No Apple fan who already admits a beta label on Maps would've been a good idea, thinks that this one measure would've been "good enough". It would definitely have been better than what they did, though (i.e. not even attempt to manage expectations).
There still would've been a shitstorm and mockery, but without the initial arrogance of claiming it just works, users and the media would've been a little more forgiving and the internet echo chamber wouldn't have been as intense.
Difference is, the PC was the clear market share leader. I thought the rule is that #1 (or those who think they're #1) never acknowledges #2 or lower in the same market space.
The iPad mini introduction bordered on violating that rule when they did the 7.9" vs 7" screen comparison. They didn't *quite* acknowledge a specific competitor, but it was very close. I suppose one can argue Apple is the follower here, in the 7"-8" tablet space, but that's getting nitpicky.
Don't get worked up over higher education hewing to its mandate, which is to provide an education to all (and possibly make some money while doing it by selling you some remedial courses to ease you along). Be happy that people aren't turning their noses up at it. It improves society for everyone.
I'm ambivalent about that last line. The side effect of more people having college/university education, is that having a degree is no longer a measure (inaccurate as it is) of someone's educational background when they apply for jobs. So now, for many jobs it's no longer enough to simply have graduated high school, and you're practically required to have master's degree, not just bachelor's, if you want to become a school teacher where I live. Sometimes, even if it's just for primary school.
Interesting you should mention search. If you type in "printer" on Windows 7 the first result is the Printers and Devices applet. On Windows 8 you get no results.
Excellent!
Just when mocking Apple iOS maps for not finding stuff was getting boring, Microsoft copies them yet again and gives us something new to make fun of!
None of what you wrote invalidate what I said or "proves" that keyboards or IT jobs will be eliminated. Both will continue, in diminished roles sure, but continue it will. You've given nothing to back up your claim that keyboards will fall victim to "major" creative destruction instead of "minor".
Speech recognition was touted as the keyboard killer once upon a time. It's used in many places but can't be used everywhere.
Computer keyboards replaced electronic and electrical typewriters for obvious reasons. Physical keyboards cannot be entirely replaced by touchscreens in a number of cases. Touchscreens are entirely too inaccurate for high-speed typing or swyping. I'm writing this on an iPhone screen and it can no more replace a full keyboard than a blackberry physical keyboard could.
Recognize that some tools are not one size fits all. Microsoft learned that the hard way when they tried grafting a desktop interface to tablets, they're about to learn it yet again going the other way.
You're probably thinking portable media > CD > tape > records/8-track, or hard drive > DVD > VHS, or LED/LCD > CRT screens.
But it is not the "only way" society advances. It is just ONE way, and there are many examples of alternate or complementary technologies.
Mainframes and servers are still around. Data storage on magnetic platters is still around despite there being flash memory and optical media (or "the cloud"--that data is stored physically somewhere). Inkjet printers are still around even though laser printers are cheap now. Wired networks despite wireless tech.
Nuclear are nowhere near to replacing hydro-dam, oil or coal power stations. Planes have not replaced trains or even cars for cross-country trips
Live theatre is still around despite TV and movies. Movies didn't die out because of home video recorders. Fighter jets despite guided missiles and drones. Over-the-air and cable TV weren't replaced with satellite TV.
Hell, you want something even more common everyday? PAPER is still around and probably produced/recycled/consumed at a greater rate than anytime in history, despite portable screens being able to display anything paper can. And pencils that need to be sharpened are still with us even though we have mechanical always-sharp ones.
Then your job will go away. You can say it wont if you want, but that wont change the fact. Look at the buggy whip manufactures of 100 years ago.
That's a silly and arrogant all-encompassing assertion. Even Steve Jobs said there'd still be a place for more traditional computers, but they'd be analogous to big trucks while regular folk drive cars.
The buggy whip and modern car controls are both fully tactile interfaces. The "engine" and "steering" changed, so it made no sense to use whips and reins anymore.
