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User: jo_ham

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  1. Re:Micro USB? on Apple Now Shipping Lightning To 30-Pin Adapters · · Score: 1

    How far past micro usb? My PlayBook fast charges with 2A.

    That's 10 watts - the current Apple power adapter and 30 pin dock connector can provide that, and it's barely enough for the battery in the iPad 3. I can only imagine it will get worse as time goes on. That's about as much as you can really push over USB, or we would have exceeded it long ago.

  2. Re:Ford makes the engin allready. on How We'll Get To 54.5 Mpg By 2025 · · Score: 2

    Probably for the same reason the USA charges me $14 to submit an ESTA application to tell them something that they already know and have on file every time I travel to the US.

    There are probably lots of hoops to jump through, all put there by well-funded lobbying.

  3. Re:Money Grab? on Apple Now Shipping Lightning To 30-Pin Adapters · · Score: 2, Informative

    If you mean why change the dock adapter in the first place? Well, that's been done to death and it had to happen sometime. The old one still had pins for Firewire data and power - no iOS device has shipped with a firewire controller for almost 5 years!

    Wasn't firewire that standard that Apple chose for its machines over USB...and Apple users claimed was better than USB.

    No, they never claimed it was "better than USB" nor did they choose it "over USB" - they promoted both ports equally for what they were good at. USB was great for low bandwidth, hot pluggable devices like consumer scanners, printers, mice, card readers etc and Firewire was great for high bandwidth, low latency applications like hard drives, digital video, external sound cards etc. It's why all Macs at the time (and most to this day, less the Air and retina MBP) ship with both USB and Firewire ports side by side.

    For those applications it was better than USB (at the time mostly USB 1 speed), but for the other applications like mice, keyboards, printers etc USB was much better. Even when USB was upgraded to 480 Mbs it was still inferior in practice to even the theoretically slower Firewire 400 due to the heavy CPU overhead of the USB protocol.

    Removing the controller chip for Firewire from the iPod (and subsequently never including it in the iPhone etc) was purely a cost/benefit ratio - they did it at the same time they launched the iPod on Windows and at the time there was almost no penetration of Firewire on Windows machines so it was cheaper to just leave the controller chip out. You could still charge those early iPods on Firewire - and it was faster, since you could do 18 volts at about 7 watts, way more than USB, but eventually they also took that out of the newer models too. The pins have been wasted ever since, with some models using them for newer protocols but there's always the danger that someone *could* plug in an old Firewire>30 pin dock connector which has a +18V line and data pins, so the device has to be able to handle that and protect itself. Apple knew eventually that they would need to change the connector to something more modern.

  4. Re:The irony... on Unredacted Documents In Apple/Samsung Case, No Evidence of 'Copy' Instruction · · Score: -1, Troll

    The irony of Apple suing people for patent infringement is how little work Apple actually put into developing the technologies in the iPhone and in iOS (compared too all the other companies and research labs that developed said technologies)...

    Ah, I remember when I was that naive. It was bliss!

  5. Re:Money Grab? on Apple Now Shipping Lightning To 30-Pin Adapters · · Score: -1, Troll

    How is this anything but a money grab??

    What do you mean? The act of charging money for a product and/or service? Yes, I suppose that could be boiled down to "a money grab".

    If you mean why change the dock adapter in the first place? Well, that's been done to death and it had to happen sometime. The old one still had pins for Firewire data and power - no iOS device has shipped with a firewire controller for almost 5 years!

  6. Re:Micro USB? on Apple Now Shipping Lightning To 30-Pin Adapters · · Score: 1

    Also future flexibility. The adapter has 8 pins, and can carry more current (if you don't use a standard USB plug on the other end of the cable, otherwise it's limited to USB current and voltage obviously).

    The MFI program is obviously important to them, so it doubtless had a part to play, but it's not like they intentionally set out to shun USB - the micro USB connector is ultimately a dead end, and it's also somewhat small and fiddly. They want a connector that will be standard for them for the next several years (at least), so things like the next iPad will use it. The current one is barely coping with the limits of charging current on USB as it is. I fully expect them to start adding fast charging adapters that can go well over what you would be able to do with micro USB, along with other functions where you simply need more pins (even in the face of MHL).

  7. Re:Lockin on Apple Now Shipping Lightning To 30-Pin Adapters · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Why the hell couldn't they go with Micro-USB like everyone else?

    Because MicroUSB is a terrible connector. They already had a proprietary connector and just swapped it for another type with the function they wanted.

    I know MicroUSB has features that allow it to adapt and output HDMI, or analog audio etc, but Apple wanted a more adaptable (although obviously proprietary) connector. I'm going to assume that one of the biggest points on the checklist was "support for more current and/or voltage than USB" since the connector is designed for all iOS devices and the current generation iPad is already struggling with the meagre amount they can push over USB (even when already exceeding the original 500 mA limit).

    Back on topic, I will not be the first to say, but how is this news? It's an adapter that is now shipping. Other than another chance for some page hits and ad revenue I'd hardly qualify this as something the public really needs to know. Anyone who has one on order has been emailed that their adapter has shipped, surely?

