Um... I suspect it's not so much an "enemy of my enemy is my friend" feeling, as schadenfreude.
I'd be incredibly happy if this whole software-patents bullshit disappeared through a sudden outbreak of commonsense. But if the alternative is that the main perpetrator of the patent wars gets sued so hard they're forced to declare a truce, I'll take it...
What are you talking about? Samsung ripped off the look and feel of the iPad. It's Samsung that can't compete.
Are people really okay with companies just blatantly ripping off other companies? I thought Slashdot trashed Microsoft for years over that.
Oh, come on! If Samsung ripped off the look and feel of the iPad, then the iPad ripped off the look and feel of tablet PCs. Take a look a this picture of an HP tablet PC from 2006, and tell me how the iPad didn't copy the rounded rectangle shape you see there! Seriously, I know worshiping Steve Jobs makes you blind, but surely nobody could be that shortsighted...
Other than the basic shape, let's see... The iPad has a single central button, that could be considered unique; does the Samsung have that? Nope. And the two OSes are completely different (you couldn't possibly compare iOS to Honeycomb, surely??)
Incidentally, if MS was trashed for ripping off Mac OS's look'n'feel back in the day (and I don't remember this ever happening except from Apple fanbois, so plus ca change...) then Apple should also have been trashed for ripping the original GUI look'n'feel from Xerox...
Apple has done some great and innovative things, no question. But they were neither the originators of the GUI concept nor the tablet concept, and to claim otherwise does them no credit. Right now they're in serious danger of being left behind in the innovation stakes. Already iOS is copying features from Android, and looking more as if it's trying to play catchup than leading the field as it used to. It's about time Apple stopped suing and started doing again.
After one angry mail his app got a sprecial promotion and he got 180,000 donwloads in a single day, what shit treatment they give him, bastards!
Uh, not really. The 180,000 downloads were free (and permanently free) giveaways, based on him voluntarily submitting his app to their free giveaway app promotion. Not only did this not generate any money for the app, but as he goes on to point out, it also generated a number of very negative reviews by users of unsupported phones (which Amazon did not screen out from downloading the app)!
I think his complaints were perfectly justified, and I suspect that as the developer of a very successful app on the Android App Market it's not just a sour-grapes article.
D) Updates also have to be reviewed - well DUH! I mean, wth good is it to review the original app submission, but not updates? That's just an invitation for someone who wants to peddle malware to submit a "clean" version 1.0, then after acceptance, submit a "dirty" version 1.1 update a few days later.
If you are going to do security reviews, you've got to review everything. I'm sorry, that's just common sense.
Well, that's fair enough, but it's too bad if your app causes major issues with a particular phone and you need to bugfix urgently, which I assumed was the point he was making in that final comment. It's all very well to take your time reviewing an app, but if the developer can't speedily update it when bugs are discovered then this could cause major problems!
What got me was his implication that because the change involved adding one letter to the code (the "s" in https), it shouldn't have made the difference between acceptance and rejection of the app.
He was complaining about the time taken to review a single letter code change, rather than whether or not the app should have been accepted in the first place. Note that the guy's subtitle for this complaint is "Very slow review process"...!
he had good points and bad point; but a saint or enlightened person he was definitely NOT.
Well... he successfully coordinated the non-violent liberation of an entire country from a hostile foreign force. I would have thought that was impressive and laudable...
You're correct, incidentally, about him being racist as a young man; whether or not he had *sexual* relations with underage women (as opposed to sleeping with them platonically) is disputable, and there is good evidence to the contrary. But even if he was a racist all his life and a pedophile to boot, that would not invalidate the philosophy that the OP quoted (which, obviously, has nothing to do with either racism or pedophilia!)
Ubuntu's made some dumb choices recently in GUI layout and package selection. Not huge issues, but they are PITA issues and that's what's caused a lot of Ubuntu hate.
Well, the great thing about linux is that you can change stuff as much as you like. I've never liked any distro's default choices... but I'm prepared to take the time to tweak things to my own liking, safe in the knowledge that I can.
Also over the years people have been getting increasingly pissed off at the fact that Ubuntu is a bleeding-edge distro and updates tend to break stuff. Because of these issues a lot of people have been switching to Debian.
