...but it tends to be tricky on most PDAs as there's usually a ridge around the screen. If the whole face is flat glass, a simple wipe will clean it up...
No. The key scenario is that the iPhone is not aimed at business. It's aimed at people who have a high-ish disposable income who want a pretty phone that does music/video/web etc.
Sure, a company isn't going to mind if you buy yourself a nice phone and put your work SIM card in it - I've always done this as I'd rather stab myself in the eye with a fork than use a RAZR.
I'm sure it's going to be a lovely, if expensive, device, but it's not aimed at and is not going to be successful in the business environment.
The iPhone is very accurately aimed at consumers.
Oh, and the iPhone isn't going to let you read/edit/email Word docs.
Re:You still have service fees?
on
ATM Turns 40
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· Score: 2, Informative
Up until about 5 years ago, some major UK banks charged people to use their cash machines if they weren't a customer of that bank. This, predicatably, ended up with those banks charging right back at the first banks customers. After a few rounds of this, it was decided that it made more sense, and would be more publically acceptable, for *no-one* to charge for their use.
The ATMs that charge now tend to be owned by 3rd party companies, rather than the banks themselves - they put them in convenience stores, petrol stations, etc. These hook up to a phone line and work in a similar way to the Switch terminals in shops - instead of buying products, you're buying cash.
1) Company needs OTA groupware. They don't buy an iPhone: they use WM/Blackberry/etc
2) Company doesn't need OTA groupware. They buy whatever phones they can get cheap that work as a basic phone. They don't buy an iPhone.
3) Company doesn't need OTA groupware but decides that it's bored of making money for its shareholders, and buys everyone an iPhone for shits and giggles.
4) Company doesn't need OTA groupware, but does have a pressing need for its employees to be able to listen to MP3s all day, post pictures to Flickr and mess with Google Maps. They buy the iPhone.
I don't know about you, but 3) and 4) don't seem to be a huge demographic...
...but so long as you're adding it to your mortgage, you're paying it off over the life of the mortgage. For buying consumer goods, this is a really dumb idea as your $2000 plasma TV will cost you several times that in interest charges - and it's not like it's going to be worth anything in 15 years either.
You extend a mortgage either because you have to, or you're going to spend it on something that *will* retain value, such as extending or renovating the house the mortgage is taken out on.
How many voicemails would you have to receive a day before you had a requirement to be able to listen to them non-sequentially via Visual Voicemail?
Sure, it *looks* cool, but if you think about it, is it useful? Aren't you going to want to listen to voicemails in the order they come in?
deepfish isn't all that. opera mini's better for extended use, and the samsung picsel browser's pretty much the same as deepfish and doesn't need MS registration. it's available at xda-developers.com...
President Bush has used his veto to kill another bill that would have lifted some of the restrictions on research using human embryonic stem cells.
The news has been greeted with dismay, but not surprise, by the scientific community.
In announcing his use of the veto, Bush told reporters: "Destroying human life in the hopes of saving human life is not ethical."
Um, hello George...presumably it's OK if it's for oil?
Lots of other video available online (which I can't check as most video sources on the web are blocked here at work) including the famous one from UK's "Fifth Gear" where they drove one at around 50mph into a concrete block:
http://xo.typepad.com/blog/2005/12/video_smart_car .html as a starter...
The Smart cars are actually remarkably safe, despite their appearance.
The US Mini is the same as the European Mini, bar one or two minor tweaks. It's certainly not 40% bigger. Thankfully, the Mini group never decided to revive the Maxi!
The Smart cars are very common in Europe - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_Fortwo for more info. Whilst in theory you can park nose in to the curb given their short wheelbase, in practice in the UK at least this isn't legal. Presumably the standard reflectors etc aren't visible...
...basically boil down to it just works. It's also very very easy to integrate into your existing infrastructure - you can rent a Blackberry Enterprise Server from your phone company, get nice flat-rate data tarrifs and handsets for your users, plug it all into your mail infrastructure and you're set. You can do remote-wipe and enforce passwords on the devices - it's really easy to get up and running at a nice predictable cost.