You won't be seeing touchscreen-only steering/accel/braking in production cars anytime soon, we'll have fully computer-controlled driving before that happens.
They don't even have touchscreen-only controls on large ships, which are far more forgiving of longer (or initially wrong) reactions.
Special security updates aside, whenever Apple updates the OS e.g. 10.7.2 to 10.7.3, it's essentially a service pack. Normally there's a combo updater that rolls up all updates for that major release so you could go from 10.x.0 to 10.x.4 (example only).
There are times when Apple's monolithic updates are a drawback, especially for traditional enterprise IT who might need to exclude certain updates, but here they have a clear advantage over Windows' hundreds of individual patches (sometimes requiring 2 or 3 Windows Update runs and restarts to get them all).
They've live-streamed in the past (using Quicktime plug-in, just like this time), but not recently. IIRC those were platform-locked too, something I don't agree with. Even the Olympics, though requiring Silverlight for desktop video in Canada, were at least available on Mac as well as Windows.
I know Youtube can stream h.264 video live, they did that with the Red Bull Stratos dive. Although the post-event video will be available in h.264, probably the only reason Apple insists on Quicktime for this live stream is to lock it to Apple-only devices, using platform detection in the plugin independent of browser user-agent.
I skipped one of the debates and watched Iron Sky with friends instead. I mean, it's about space Nazis who escaped WWII and set up a base on the far side of the moon. Guaranteed leave-your-brain-at-the-door stuff.
Sadly, Iron Sky made more sense, and even managed to be less cheesy, than the highlights I saw of the debate later that night.
Don't worry, the Conservative government in Canada is doing its best to catch up on taking out our science and research capabilities, and they've got 3 more years to make things even worse.
I haven't, but I did look it up before my earlier comment, and it always ends "pray their ships hold together". I'd mentally filled it in with that anyway, and thought your sig ended with "Minmatar pray their ships hol" might've been similar to the antiquated NO CARRIER meme... but nothing on anyone being cut off while saying it.
What do I think? I think the whole "hosted in Canada" as if it were a downside is BS specifically because of this. A US-based server is no better and in fact is worse for protecting any private or proprietary communication.
If an American says they wont use a BB because Canadian intel services might have their hooks into the BB system and could spy on them, I'll laugh in their face--not because its impossible, but because they're less worried that the US government doesn't already have eyes on them by the time Canada intelligence takes it to that level.
Actually, Apple's biggest contribution to smartphones was in marketing and convincing everyone they actually needed one. I'm not an Apple hater, but really, almost everything in the iPhone, from a user perspective was already there in other products. What other vendors didn't have was a group of fanatics that would buy anything that Apple put out. The iPhone became an overnight success because of the Mac users who went out and had to have one. That's not a complaint, only an observation. With a loyal customer base, once can pull off anything.
No, what other vendors didn't have was the idea to actually *merge* every (supposedly) existing and up-coming technology. The closest hardware rival at the time was the LG Prada, admittedly the first all-touchscreen phone. But if you saw/watched any reviews of its user interface, it was crap compared to the iPhone, and didn't really take advantage of the touchscreen at all (T9 input, hard-to-use scrollbars, etc).
It's still not a bullshit marketing term, it's a marketing term, period. You define it in marketing materials, when it's first released. *Then* it becomes mostly self-explanatory in all future occurrences.
Retina: most people understand it's part of the eye. That it's attached to the word "display" in marketing materials gives a hint that it's a feature of that display that claims to somehow enhance the visual experience. The user's already halfway to understanding, broadly speaking, what this feature claims to do.
<quote><p>Multiple email account support, unified or separate.</p></quote>
This is half-assed IMHO.
At least the iPhone *lets* you have multiple email account support. A few months ago I tried linking a current, up-to-date Blackberry Bold to a second Exchange server (going through a merger, so needed to send and receive separately on both domains' email systems). Could not be done via built-in software. Ended up installing a paid app that AFAIK used ActiveSync to get and send email from the second Exchange server.