The funny thing is that when I started using linux back in 1999, the big criticism of Debian was that it wasn't bleeding edge enough! I guess you can't win in the linux world...
Personally, I've been using Ubuntu for the last few years. I used to use a really minimalist distro and compile everything myself, but I don't have the time or inclination to do that any more... and for that purpose, for me, Ubuntu works great. It's the first distro I've been confident enough to present to my parents as an alternative to windows, and one which they actually liked and preferred to windows.
But, you know, if people don't like Ubuntu they don't have to use it. There's a billion and one distros out there, catering for any whim or fancy in the world... and if not, you can always roll your own. If Ubuntu changes enough to be unpopular with end users, then some other distro will catch on and we'll all be praising that one. Plus ça change...
This is what I think is stupid about android. It's touted as being "open" but you are left depending on the manufacturer of the device to upgrade the software. You should be able to download the software directly from Google and install it on any tablet.
Well, actually you can. The source code for Android is freely available, and you can literally roll your own. That's exactly what's been going on with heaps of Android phones right now, that are happily running Gingerbread long before the manufacturers have even thought about releasing an update.
Where the model falls down, though, is in the hardware drivers -- for my phone, an HTC Desire, developers are still waiting on Google's long-promised-but-never-delivered OTA update to the Nexus One in order to grab the proprietary hardware drivers for the device. Don't misunderstand me -- everything works right now, and very well too -- but not quite as well as it might with the proprietary drivers.
I installed Cyanogen 6.1.1 on my Android phone, and it turns out there are a slew of issues that were reported in the 6.1 release candidates that "cyanogen" and his buddies just never could be pissed to fix before final release OR the.1.1 update that followed. It doesn't support hidden SSIDs, when the stock ROM does just fine.
Um.... no... I'm using CM 6.1.1 on my home network, which has a hidden SSID. No issues at all.
It also no longer supports sleeping with WiFi; if the phone goes into sleep mode, you have to cycle WiFi on and off again.
Nope again. Nope on all your other issues, too.
Dunno what phone you're using, and maybe these issues are specific for your phone (in which case, it's really the kernel maintainer's fault, not the CM core team)... but your experiences don't match mine, or any other opinions about CM I've read. Not saying you're not experiencing these problems -- obviously you are! But don't extrapolate from that to assume that everyone is experiencing these issues and just somehow puts up with them!
The reasons (which don't really apply to the nook color, since it's just a TFT tablet) are:
1) Being able to read in direct sunshine, or, indeed any light at all 2) Having a month of battery life (very important if you're going trekking for a week!) 3) Having a larger screen than a phone (a screen the same size as a paperback book) without weighing any more
Whether or not that matters to you depends on what you do. But all tend to be important if you're reading a lot of books.
Hmmm... the Sci Am article seems to be written by someone who doesn't get ebooks. I don't think you get them, either. The writer does have a slight point about DRM encryption, but neglects to mention that Amazon's DRM rubbish is now dead easy to strip out of books, leaving you with an open-format electronic version you can backup and format-shift at will.
I don't pirate ebooks and I'm very happy to pay for ebooks. But I always strip out the DRM, and wouldn't buy from a supplier whose DRM routines hadn't been broken. My kids will be able to read my ebook library just fine, thanks very much...
And as for the argument about cost... arguably the best ebook reader you can buy costs $140, which is less than the cost of six paperbacks. If your ebook reader breaks, it's hardly expensive to replace.
Don't get me wrong -- I love my physical book library too. There's a charm to affectionately looking at the spines of your favourite works of literature that you can't get with a folder of filenames. But ebooks are absolutely vital when you're travelling for extended periods of time, and great in the way they can be accessed literally anywhere on your phone. There's absolutely no reason why both paper books and ebooks can't happily coexist.
and every single one of them will void your warranty on the hardware.
They may or may not (although I doubt such a void warranty claim would stand up in court). But since you can always revert to stock with one of the OTA ROMs, it hardly matters, does it? My phone is currently being repaired, and you can be assured that I reverted to stock before sending it back...