  8. Re:EV, obviously on How We'll Get To 54.5 Mpg By 2025 · · Score: 1

    54 MPG for real-world drivers is almost certainly an imaginary number. .

    The car sitting on my drive right now (new in 2003) gets 53 mpg (approx 44 mpg in US figures) and it's a minivan. The 05 model does about 60 mpg.

  9. Re:Ford makes the engin allready. on How We'll Get To 54.5 Mpg By 2025 · · Score: 5, Informative

    As far as I know, there aren't ant european diesels than can pass our current emission standards, regardless of the milage.

    This is not true any more. Euro diesels since about 05 and above have exceeded the US emissions standards. The only thing holding it back now is misinformation and the stigma of diesel as something only for big rigs and tractors.

  10. Re:Yay for SSD boot drive. on Most SSDs Now Under a Dollar Per Gigabyte · · Score: 1

    How can a backup be a single point of failure? It is already redundant by definition? Unless double redundancy is your goal...

    Yes, that's what I meant. For example, if your only backup was the cloud and your drive fails so you go to restore, and your ISP is out, or the cloud provider's servers are down for maintenance or they've gone out of business or something so you're stuck unless you can fall back onto your other backup.

    Don't get me wrong, having even one backup is much better than most people who simply don't back up at all, but I like to make sure I have options for restoring - it's the whole point of backing up in the first place.

  11. Re:It may be OT on a thread about the Interstate.. on We Don't Need More Highways · · Score: 1

    I think it's entirely down to cultural issues, since we have many roundabouts that have heavy flow, multi lane traffic coming together also with large tractor trailers and they work extremely well. I see no reason why the sorts of "circles" we have here couldn't work in the US, other than people simply being unaccustomed to using them.

    Some roundabouts here have 4 lanes on them, and 5 or more exits, although more typical is a 3 lane roundabout. Just get into the correct lane and follow the paint and everything keeps moving. Some of our busiest ones also feature traffic lights to allow lower priority roads to be able to get into the flow too - they're always on a short cycle to create enforced gaps of a few seconds which is all you need.

    Some of our largest roundabouts are right off major highways (and along the routes of A roads, which would be the equivalent of a two lane state route) and they are much more effective than using traffic lights for crossing streets, even when that crossing street is of equal size and traffic flow.

  12. Re:Yay for SSD boot drive. on Most SSDs Now Under a Dollar Per Gigabyte · · Score: 1

    Oh I didn't rule it out, I just said "not just to the cloud". Like any backup solution you don't really want it to be the only one you have because it's just moving the single point of failure to a different place.

    The cloud is very useful, and in combination with a local disk backup it's an excellent way to add redundancy into your solution.

  13. It may be OT on a thread about the Interstate... on We Don't Need More Highways · · Score: 1

    On a thread about the Interstate system this may be offtopic, but if the US wants to spend some money on road infrastructure upgrades then I think point one on the ToDo list should be many more roundabouts.

    I drove a couple of thousand miles around the northeastern US this summer (I know, practically 'nipping out for a paper and some milk' in terms of distance for an American) and I really missed roundabouts. I used two the whole time I was there - one in Columbus OH and the other in NYC in Manhattan somewhere and it was like coming home. They're so much more efficient for keeping the traffic moving.

  14. Re:Yay for SSD boot drive. on Most SSDs Now Under a Dollar Per Gigabyte · · Score: 2

    I think you have the right idea, and I'm sure you're not the only one; a smaller SSD boot drive with OS and apps and some data, with spinning drives for less speed-sensitive large files, with the crucial step of regular backups.

    Although, SSD or not, regular backups are always a crucial thing, and not just "up to the Cloud(tm)" - a cheap, large local drive (or a pair of them that mirror their data, but not in a RAID) with a simple automated backup solution is one of the best investments any computer user can make.

  15. Re:Reality check on Most SSDs Now Under a Dollar Per Gigabyte · · Score: 2

    Apple already has started to do this - the Air and the rMBP both have stock SSD drives. I would be shocked if the updated iMac that should probably arrive sometime before Christmas didn't ship with a stock SSD+HDD combo on the higher spec model too.

  16. Re:well sometimes customers are dumb on How Steve Jobs' Legacy Has Changed · · Score: 1

    What human rights violations? The ones that also apply to every other manufacturer using Chinese labour, assuming you're talking about Foxconn. If you're going to hate Apple for that, then you're going to have to turn in your Android handset too my friend.

    The "polar opposite" of open standards are HTML5, Webkit's source, Apple's open sourced javascript engine, and free developer tools built on top of OSS (not including work on things like LLVM)?

    Like I said before - those may be reasons that *you* might not want to use a particular brand (albeit some hypocritical stances, but such is life), but the level of vitriol levelled at people who simply make different choices to you (the general you, as in apple haters) is simply astonishing.

    I don't go around telling Android users that they bought a terrible handset (unless they actually did buy a terrible handset - I've seen a few, but most Android handsets are pretty sweet), nor do I tell them that they're all worthless retards who have been conned by marketing, or that somehow they're responsible for the destruction of "freedom and choice and openness" in the phone world while somehow simultaneously being crushed by the other OS in marketshare....