On the iPhone? Told it the server address, username and password, and it auto-configured and connected to the Exchange server in less than a minute.
I can appreciate the security reasons why most companies don't *want* users to have links into a second Exchange server... and yet the poster child for the walled garden has given us the option to use it or not.
Get a better plan. Mine's $55/mo with 250 pooled daytime minutes (unlimited evening/weekend) and 6 GB of data. Texting at this level is a little lacking at only 250 outgoing, but iMessage helps keep it under the limit.
Other than long distance and favourite 5 or 10 options, how do average business or even regular users regularly pay $100+ a month on a cell phone plan?
Not to mention that weird "all your data goes to our servers in Canada first" thing.
Ironically, that makes it more secure/private than if that server were run in the US due to Canada's stronger privacy laws. There are a number of non-US companies in Canada and Europe that refuse to host content on US-based servers for exactly the same reasons.
Obviously, in reality the US or Canadian governments can probably still get data if they wanted it badly enough, through political back channels or direct hacking, but it's still more difficult regardless, legally and technically.
If it's any consolation, rumour has it there's extreme disagreement over the usage of this (called skeuomorphism) even within Apple's employees, extending all the way up to some very senior-level staff. Steve Jobs obviously favoured it, else it never would've gotten such a foothold in Mac OS X Lion. Not to mention the idiotic volume wheel in the original Quicktime 4 Player.
Slashdot Mirror
No Apple fan who already admits a beta label on Maps would've been a good idea, thinks that this one measure would've been "good enough". It would definitely have been better than what they did, though (i.e. not even attempt to manage expectations).
There still would've been a shitstorm and mockery, but without the initial arrogance of claiming it just works, users and the media would've been a little more forgiving and the internet echo chamber wouldn't have been as intense.
Difference is, the PC was the clear market share leader. I thought the rule is that #1 (or those who think they're #1) never acknowledges #2 or lower in the same market space.
The iPad mini introduction bordered on violating that rule when they did the 7.9" vs 7" screen comparison. They didn't *quite* acknowledge a specific competitor, but it was very close. I suppose one can argue Apple is the follower here, in the 7"-8" tablet space, but that's getting nitpicky.
Don't get worked up over higher education hewing to its mandate, which is to provide an education to all (and possibly make some money while doing it by selling you some remedial courses to ease you along). Be happy that people aren't turning their noses up at it. It improves society for everyone.
I'm ambivalent about that last line. The side effect of more people having college/university education, is that having a degree is no longer a measure (inaccurate as it is) of someone's educational background when they apply for jobs. So now, for many jobs it's no longer enough to simply have graduated high school, and you're practically required to have master's degree, not just bachelor's, if you want to become a school teacher where I live. Sometimes, even if it's just for primary school.
Interesting you should mention search. If you type in "printer" on Windows 7 the first result is the Printers and Devices applet. On Windows 8 you get no results.
Excellent!
Just when mocking Apple iOS maps for not finding stuff was getting boring, Microsoft copies them yet again and gives us something new to make fun of!
None of what you wrote invalidate what I said or "proves" that keyboards or IT jobs will be eliminated. Both will continue, in diminished roles sure, but continue it will. You've given nothing to back up your claim that keyboards will fall victim to "major" creative destruction instead of "minor".
Speech recognition was touted as the keyboard killer once upon a time. It's used in many places but can't be used everywhere.
Computer keyboards replaced electronic and electrical typewriters for obvious reasons. Physical keyboards cannot be entirely replaced by touchscreens in a number of cases. Touchscreens are entirely too inaccurate for high-speed typing or swyping. I'm writing this on an iPhone screen and it can no more replace a full keyboard than a blackberry physical keyboard could.