Where are the HTC 2.3 ROMs? You know the ones that you don't lose your hardware warranty for installing?
So HTC aren't concerned with building new ROMs for older hardware? That's one more reason to switch over to the community ROMs!
I'm not sure what exactly your fear of using an AOSP ROM is, but bear in mind that they have a lot more active development than an HTC ROM, much easier bug reporting and much faster bug fixing, not to mention many more features. And if you really do like HTC Sense, then there's several excellent Sense-based ROMs (LeeDroid being the standout) which will give you your Sense-UI fix with many more features and a better kernel to boot.
Is the Nexus S still the only 2.3 phone available?
Not at all -- there's at least five different gingerbread ROMs available for the HTC Desire over on XDA, for example. Most popular phones should have an AOSP build of gingerbread by now, it's been out long enough!
Then they sit back and have the nerve to tell us that Android is "open" while users are forced to jailbreak and deal with vendors that try to cripple devices so they can leverage later versions as a selling point for the next carrier contract.
Not quite forced. Agreed that this ability to gain root access should be mandatory across the platform, but at least Google is doing the right thing in this case, and publicly defending it too.
Although I developed a headache, and my wife developed a migraine.
One man's headache is another man's enjoyment. I watched the film twice and experienced no headaches, pain or fever. On the contrary, I found the 3D so realistic that I didn't even notice the effect of it after the first five minutes -- like the digital effects, it was convincing enough to not disturb my brain at all.
And the plot was complete and utter predictable rubbish. Its basically unwatchable garbage. So stereotypical and cliched to the point that it is painful.
Personally, I thought it was a cliched story (with some very two dimensional characters!) but nevertheless a story that I didn't mind hearing told again. Mindless entertainment, sure, but highly entertaining -- and given the record grossing levels I'd suggest that many people thought the same:)
The point about Avatar, though, is that nobody (or very few) people went to see it primarily because of the 3D effect. The 3D fun was an added bonus, but people went because of the sheer grandiose scope of the film, and because they wanted to enjoy another retelling of the fish-out-of-water dances-with-wolves going-native story. The error of film makers post-Avatar has been to assume that Avatar's success was all due to 3D, and that by kludging bad 3D onto bad films they would somehow draw in the masses by recreating some of Avatar's magic.
Samsung isn't exactly treating their Android phone customers well either.
But you can at least root the phone and install an AOSP ROM, whether it's Froyo or Gingerbread. I'm lost as to why anyone would stick with the stock ROM -- the AOSP ROMs are much more functional and user-friendly.
In any case, surely the most pertinent attitude is that of Google, who have allowed rooting out-of-the-box on their Android phones, advocated the use of community ROMs and publicly defended this position. Who cares what moto does? All they're doing is making sure I don't buy one of their phones...
As long as someone else can share this information about you, your own so-called "privacy settings" are nothing of that sort.
Actually, that's not true (assuming you trust fb to honour the settings you select!) If you look under Settings --> Privacy --> Apps and Websites, you can control what information friends' apps can see about you. Essentially, fb is relying on insecurity-through-obscurity -- they can't be criticised for not giving users the option to prevent such abuse, but these options are hidden away in places they hope nobody will ever look.
But the best solution is to use a fake name and fake personal information when setting up your profile. Your friends will still know it's you, and anyone who isn't a friend doesn't matter anyway...
Plus it means your highschool "friends" who you lost contact with for a reason can't look you up....:)
If you do want to use apps you can always just set up a completely fake account.
I did that to play scrabble with some friends. My profile has not an ounce of genuine information in it, it's all completely fake using a throw-away email address... and I still felt like I was being sodomised by facebook when I signed up!
Phone numbers and home addresses are public knowledge already — it's called a phone book.
Last time I checked, the phone book wasn't linked with full names, photos and detailed personal information about when you're going on holidays...
Seriously, this must be a burglar's wet dream! Someone posts that they're off overseas with their partner for two months... and you can see their home address...!?
Surely society has some sort of moral obligation to protect the terminally stupid from doing this?
Hows all that "open platform" "not locked to a walled garden" "no need to jailbreak" Android working out for all the people that rant and rave against the iPhone?