  17. Re:Not a problem iOS users have. on Over 60% of Android Malware Hides In Fake Versions of Popular Apps · · Score: 0

    wow your retarded.. you know this is all caused by users leaving googles walled garden? I feel sorry for you being stuck in yours...

    It has been stated before, if your dumb enough to install from unknown untrusted sources, you get what you deserve... its not the devices fault because the user was stupid..

    The irony, it burns!

    Are there grammar apps in the Google Play store or do you have to sideload them?

  18. Re:Not a problem iOS users have. on Over 60% of Android Malware Hides In Fake Versions of Popular Apps · · Score: 1

    Okay, idroid, I'll bite. Android sales are 8.4:1 over iPhones. That's 84 android devices sold for every iPhone. The iPhone has lost and no amount if fudging figures like that to be merely 'over 50%' will hide the fact the iPhone has been relegated to the place of the 1997 macintosh.

    Just curious, what's your source on this, and does it include iPhone 5 sales?

  19. Re:um on The Coming Internet Video Crash · · Score: 1

    I can confirm this is how it works on Virgin.

    I use their fibre service and I have no cap, up or down, but my traffic is managed (for a few hours) if I exceed 10GB or so of transfer at peak times. Outside of peak times, traffic is unmonitored. Even if they do throttle you down, you can still keep using your connection, just more slowly. There's no data cap and your speed will reset back to full after a little while.

    In practice, I have never been throttled down (and the penalty is 25% speed for a few hours) despite my household being full of pretty heavy users.

  20. Re:well sometimes customers are dumb on How Steve Jobs' Legacy Has Changed · · Score: 1

    That's the excuse that most of the anti-apple-fanboys go to, but it's really nonsense.

    I would argue that Apple has done more for opening up the mobile industry than almost anyone else, because Apple's success drove the success of Android. Would there be as many Android handsets today if not for the iPhone? Possibly. Would they be anything like they are now without such fierce competition between it and Android? I highly doubt it. Apple pulled the smartphone niche out of a rut and into the mainstream, and Android quite happily took the rest of the market segment that Apple simply didn't want to sell to.

    Far from "minimising the freedom and openness" of the computing industry, they have helped to ensure that it has flourished and has never been so strong as it is currently. Well, unless you think that Android is just an inconsequential flash in the pan.

    You're making the mistake of thinking Apple's business model means the entire computer market has to be like them, which is funny when simultaneously other anti-apple-fanboys are crowing over Apple's "irrelevance" and that they're "fading in the face of Android", and when their PC marketshare is about 6% to 7%, but making up 15%-20% of new sales. Either they're the only game in town or they're not. You can't use the "they're ruining the industry!!" argument at the same time as the "Android is in the ascendancy" argument.

  21. Re:well sometimes customers are dumb on How Steve Jobs' Legacy Has Changed · · Score: 1

    Why should I stop buying a product that works for me just because YOU tell me that it doesn't work for me, and because you tell me that I bought it because I wanted to fell "superior" to other people?

    Honestly, I couldn't care less what other people think of me, except when it affects my free choice.

    Your argument is flawed if you think everyone who buys an Apple product is "obsessed with being better than their friends" and the marketing campaigns - you'll find the vast majority of them simply using a product that works for them

    I'm astonished at the level of disconnect that exists in the minds of some people who just can't seem to see the simple reasons. It's not some grand illusion, it's just a series of great products (and some terrible ones) that do what people want them to do. Just because they don't do what *you* want them to do doesn't mean that everyone else is like you.

    Can't you see the hypocrisy of attempting to dictate what other people should use while crying like a petulant child that Apple users are being "forced" to make choices against their will because they've been "fooled" by the marketing.

  22. Re:Last sentence on How Steve Jobs' Legacy Has Changed · · Score: 1

    It looks good. It's not an easy thing to do, or everyone would have done it by then (as you point out, they did not make the first smartphone).

    But of course, when they are comparing Jobs to Edison and Ford they're not talking about the iPhone.

  23. Re:Just ask on Advertisers Blast Microsoft Over IE Default Privacy Settings · · Score: 1

    When you first load up IE10 just ask if the user wants to be tracked. I'm sure 90% will say "no".

    That's exactly what it does.

  24. Re:The reason is simple. on Why Ultrabooks Are Falling Well Short of Intel's Targets · · Score: 1

    Modded as flamebait, eh? As usual, Apple fanboys can't handle facts.

    What facts? You called the Air "so called retina" as a way to bash it.

    The only retina screen on a Mac laptop is the 15" Retina Macbook Pro.

    An obvious lie like that is going to draw attention, especially when you then advocate a 1080p resolution on a tiny screen as "better".

  25. Re:Science should be transparent on Scientists Want To Keep Their Research Work Out of Court · · Score: 1

    They're not doing that though. They're arguing that BP'd request for all their personal inter-office communication be provided to them along with the 50,000 pages of data that they willingly provided to BP that makes up the backbone of their research work.