Recognize that some tools are not one size fits all. Microsoft learned that the hard way when they tried grafting a desktop interface to tablets, they're about to learn it yet again going the other way.
You're probably thinking portable media > CD > tape > records/8-track, or hard drive > DVD > VHS, or LED/LCD > CRT screens.
But it is not the "only way" society advances. It is just ONE way, and there are many examples of alternate or complementary technologies.
Mainframes and servers are still around. Data storage on magnetic platters is still around despite there being flash memory and optical media (or "the cloud"--that data is stored physically somewhere). Inkjet printers are still around even though laser printers are cheap now. Wired networks despite wireless tech.
Nuclear are nowhere near to replacing hydro-dam, oil or coal power stations. Planes have not replaced trains or even cars for cross-country trips
Live theatre is still around despite TV and movies. Movies didn't die out because of home video recorders. Fighter jets despite guided missiles and drones. Over-the-air and cable TV weren't replaced with satellite TV.
Hell, you want something even more common everyday? PAPER is still around and probably produced/recycled/consumed at a greater rate than anytime in history, despite portable screens being able to display anything paper can. And pencils that need to be sharpened are still with us even though we have mechanical always-sharp ones.
Then your job will go away. You can say it wont if you want, but that wont change the fact. Look at the buggy whip manufactures of 100 years ago.
That's a silly and arrogant all-encompassing assertion. Even Steve Jobs said there'd still be a place for more traditional computers, but they'd be analogous to big trucks while regular folk drive cars.
The buggy whip and modern car controls are both fully tactile interfaces. The "engine" and "steering" changed, so it made no sense to use whips and reins anymore.
You won't be seeing touchscreen-only steering/accel/braking in production cars anytime soon, we'll have fully computer-controlled driving before that happens.
They don't even have touchscreen-only controls on large ships, which are far more forgiving of longer (or initially wrong) reactions.
Special security updates aside, whenever Apple updates the OS e.g. 10.7.2 to 10.7.3, it's essentially a service pack. Normally there's a combo updater that rolls up all updates for that major release so you could go from 10.x.0 to 10.x.4 (example only).
There are times when Apple's monolithic updates are a drawback, especially for traditional enterprise IT who might need to exclude certain updates, but here they have a clear advantage over Windows' hundreds of individual patches (sometimes requiring 2 or 3 Windows Update runs and restarts to get them all).
They've live-streamed in the past (using Quicktime plug-in, just like this time), but not recently. IIRC those were platform-locked too, something I don't agree with. Even the Olympics, though requiring Silverlight for desktop video in Canada, were at least available on Mac as well as Windows.
I know Youtube can stream h.264 video live, they did that with the Red Bull Stratos dive. Although the post-event video will be available in h.264, probably the only reason Apple insists on Quicktime for this live stream is to lock it to Apple-only devices, using platform detection in the plugin independent of browser user-agent.
I skipped one of the debates and watched Iron Sky with friends instead. I mean, it's about space Nazis who escaped WWII and set up a base on the far side of the moon. Guaranteed leave-your-brain-at-the-door stuff.
Sadly, Iron Sky made more sense, and even managed to be less cheesy, than the highlights I saw of the debate later that night.
A Samsung spokesman refutes a report out of Korea that the electronics giant is ending its agreement to supply LCDs to Apple.
Don't worry, the Conservative government in Canada is doing its best to catch up on taking out our science and research capabilities, and they've got 3 more years to make things even worse.
Fair enough. Thanks for the explanation.
I haven't, but I did look it up before my earlier comment, and it always ends "pray their ships hold together". I'd mentally filled it in with that anyway, and thought your sig ended with "Minmatar pray their ships hol" might've been similar to the antiquated NO CARRIER meme ... but nothing on anyone being cut off while saying it.
What do I think? I think the whole "hosted in Canada" as if it were a downside is BS specifically because of this. A US-based server is no better and in fact is worse for protecting any private or proprietary communication.