Sure, WinMo devices et al can do some form of live mail and calendar etc, but the Blackberries do it predictably, reliably and generally make a lot of sense from a business perspective.
You, sir, are an idiot. The article talks about corporate IT. Corporate IT users tend to have more than 5 numbers in their address book, and group calendars are pretty vital for enterprise.
An innovator in business practices, not so much the actual PCs.
The whole built-just-in-time philosophy, only selling via phone or web order - making the production and sale of its gear incredibly efficient. I don't know what the profit margin on Dell stuff is, but I'd be surprised if it were above 4%...
You're right, if this is an example of the type of tech support people can expect, then PC tech support deserves the lowest satisfaction score.
"When I start Ubuntu, the monitor goes black and displays a message that says 'sync out of range'."
"OK, I want you to go to the terminal..."
"I can't. There's nothing on the screen. That would require the sync to be IN RANGE, which it clearly isn't." Yes you can
"OK, so press Ctrl-Alt-Triple-Bang-Squat-Blooie..."
"You still don't get it. There's no display. Opening random UI elements doesn't help if I CAN'T SEE THEM!" You aren't being asked to open UI elements. You're being asked to press a specific key combination which will remove the GUI
"OK, so open/etc/X/12/conf/magic, and..."
"Right, I'll just use my amazing telepathic powers and edit some random config file ON A CD-R with my mind. It's not like CD-Rs are READ ONLY OR SOMETHING, let alone the BLANK DISPLAY."
Given the quality of help from Ubuntu users and this thread, it really isn't surprising that PC support has the lowest satisfaction scores. I'm not sure how demanding USEFUL, WORKABLE solutions that don't involve typing in the dark and don't involve editing files on CDs is "attitude", but whatever. It doesn't matter any more, I just used Windows XP, which has the benefit of ACTUALLY WORKING.
How would you define "useful" and "workable"? A simple 5 second keypress?
Oh, and XP doesn't always default to a compatible sync rate either - which is why you may need a simple 5 second keypress to go into safe mode which will allow you to change it.
Right: in the interests of demonstrating good tech support, and not descending to your level:
1) Your monitor is showing that message because Ubuntu has picked a default resolution or sync rate that your monitor doesn't support - e.g. if it's an LCD panel and it's defaulting to 70Hz refresh when your screen doesn't support it or similar.
2) You can easily press the appropriate keystrokes with no video display. When you do this (please just go with us, m'kay?) you will find that Ubuntu will drop out of GUI mode, and drop into a plain terminal session. This session WILL RUN AT A DIFFERENT, LOWER REFRESH RATE/RESOLUTION etc and so WILL DISPLAY on your monitor. It takes 5 seconds to try it. It takes much longer than that to bitch about how it won't work on slashdot.
Tech support is usually outsourced. The exact service you, as a customer of a manufacturer, is going to get is exactly what is in the contract between the outsourcing partner and the manufacturer - it'll be defined down to the tiniest level such as average speed of answer, % of fix on first call, etc. Best case scenario is you get the level of service in the contract - you never get better as OSP's are in business to make money just like the manufacturers are.
If you're getting crappy service it's because the manufacturer/retailer has decided that you only deserve/have paid for crappy services.
Great tech support is out there, but it's not cheap.
...of why phone TS is hard. Customers dial in with a problem, and an attitude. They don't always *listen* to what you say - and it's very hard to help someone who won't listen...
think of "tolerance" in engineering terms - the amount of deviation from the correct that you are prepared to put up with. Acceptable tolerance for a difference engine component would be a lot less than for a more agricultural machine.
...and it sucks. vibrating when you tap an onscreen key just doesn't really give you proper tactile feedback. it's no better than a "click" noise. sounds great, doesn't work in practice.
...write some software that turns, say, the bottom half inch strip of the trackpad into a "button bar". give an option to divide this into a left/right click if you want. then you have everything in software - you could even draw a line indicating the divide on your trackpad for clarity.