With root access, it's working out fine:) Unlike the iPhone, there's a very active development community that's brought completely open builds of the Android Open Source Project to most popular phones. Installing these is extraordinarily simply -- there's even an app in the Android Market (ROM Manager) which will do it all for you (including downloading the latest rom of your choice) in one click.
Most Android phone users currently have access to not only to multiple different builds of Froyo, but also some very good builds of Gingerbread available. As far as the Vibrant is concerned, from a quick look on xda it appears as though there's at least one very good Froyo rom out there together with a currently experimental build of Gingerbread. Obtaining root access on the Vibrant appears trivial.
The great thing about Android is that you don't have to rely on the phone manufacturer to provide an update. Personally, this seems a much better philosophy than being locked into a single, closed-source system... but ymmv:)
This is comparing apples to oranges. The iPhone is a single device from a single manufacturer. "Android market share" consists of many different devices from several different manufacturers. Why are they comparing two unlike things? If you wanted to compare Android to anything, it should include all iOS devices, such as the iPod Touch and iPad as well as the iPhone.
Well, obviously this was comparing sales of phones running either iOS or Android. From TFA:
For the first time, more Americans are using phones running Google's Android operating system than Apple's iPhone
I agree that if you wanted to compare total market share you'd want to look at ipod touch/tablet offerings from both platforms. That'd probably put iOS ahead again.
I'm not sure whether Apple would take much consolation from that, though: there's an awful lot of Android tablets released in the last quarter, with a lot more on the way in this quarter. Most of the decent offerings are sitting around two-thirds the price of an ipad, plus they're significantly lighter and have more a lot more connectivity options. I'd be surprised if tablet sales didn't switch from iOS to Android too before too long.
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Um ... I suspect it's not so much an "enemy of my enemy is my friend" feeling, as schadenfreude.
I'd be incredibly happy if this whole software-patents bullshit disappeared through a sudden outbreak of commonsense. But if the alternative is that the main perpetrator of the patent wars gets sued so hard they're forced to declare a truce, I'll take it ...
If "Apple can't compete on price", why are iPads the same or lower price than "competing" tablets?
Like the Asus Transformer, you mean, which retails $100 less than the iPad 2??
What are you talking about? Samsung ripped off the look and feel of the iPad. It's Samsung that can't compete.
Are people really okay with companies just blatantly ripping off other companies? I thought Slashdot trashed Microsoft for years over that.
Oh, come on! If Samsung ripped off the look and feel of the iPad, then the iPad ripped off the look and feel of tablet PCs. Take a look a this picture of an HP tablet PC from 2006, and tell me how the iPad didn't copy the rounded rectangle shape you see there! Seriously, I know worshiping Steve Jobs makes you blind, but surely nobody could be that shortsighted ...
Other than the basic shape, let's see ... The iPad has a single central button, that could be considered unique; does the Samsung have that? Nope. And the two OSes are completely different (you couldn't possibly compare iOS to Honeycomb, surely??)
Incidentally, if MS was trashed for ripping off Mac OS's look'n'feel back in the day (and I don't remember this ever happening except from Apple fanbois, so plus ca change ...) then Apple should also have been trashed for ripping the original GUI look'n'feel from Xerox ...
Apple has done some great and innovative things, no question. But they were neither the originators of the GUI concept nor the tablet concept, and to claim otherwise does them no credit. Right now they're in serious danger of being left behind in the innovation stakes. Already iOS is copying features from Android, and looking more as if it's trying to play catchup than leading the field as it used to. It's about time Apple stopped suing and started doing again.
I think he's trying to say that they who live by the sword, die by the sword ...
After one angry mail his app got a sprecial promotion and he got 180,000 donwloads in a single day,
what shit treatment they give him, bastards!
Uh, not really. The 180,000 downloads were free (and permanently free) giveaways, based on him voluntarily submitting his app to their free giveaway app promotion. Not only did this not generate any money for the app, but as he goes on to point out, it also generated a number of very negative reviews by users of unsupported phones (which Amazon did not screen out from downloading the app)!