If an American says they wont use a BB because Canadian intel services might have their hooks into the BB system and could spy on them, I'll laugh in their face--not because its impossible, but because they're less worried that the US government doesn't already have eyes on them by the time Canada intelligence takes it to that level.
Actually, Apple's biggest contribution to smartphones was in marketing and convincing everyone they actually needed one. I'm not an Apple hater, but really, almost everything in the iPhone, from a user perspective was already there in other products. What other vendors didn't have was a group of fanatics that would buy anything that Apple put out. The iPhone became an overnight success because of the Mac users who went out and had to have one. That's not a complaint, only an observation. With a loyal customer base, once can pull off anything.
No, what other vendors didn't have was the idea to actually *merge* every (supposedly) existing and up-coming technology. The closest hardware rival at the time was the LG Prada, admittedly the first all-touchscreen phone. But if you saw/watched any reviews of its user interface, it was crap compared to the iPhone, and didn't really take advantage of the touchscreen at all (T9 input, hard-to-use scrollbars, etc).
Samsung Galaxy S3 specs:
Display
4.8 inch HD Super AMOLED
(1280x720) display
What's HD Super AMOLED (other than the obvious HD = 720p resolution)? What's its pixels-per-inch? Is it better or worse than Super AMOLED Plus?
People that buy Apple, I wouldn't call most of them the the sharpest blades in the butcher's block
... says someone who apparently hasn't realized what the Slashdot signature length limit is...
It's still not a bullshit marketing term, it's a marketing term, period. You define it in marketing materials, when it's first released. *Then* it becomes mostly self-explanatory in all future occurrences.
Retina: most people understand it's part of the eye. That it's attached to the word "display" in marketing materials gives a hint that it's a feature of that display that claims to somehow enhance the visual experience. The user's already halfway to understanding, broadly speaking, what this feature claims to do.
<quote><p>Multiple email account support, unified or separate.</p></quote>
This is half-assed IMHO.
At least the iPhone *lets* you have multiple email account support. A few months ago I tried linking a current, up-to-date Blackberry Bold to a second Exchange server (going through a merger, so needed to send and receive separately on both domains' email systems). Could not be done via built-in software. Ended up installing a paid app that AFAIK used ActiveSync to get and send email from the second Exchange server.
On the iPhone? Told it the server address, username and password, and it auto-configured and connected to the Exchange server in less than a minute.
I can appreciate the security reasons why most companies don't *want* users to have links into a second Exchange server... and yet the poster child for the walled garden has given us the option to use it or not.
Yeah kids never made fun of other kids because of their clothes or bike.
If this were kids in the playground I'd agree. This is talking about representatives of major companies though!
Have you seen some of our elected representatives and politicians recently? Kindergarteners are better behaved and more mature than that.
Get a better plan. Mine's $55/mo with 250 pooled daytime minutes (unlimited evening/weekend) and 6 GB of data. Texting at this level is a little lacking at only 250 outgoing, but iMessage helps keep it under the limit.
Other than long distance and favourite 5 or 10 options, how do average business or even regular users regularly pay $100+ a month on a cell phone plan?
Not to mention that weird "all your data goes to our servers in Canada first" thing.
Ironically, that makes it more secure/private than if that server were run in the US due to Canada's stronger privacy laws. There are a number of non-US companies in Canada and Europe that refuse to host content on US-based servers for exactly the same reasons.
Obviously, in reality the US or Canadian governments can probably still get data if they wanted it badly enough, through political back channels or direct hacking, but it's still more difficult regardless, legally and technically.
If it's any consolation, rumour has it there's extreme disagreement over the usage of this (called skeuomorphism) even within Apple's employees, extending all the way up to some very senior-level staff. Steve Jobs obviously favoured it, else it never would've gotten such a foothold in Mac OS X Lion. Not to mention the idiotic volume wheel in the original Quicktime 4 Player.