Or, because they actually used the thing in a store, and decided it was shit. Then, they saw the shiny iPad doing what most people use their home PC for anyway (web, email) and got that.
Porsche, in recent models, have actually been charging more money for "weight reduction" which includes replacing the metal door latch handle with a nylon loop to pull on. For weight savings.
Is it stupid? Absolutely. But they are actually charging people more money for less features, and they are paying it and happy about it.
I just find it comical that this is one more in a long string of IT projects taken on by the State of Oregon to be completely botched together, launched to endless faults and problems, then fixed over a period of months if not scrapped altogether. And they have the balls to blame someone else.
To anyone that's lived in Oregon for any period of time over the last 10 years, this is business as usual.
As I understand it, it doesn't require fresh water, per se. It requires a large difference in salinity. So, technically, you could use discharge brine from a desalinating plant as the "saline" part, and regular sea water as the "fresh" part, as long as the difference in salinity is enough.
So turning waste from an activity you're already doing into energy is somehow not more energy than you were getting by just pumping it out a long pipe into the sea?
My UPS guy thinks he's doing extra service by putting our doormat over the package, no matter what the size is.
Yes, when I ordered new tube steel bumpers for my truck, he put the doormat over them. Because nothing conceals six feet of bent and welded DOM1020 steel like a 3 foot doormat.
How is that hard? If there is a screen digitizer present, then show Metro. Otherwise, standard desktop / Start Menu UI. Oh, and put in an option to change the behavior if the user wants, per user.
THAT WAS SO HARD.
Windows 7 knew if you had a touchscreen or pen input available, and loaded the UI elements to use them if they were present. They already knew how to do that, and simply chose to make a shitty UI for standard desktops and laptops - you know, their entire user base - in favor of products that absolutely nobody had bought yet at the time of development.
In addition, the customers that all tablet vendors really would like to sell to, is enterprise.
Enterprise isn't buying the current tablets because the management offerings totally suck. Microsoft could have done themselves a huge favor if they would have just made RT talk to their own management platform (Active Directory) but they didn't.
So, you have people buying iPad / Android tablets, and then attempting to manage them through the same MDM service they use with smartphones, and it doesn't work very well. Microsoft could have used their entrenched enterprise experience where everyone already has their management system installed for dealing with laptops and desktops to blow out all the other tablet devices in business, but they actively chose not to do that.
It's not "me too" if you come into a market space with a product that is so disruptive that everyone forgets about the decade of shitty products that came before it.
Apple showed Microsoft how to make a tablet that people actually want to buy and use. It's pretty clear that Microsoft still hasn't learned how to do that 10+ years on.
1. A GM vehicle that starts leaking oil at 60k miles? 2. A Ford that spontaneously combusts? 3. A Chrysler with a transmission that destroys itself as a byproduct of shifting gears? 4. Any car made by British Leyland?
More than that, everyone expects Fords to catch fire. They have been for 20 years because of the piss-poor electrical systems. http://www.dundurn.com/news/flaming_fords
Not only is everything you said the most likely story, but there's probably all kinds of other stuff that they took a look at, decided it wasn't ready yet, and will continue looking at for the next generation.
Sometimes R&D doesn't pay off on the project you're currently working on, but instead presents it's value in some other project.
DC doesn't have a de facto ban on handguns, because it was struck down in court as being unconstitutional 5 years ago. That's not to say that the authorities aren't going to pretend that it's still a law that can be enforced though.
I love the quote of "anyone with $1,000 and an internet connection can access the plastic parts that can be fitted into a gun."
Anyone with $1,000 and an internet connection can get a gun made of good 'ol steel, which would perform massively better. In fact, you don't even need the $1,000. $500 would get you a very nice handgun in a private party sale.
Maybe not, but I'm guessing that Apple employs a team of lawyers that do. This sounds like a fishing expedition from a European state who is currently in a financially shaky position, during a time of political change. It's easy to score some cheap political points by beating up on the big bad American corporate tax cheats, and when the whole thing is dismissed in a few months, no one will report squat.
Unless, of course, Apple is actually breaking Italian revenue code, in which they need to cough up the cash. And then Italy needs to go after everyone else that is doing the same tax avoidance shenanigans (Google, Microsoft, Nokia, etc.).
And by not having the extra casing around the battery, the latching and connecting mechanisms, and the cover and latch for it, you can fit in more battery cell.
because there's absolutely no other way to stop the signal. Like a grounded metal box. Or pulling the SIM out of the phone. Or detuning the antenna by "holding it wrong" or whatever the meme is.
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Or, because they actually used the thing in a store, and decided it was shit. Then, they saw the shiny iPad doing what most people use their home PC for anyway (web, email) and got that.
Porsche, in recent models, have actually been charging more money for "weight reduction" which includes replacing the metal door latch handle with a nylon loop to pull on. For weight savings.
Is it stupid? Absolutely. But they are actually charging people more money for less features, and they are paying it and happy about it.
I just find it comical that this is one more in a long string of IT projects taken on by the State of Oregon to be completely botched together, launched to endless faults and problems, then fixed over a period of months if not scrapped altogether. And they have the balls to blame someone else.