I think his complaints were perfectly justified, and I suspect that as the developer of a very successful app on the Android App Market it's not just a sour-grapes article.
D) Updates also have to be reviewed - well DUH! I mean, wth good is it to review the original app submission, but not updates? That's just an invitation for someone who wants to peddle malware to submit a "clean" version 1.0, then after acceptance, submit a "dirty" version 1.1 update a few days later.
If you are going to do security reviews, you've got to review everything. I'm sorry, that's just common sense.
Well, that's fair enough, but it's too bad if your app causes major issues with a particular phone and you need to bugfix urgently, which I assumed was the point he was making in that final comment. It's all very well to take your time reviewing an app, but if the developer can't speedily update it when bugs are discovered then this could cause major problems!
What got me was his implication that because the change involved adding one letter to the code (the "s" in https), it shouldn't have made the difference between acceptance and rejection of the app.
He was complaining about the time taken to review a single letter code change, rather than whether or not the app should have been accepted in the first place. Note that the guy's subtitle for this complaint is "Very slow review process" ...!
history made him a hero but real life did not.
he had good points and bad point; but a saint or enlightened person he was definitely NOT.
Well ... he successfully coordinated the non-violent liberation of an entire country from a hostile foreign force. I would have thought that was impressive and laudable ...
You're correct, incidentally, about him being racist as a young man; whether or not he had *sexual* relations with underage women (as opposed to sleeping with them platonically) is disputable, and there is good evidence to the contrary. But even if he was a racist all his life and a pedophile to boot, that would not invalidate the philosophy that the OP quoted (which, obviously, has nothing to do with either racism or pedophilia!)
Ubuntu's made some dumb choices recently in GUI layout and package selection. Not huge issues, but they are PITA issues and that's what's caused a lot of Ubuntu hate.
Well, the great thing about linux is that you can change stuff as much as you like. I've never liked any distro's default choices ... but I'm prepared to take the time to tweak things to my own liking, safe in the knowledge that I can.
Also over the years people have been getting increasingly pissed off at the fact that Ubuntu is a bleeding-edge distro and updates tend to break stuff. Because of these issues a lot of people have been switching to Debian.
The funny thing is that when I started using linux back in 1999, the big criticism of Debian was that it wasn't bleeding edge enough! I guess you can't win in the linux world ...
Personally, I've been using Ubuntu for the last few years. I used to use a really minimalist distro and compile everything myself, but I don't have the time or inclination to do that any more ... and for that purpose, for me, Ubuntu works great. It's the first distro I've been confident enough to present to my parents as an alternative to windows, and one which they actually liked and preferred to windows.
But, you know, if people don't like Ubuntu they don't have to use it. There's a billion and one distros out there, catering for any whim or fancy in the world ... and if not, you can always roll your own. If Ubuntu changes enough to be unpopular with end users, then some other distro will catch on and we'll all be praising that one. Plus ça change ...
This is what I think is stupid about android. It's touted as being "open" but you are left depending on the manufacturer of the device to upgrade the software. You should be able to download the software directly from Google and install it on any tablet.
Well, actually you can. The source code for Android is freely available, and you can literally roll your own. That's exactly what's been going on with heaps of Android phones right now, that are happily running Gingerbread long before the manufacturers have even thought about releasing an update.
Where the model falls down, though, is in the hardware drivers -- for my phone, an HTC Desire, developers are still waiting on Google's long-promised-but-never-delivered OTA update to the Nexus One in order to grab the proprietary hardware drivers for the device. Don't misunderstand me -- everything works right now, and very well too -- but not quite as well as it might with the proprietary drivers.
I installed Cyanogen 6.1.1 on my Android phone, and it turns out there are a slew of issues that were reported in the 6.1 release candidates that "cyanogen" and his buddies just never could be pissed to fix before final release OR the .1.1 update that followed. It doesn't support hidden SSIDs, when the stock ROM does just fine.
Um .... no ... I'm using CM 6.1.1 on my home network, which has a hidden SSID. No issues at all.
It also no longer supports sleeping with WiFi; if the phone goes into sleep mode, you have to cycle WiFi on and off again.
Nope again. Nope on all your other issues, too.
