What about options for iPad? Slashdot users can make the tablet/keyboardless appliance they always wanted, running Linux.
Doesn't the iPad use a custom ARM cpu? I know the iPhone does.
Suddenly, a million slashdot users change their tune and order an iPad with custom Linux distro installed...
On the specific laptops they put an icon on the key if they have moved the location - on the bluetooth KB they put the exposé and dashboard keys over on F3,4,5, but you can change it easily in the system prefs to whatever key combo you need.
The Adobe and Quark apps have always been a bit problematic with shortcuts. The apps themselves have so many, they always seem to clash. What I hate about the Adobe CS suite is that they block the system key combos that clash - for example Command+H is hide app in *everything* except Adobe Apps, where I believe it is "hide selection", and then they made Hide Photoshop Command+Shift+H.
I just wish they could be consistent! In pretty much everything else though, the shortcuts follow the system shortcuts, and you can change some of these in System Prefs, and define application specific ones if you need. (I just checked - it doesn't look like you can edit the "master" ones from here, like command+Q and command+H etc).
It's not just apple fanboys that do that - it's all fanboys. Pretty much any opinion is fair game to someone with an axe to grind and modpoints to use. It's not unique to apple zealots.
Oh, btw, Fn+Backspace is delete. Perhaps it should have its own key, but it does exist on a Mac laptop KB.
Command+Tab and Command+~ are the shortcuts you are looking for. No need to use Exposé - I am a pretty hardcore Mac user and I very rarely ever use it. Only really ever use the "show Desktop" command so I can grab a file and drop it onto an open app. I don't switch apps or windows with Exposé.
So press Command+Option+D.
Sorted. How hard was that?
(Or if you don;t know the keyboard command, go to System Preferences, click on "Dock" and tick the box that says "automatically hide and show the dock" - you can also tun off the animation here if you like, and change the size of the Dock itself, its position on the screen and whether it magnifies when you hover over it)
It's pretty intuitive really - all of the UI options are in System Prefs. Even better, the help box on that app responds to the Windows keywords for what you are changing. For example, if you type in "Wallpaper" it highlights the Desktop and Screensaver icon, and indicates that on Mac OS X that is called "Desktop Picture". So, if you have found it hard to use, you must not have read the little intro thing Apple produced which mentions this. (I just tried it - it is still working in 10.6).
I know a few people who keep their Dock on the left side of their screen because the display is wider than it is tall and they like it over on that side. Can you put the start menu/toolbar thing on the sides of the screen in Vista? I know you can change the size of it, but I haven't been in front of a Windows box since XP.
Right, so you are judging what I use the iPhone for as worthless.
I could make all the same arguments to you about Linux (except about it being a status symbol because the UI looks like garbage), since it can't do anything useful like run the apps I personally need, therefore it must be of no value whatsoever.
Just because it does not fit your needs does not make it a "flashy, useless, pointless" item.
What other option for a smartphone would you suggest for a Mac OS X user around the time of the iPhone 3G? Blackberry? Treo? Something running Windows Mobile? The iPhone did everything that I asked it to do and continues to do that, despite other phones (including the 3GS) coming out after it.
If owning a smartphone itself is a status symbol, then I suppose I shall have to concede that, however it is a necessary one. What would be truly stupid is if I ignored the iPhone, even if it was perfect for my needs because I might get confused for some flashy fashionista by a nerd raging AC on /. who can't see it's worth to him.
You think I should have gone with a less useful solution to my smartphone needs, just so I didn't get an iPhone? Even though the iPhone was better for me?
Should I go back to using payphones and internet cafes, just so I'm not in danger of looking like I own something that might possibly make me look as if I bought it to show off?
What if I don't use it with the supplied white headphones so people know I have one, even when it;s in my pocket? (I use my own, better headphones, so you can't tell) - have I broken some code? Surely according to you I'd use the white ones so everyone knows I am using an iPhone, even though it is concealed in my pocket.
I can only laugh that you think I am deceiving myself about how useful the iPhone is to me. I can't speak about anyone else, since I am not them, but for me it is an extremely useful device. You cannot possibly comment on that. *You* are deceiving yourself if you think you are the sole judge and jury on the worth of the iPhone. "Oh, some AC on slashdot says it's useless, I'd better not use it". Yeah, right.