To anyone that's lived in Oregon for any period of time over the last 10 years, this is business as usual.
I'm shocked... SHOCKED... to hear of California thinking that they can grab more tax money somehow.
I live 120 miles from the coast and my elevation is about 60 feet. You're not going to get hydro power from the river here.
Gee, that's too bad, since Bonneville Dam is at 70 feet of elevation and 146 river miles from the Pacific, and generates 1200 MW.
Granted, the Columbia isn't the average river, but elevation and distance from the ocean are only a couple of values that matter.
As I understand it, it doesn't require fresh water, per se. It requires a large difference in salinity. So, technically, you could use discharge brine from a desalinating plant as the "saline" part, and regular sea water as the "fresh" part, as long as the difference in salinity is enough.
So turning waste from an activity you're already doing into energy is somehow not more energy than you were getting by just pumping it out a long pipe into the sea?
I often have stuff delivered to the mail room at my office, where they can sign for it and email me that I have something to pick up.
My UPS guy thinks he's doing extra service by putting our doormat over the package, no matter what the size is.
Yes, when I ordered new tube steel bumpers for my truck, he put the doormat over them. Because nothing conceals six feet of bent and welded DOM1020 steel like a 3 foot doormat.
How is that hard? If there is a screen digitizer present, then show Metro. Otherwise, standard desktop / Start Menu UI. Oh, and put in an option to change the behavior if the user wants, per user.
THAT WAS SO HARD.
Windows 7 knew if you had a touchscreen or pen input available, and loaded the UI elements to use them if they were present. They already knew how to do that, and simply chose to make a shitty UI for standard desktops and laptops - you know, their entire user base - in favor of products that absolutely nobody had bought yet at the time of development.
In addition, the customers that all tablet vendors really would like to sell to, is enterprise.
Enterprise isn't buying the current tablets because the management offerings totally suck. Microsoft could have done themselves a huge favor if they would have just made RT talk to their own management platform (Active Directory) but they didn't.
So, you have people buying iPad / Android tablets, and then attempting to manage them through the same MDM service they use with smartphones, and it doesn't work very well. Microsoft could have used their entrenched enterprise experience where everyone already has their management system installed for dealing with laptops and desktops to blow out all the other tablet devices in business, but they actively chose not to do that.
It's not "me too" if you come into a market space with a product that is so disruptive that everyone forgets about the decade of shitty products that came before it.
Apple showed Microsoft how to make a tablet that people actually want to buy and use. It's pretty clear that Microsoft still hasn't learned how to do that 10+ years on.
Multiple joke responses could be made here:
1. A GM vehicle that starts leaking oil at 60k miles?
2. A Ford that spontaneously combusts?
3. A Chrysler with a transmission that destroys itself as a byproduct of shifting gears?
4. Any car made by British Leyland?
etc.
More than that, everyone expects Fords to catch fire. They have been for 20 years because of the piss-poor electrical systems. http://www.dundurn.com/news/flaming_fords
The W line also needs to come with a back brace, because even Lenovo makes some desktops that weigh less.
And hey, we got to burn down Toronto. So there's that.
More than that, the city is giving Apple less rebates going forward than they are now. Apple is now going to be paying more taxes.
Not only is everything you said the most likely story, but there's probably all kinds of other stuff that they took a look at, decided it wasn't ready yet, and will continue looking at for the next generation.
Sometimes R&D doesn't pay off on the project you're currently working on, but instead presents it's value in some other project.
Are your bullets plastic too? Do they use some other kind of propellant besides gunpowder?
And you accuse ME of missing the point. A plastic gun with no bullets is just an oddly shaped piece of plastic.
DC doesn't have a de facto ban on handguns, because it was struck down in court as being unconstitutional 5 years ago. That's not to say that the authorities aren't going to pretend that it's still a law that can be enforced though.
See: District of Columbia v. Heller.
I love the quote of "anyone with $1,000 and an internet connection can access the plastic parts that can be fitted into a gun."
Anyone with $1,000 and an internet connection can get a gun made of good 'ol steel, which would perform massively better. In fact, you don't even need the $1,000. $500 would get you a very nice handgun in a private party sale.
Maybe not, but I'm guessing that Apple employs a team of lawyers that do. This sounds like a fishing expedition from a European state who is currently in a financially shaky position, during a time of political change. It's easy to score some cheap political points by beating up on the big bad American corporate tax cheats, and when the whole thing is dismissed in a few months, no one will report squat.
Unless, of course, Apple is actually breaking Italian revenue code, in which they need to cough up the cash. And then Italy needs to go after everyone else that is doing the same tax avoidance shenanigans (Google, Microsoft, Nokia, etc.).
You just reminded me of the Palm Pre 2 - I think you could shave with the bottom bit when it was open.
And by not having the extra casing around the battery, the latching and connecting mechanisms, and the cover and latch for it, you can fit in more battery cell.
because there's absolutely no other way to stop the signal. Like a grounded metal box. Or pulling the SIM out of the phone. Or detuning the antenna by "holding it wrong" or whatever the meme is.