Dunno what phone you're using, and maybe these issues are specific for your phone (in which case, it's really the kernel maintainer's fault, not the CM core team) ... but your experiences don't match mine, or any other opinions about CM I've read. Not saying you're not experiencing these problems -- obviously you are! But don't extrapolate from that to assume that everyone is experiencing these issues and just somehow puts up with them!
The reasons (which don't really apply to the nook color, since it's just a TFT tablet) are:
1) Being able to read in direct sunshine, or, indeed any light at all
2) Having a month of battery life (very important if you're going trekking for a week!)
3) Having a larger screen than a phone (a screen the same size as a paperback book) without weighing any more
Whether or not that matters to you depends on what you do. But all tend to be important if you're reading a lot of books.
Hmmm ... the Sci Am article seems to be written by someone who doesn't get ebooks. I don't think you get them, either. The writer does have a slight point about DRM encryption, but neglects to mention that Amazon's DRM rubbish is now dead easy to strip out of books, leaving you with an open-format electronic version you can backup and format-shift at will.
I don't pirate ebooks and I'm very happy to pay for ebooks. But I always strip out the DRM, and wouldn't buy from a supplier whose DRM routines hadn't been broken. My kids will be able to read my ebook library just fine, thanks very much ...
And as for the argument about cost ... arguably the best ebook reader you can buy costs $140, which is less than the cost of six paperbacks. If your ebook reader breaks, it's hardly expensive to replace.
Don't get me wrong -- I love my physical book library too. There's a charm to affectionately looking at the spines of your favourite works of literature that you can't get with a folder of filenames. But ebooks are absolutely vital when you're travelling for extended periods of time, and great in the way they can be accessed literally anywhere on your phone. There's absolutely no reason why both paper books and ebooks can't happily coexist.
and every single one of them will void your warranty on the hardware.
They may or may not (although I doubt such a void warranty claim would stand up in court). But since you can always revert to stock with one of the OTA ROMs, it hardly matters, does it? My phone is currently being repaired, and you can be assured that I reverted to stock before sending it back ...
Where are the HTC 2.3 ROMs? You know the ones that you don't lose your hardware warranty for installing?
So HTC aren't concerned with building new ROMs for older hardware? That's one more reason to switch over to the community ROMs!
I'm not sure what exactly your fear of using an AOSP ROM is, but bear in mind that they have a lot more active development than an HTC ROM, much easier bug reporting and much faster bug fixing, not to mention many more features. And if you really do like HTC Sense, then there's several excellent Sense-based ROMs (LeeDroid being the standout) which will give you your Sense-UI fix with many more features and a better kernel to boot.
Is the Nexus S still the only 2.3 phone available?
Not at all -- there's at least five different gingerbread ROMs available for the HTC Desire over on XDA, for example. Most popular phones should have an AOSP build of gingerbread by now, it's been out long enough!
Then they sit back and have the nerve to tell us that Android is "open" while users are forced to jailbreak and deal with vendors that try to cripple devices so they can leverage later versions as a selling point for the next carrier contract.
Not quite forced. Agreed that this ability to gain root access should be mandatory across the platform, but at least Google is doing the right thing in this case, and publicly defending it too.
Although I developed a headache, and my wife developed a migraine.
One man's headache is another man's enjoyment. I watched the film twice and experienced no headaches, pain or fever. On the contrary, I found the 3D so realistic that I didn't even notice the effect of it after the first five minutes -- like the digital effects, it was convincing enough to not disturb my brain at all.
And the plot was complete and utter predictable rubbish. Its basically unwatchable garbage. So stereotypical and cliched to the point that it is painful.
Personally, I thought it was a cliched story (with some very two dimensional characters!) but nevertheless a story that I didn't mind hearing told again. Mindless entertainment, sure, but highly entertaining -- and given the record grossing levels I'd suggest that many people thought the same :)
The point about Avatar, though, is that nobody (or very few) people went to see it primarily because of the 3D effect. The 3D fun was an added bonus, but people went because of the sheer grandiose scope of the film, and because they wanted to enjoy another retelling of the fish-out-of-water dances-with-wolves going-native story. The error of film makers post-Avatar has been to assume that Avatar's success was all due to 3D, and that by kludging bad 3D onto bad films they would somehow draw in the masses by recreating some of Avatar's magic.