Personally I use tap-to-click and two-finger-click for righthand button but people do have different tastes in input devices....
I think this is all a continuation of the Fly Naked programme. Passengers leave all clothes and personal effects at departing airport in a pay-per-hour rented locker, and simply purchase replacements from approved airport shops at the other end.
...the 2 button trackpad thing could conceivably be retro fitted. you'd have to take your macbook apart, but i could imagine some enterprising 3rd party coming up with a click button the same physical dimensions as the standard apple one, but divided into two. on laptops these things are pretty simple mechanical switches and they normally plug in via simple ribbon connectors. if nothing else, it'd stop people moaning...
Slashdot Mirror
...but it tends to be tricky on most PDAs as there's usually a ridge around the screen. If the whole face is flat glass, a simple wipe will clean it up...
Sure, a company isn't going to mind if you buy yourself a nice phone and put your work SIM card in it - I've always done this as I'd rather stab myself in the eye with a fork than use a RAZR.
I'm sure it's going to be a lovely, if expensive, device, but it's not aimed at and is not going to be successful in the business environment.
The iPhone is very accurately aimed at consumers.
Oh, and the iPhone isn't going to let you read/edit/email Word docs.
The ATMs that charge now tend to be owned by 3rd party companies, rather than the banks themselves - they put them in convenience stores, petrol stations, etc. These hook up to a phone line and work in a similar way to the Switch terminals in shops - instead of buying products, you're buying cash.
Incidentally, the major company that operates these in the UK makes a tidy profit from doing so: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4101075.stm...
1) Company needs OTA groupware. They don't buy an iPhone: they use WM/Blackberry/etc
2) Company doesn't need OTA groupware. They buy whatever phones they can get cheap that work as a basic phone. They don't buy an iPhone.
3) Company doesn't need OTA groupware but decides that it's bored of making money for its shareholders, and buys everyone an iPhone for shits and giggles.
4) Company doesn't need OTA groupware, but does have a pressing need for its employees to be able to listen to MP3s all day, post pictures to Flickr and mess with Google Maps. They buy the iPhone.
I don't know about you, but 3) and 4) don't seem to be a huge demographic...
"Verbing weirds language"
...but so long as you're adding it to your mortgage, you're paying it off over the life of the mortgage. For buying consumer goods, this is a really dumb idea as your $2000 plasma TV will cost you several times that in interest charges - and it's not like it's going to be worth anything in 15 years either.
You extend a mortgage either because you have to, or you're going to spend it on something that *will* retain value, such as extending or renovating the house the mortgage is taken out on.
How many voicemails would you have to receive a day before you had a requirement to be able to listen to them non-sequentially via Visual Voicemail?
Sure, it *looks* cool, but if you think about it, is it useful? Aren't you going to want to listen to voicemails in the order they come in?
deepfish isn't all that. opera mini's better for extended use, and the samsung picsel browser's pretty much the same as deepfish and doesn't need MS registration. it's available at xda-developers.com...
President Bush has used his veto to kill another bill that would have lifted some of the restrictions on research using human embryonic stem cells.
The news has been greeted with dismay, but not surprise, by the scientific community.
In announcing his use of the veto, Bush told reporters: "Destroying human life in the hopes of saving human life is not ethical."
Um, hello George...presumably it's OK if it's for oil?
it was just a floating point error.
Lots of other video available online (which I can't check as most video sources on the web are blocked here at work) including the famous one from UK's "Fifth Gear" where they drove one at around 50mph into a concrete block: http://xo.typepad.com/blog/2005/12/video_smart_car .html as a starter...
The Smart cars are actually remarkably safe, despite their appearance.
The Smart cars are very common in Europe - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_Fortwo for more info. Whilst in theory you can park nose in to the curb given their short wheelbase, in practice in the UK at least this isn't legal. Presumably the standard reflectors etc aren't visible...
Sure, WinMo devices et al can do some form of live mail and calendar etc, but the Blackberries do it predictably, reliably and generally make a lot of sense from a business perspective.