That trick was never, ever going to work.
To you, perhaps. Some people actually like TouchWiz, or the other eye candy that manufacturers place on their phones.
Fair call :)
In other words, a manufacturer is selling a product that does exactly what the vast majority of it's customers want.
s/want/don't care enough about/g;
The two are not quite the same ...
Samsung isn't exactly treating their Android phone customers well either.
But you can at least root the phone and install an AOSP ROM, whether it's Froyo or Gingerbread. I'm lost as to why anyone would stick with the stock ROM -- the AOSP ROMs are much more functional and user-friendly.
In any case, surely the most pertinent attitude is that of Google, who have allowed rooting out-of-the-box on their Android phones, advocated the use of community ROMs and publicly defended this position. Who cares what moto does? All they're doing is making sure I don't buy one of their phones ...
No, the real point is:
As long as someone else can share this information about you, your own so-called "privacy settings" are nothing of that sort.
Actually, that's not true (assuming you trust fb to honour the settings you select!) If you look under Settings --> Privacy --> Apps and Websites, you can control what information friends' apps can see about you. Essentially, fb is relying on insecurity-through-obscurity -- they can't be criticised for not giving users the option to prevent such abuse, but these options are hidden away in places they hope nobody will ever look.
But the best solution is to use a fake name and fake personal information when setting up your profile. Your friends will still know it's you, and anyone who isn't a friend doesn't matter anyway ...
Plus it means your highschool "friends" who you lost contact with for a reason can't look you up .... :)
If you do want to use apps you can always just set up a completely fake account.
I did that to play scrabble with some friends. My profile has not an ounce of genuine information in it, it's all completely fake using a throw-away email address ... and I still felt like I was being sodomised by facebook when I signed up!
Phone numbers and home addresses are public knowledge already — it's called a phone book.
Last time I checked, the phone book wasn't linked with full names, photos and detailed personal information about when you're going on holidays ...
Seriously, this must be a burglar's wet dream! Someone posts that they're off overseas with their partner for two months ... and you can see their home address ...!?
Surely society has some sort of moral obligation to protect the terminally stupid from doing this?
Hows all that "open platform" "not locked to a walled garden" "no need to jailbreak" Android working out for all the people that rant and rave against the iPhone?
With root access, it's working out fine :) Unlike the iPhone, there's a very active development community that's brought completely open builds of the Android Open Source Project to most popular phones. Installing these is extraordinarily simply -- there's even an app in the Android Market (ROM Manager) which will do it all for you (including downloading the latest rom of your choice) in one click.
Most Android phone users currently have access to not only to multiple different builds of Froyo, but also some very good builds of Gingerbread available. As far as the Vibrant is concerned, from a quick look on xda it appears as though there's at least one very good Froyo rom out there together with a currently experimental build of Gingerbread. Obtaining root access on the Vibrant appears trivial.
The great thing about Android is that you don't have to rely on the phone manufacturer to provide an update. Personally, this seems a much better philosophy than being locked into a single, closed-source system ... but ymmv :)
This is comparing apples to oranges. The iPhone is a single device from a single manufacturer. "Android market share" consists of many different devices from several different manufacturers. Why are they comparing two unlike things? If you wanted to compare Android to anything, it should include all iOS devices, such as the iPod Touch and iPad as well as the iPhone.
Well, obviously this was comparing sales of phones running either iOS or Android. From TFA:
For the first time, more Americans are using phones running Google's Android operating system than Apple's iPhone
I agree that if you wanted to compare total market share you'd want to look at ipod touch/tablet offerings from both platforms. That'd probably put iOS ahead again.
I'm not sure whether Apple would take much consolation from that, though: there's an awful lot of Android tablets released in the last quarter, with a lot more on the way in this quarter. Most of the decent offerings are sitting around two-thirds the price of an ipad, plus they're significantly lighter and have more a lot more connectivity options. I'd be surprised if tablet sales didn't switch from iOS to Android too before too long.