You, sir, are an idiot. The article talks about corporate IT. Corporate IT users tend to have more than 5 numbers in their address book, and group calendars are pretty vital for enterprise.
An innovator in business practices, not so much the actual PCs.
The whole built-just-in-time philosophy, only selling via phone or web order - making the production and sale of its gear incredibly efficient. I don't know what the profit margin on Dell stuff is, but I'd be surprised if it were above 4%...
"When I start Ubuntu, the monitor goes black and displays a message that says 'sync out of range'."
"OK, I want you to go to the terminal..."
"I can't. There's nothing on the screen. That would require the sync to be IN RANGE, which it clearly isn't."
Yes you can
"OK, so press Ctrl-Alt-Triple-Bang-Squat-Blooie..."
"You still don't get it. There's no display. Opening random UI elements doesn't help if I CAN'T SEE THEM!"
You aren't being asked to open UI elements. You're being asked to press a specific key combination which will remove the GUI
"OK, so open
"Right, I'll just use my amazing telepathic powers and edit some random config file ON A CD-R with my mind. It's not like CD-Rs are READ ONLY OR SOMETHING, let alone the BLANK DISPLAY."
Given the quality of help from Ubuntu users and this thread, it really isn't surprising that PC support has the lowest satisfaction scores. I'm not sure how demanding USEFUL, WORKABLE solutions that don't involve typing in the dark and don't involve editing files on CDs is "attitude", but whatever. It doesn't matter any more, I just used Windows XP, which has the benefit of ACTUALLY WORKING.
How would you define "useful" and "workable"? A simple 5 second keypress?
Oh, and XP doesn't always default to a compatible sync rate either - which is why you may need a simple 5 second keypress to go into safe mode which will allow you to change it.
Right: in the interests of demonstrating good tech support, and not descending to your level:
1) Your monitor is showing that message because Ubuntu has picked a default resolution or sync rate that your monitor doesn't support - e.g. if it's an LCD panel and it's defaulting to 70Hz refresh when your screen doesn't support it or similar.
2) You can easily press the appropriate keystrokes with no video display. When you do this (please just go with us, m'kay?) you will find that Ubuntu will drop out of GUI mode, and drop into a plain terminal session. This session WILL RUN AT A DIFFERENT, LOWER REFRESH RATE/RESOLUTION etc and so WILL DISPLAY on your monitor. It takes 5 seconds to try it. It takes much longer than that to bitch about how it won't work on slashdot.
If you're getting crappy service it's because the manufacturer/retailer has decided that you only deserve/have paid for crappy services.
Great tech support is out there, but it's not cheap.
...of why phone TS is hard. Customers dial in with a problem, and an attitude. They don't always *listen* to what you say - and it's very hard to help someone who won't listen...
CRANK!
think of "tolerance" in engineering terms - the amount of deviation from the correct that you are prepared to put up with. Acceptable tolerance for a difference engine component would be a lot less than for a more agricultural machine.
...and it sucks. vibrating when you tap an onscreen key just doesn't really give you proper tactile feedback. it's no better than a "click" noise. sounds great, doesn't work in practice.
...write some software that turns, say, the bottom half inch strip of the trackpad into a "button bar". give an option to divide this into a left/right click if you want. then you have everything in software - you could even draw a line indicating the divide on your trackpad for clarity.
Personally I use tap-to-click and two-finger-click for righthand button but people do have different tastes in input devices....
I think this is all a continuation of the Fly Naked programme. Passengers leave all clothes and personal effects at departing airport in a pay-per-hour rented locker, and simply purchase replacements from approved airport shops at the other end.
...the 2 button trackpad thing could conceivably be retro fitted. you'd have to take your macbook apart, but i could imagine some enterprising 3rd party coming up with a click button the same physical dimensions as the standard apple one, but divided into two. on laptops these things are pretty simple mechanical switches and they normally plug in via simple ribbon connectors. if nothing else, it'd stop people moaning...