Though I suspect the $299 that's been taken down has something that neither this nor your suggestions have that makes it both much more expensive, and subject to the patent lawsuit. Apparently the previous options were in the thousands of dollars price range.
If Apple think that the app is indeed infringing the patent, then they must withdraw it, because they would also by infringing the patent by selling it.
Which is there for use in a hypothetical malware situation. As yet it's apparently never been or needed to be used. And it certainly hasn't been used in this case.
So it's irrelevant to this discussion. She still has the app.
The law IS an appropriate reason. By law, any person who makes, uses, offers or sells something that is protected by a current patent, or who imports into the United States anything that is protected by a current patent, is guilty of patent infringement.
So if Apple believes that the patent(s) has indeed been infringed, the only lawful thing for them to do is to remove it from their store.
Apps generally don't stop working when an new OS or device comes out. But if at some point in the iPad she has stops working, and new devices are incompatible with the app, she can buy an older one second hand. And restore from iTunes.
Sorry but the sensationalism of taking away an app from a child that needs it just doesn't hold water. And the law, as best as the legal dept see it, must be obeyed.
You probably just want to stop posting shit till you know what you are talking about. All the links to Apple that you provide are to the non-Retina display models.
There are two retina display models. ($2199 & $2799). Both come with 8GB memory, configurable to 16GB. Both come with SSD (i.e. flash drives) as standard. And the more expensive one has 512GB in that SSD.
If it's Harassment, then get off your arse and do detective work
That's what this law is allowing. Police to do detective work to find out who those indulging in harassment on the internet are. Gathering information from an individual or company that has incriminating evidence IS detective work. It's not wandering round with a magnifying glass looking for clues you know. Well not for the most part - that's for forensic and SOCO specialists.
Should we install cameras outside of your hose if someone sneaks up and sticks "WANKER" notes on your door?
Clearly not. This isn't about the occasional robust insult. It's about dealing with people who for example seek out Facebook tribute sites for people that have died, and post offensive comments about the person they never met, for no better reason than to get a reaction from grieving relatives.
Of course the parliamentary hecklers aren't anonymous, and there are rules about "unparliamentary language", which can be punished by a suspension from the house for some days.
So there's no argument by analogy there against unmasking internet trolls and making them subject punishment where they overstep the legal line on harassment.
You make some good points. Nice to have some non-trolls on the thread at last. A couple of things:
The only mac that can hold my iTunes collection and offer me an internal time machine backup disk is a Mac Pro.
Internal time machine backup seems like a bad idea to me. When bad things happen is when you need a backup, and having the backup in the same box as the main drive seems to be inviting disaster in quite a lot of scenarios. I think WiFi is the perfect connection for Time Machine. It can be in a different room. And background backups don't have to be ultra fast. Nor does accessing music media files come to that.
I must admit though that I compromise with a USB time machine drive that I plug in to my laptop from time to time.
Oh noes! They've lost the recent bride who doesn't have a DVD player under the TV market.
Seriously, if it's for low volume duplication of Bluray discs, such as a wedding videographer had a need for, an external DVD drive which lives on the desk of his office will be fine. And also more reliable, and easier to replace.
Face it, it's a fringe activity. The use of physical media for video is on it's way out, other than for brides who need that physical item to be emotional about.
And if they lose a few wedding videographers, it's not as many people as they'll gain from the mainstream for having an ultra-light laptop.
Truly spoken like someone who has never given a presentation. Here is a better platitude for the situation: whatever can go wrong will go wrong, and at the worst possible time.
And that was spoken like someone who's computer is a cheap linux PC.
"Separate bag"? Your laptop bag doesn't have a pocket for extras such as a PSU? If you're carrying a PSU, an ethernet dongle isn't going to add much to size or weight. And what it does add is more than saved by the thinness and light-weight of the new MBP.
Apple has launched the word's most advanced laptop today. Retina display, SSD, 7hours battery life, and so very thin. And you think it's a joke because its too thin to house a built in RJ45? How moronic is that?
Are you telling that going from 720x480 to 1920x1080 (6x the pixels) makes a smaller difference than going from 1680x1050 to 2880x1800 (2.93x the pixels)?
No I said it made more sense. Sense is not measured in pixel deltas.
People tend to watch TV from the other side of the room, and they're watching a car chase, or sport, or the news or something. Many people can't tell the difference at all from normal viewing distance. And even for those that can, little is lost on standard def vs HDTV. I don't even bother recording movies in HDTV on the PVR any more. I go for standard def as they use less disk space.
With a laptop, you're working with text, and potentially smallish UI elements, from a much closer range. I've not seen the new MacBook yet, but going on the retina displays on the new iPad and iPhone, it makes a huge difference to clarity. Like printed text rather than the usual slightly blurry computer screen text we're used to.
Thats interesting. A spot on prediction from 2 months ago. But analysing sales can't possibly have given him his prediction of a new laptop type between the Air and the MBP. It seems more likely there was a leak from manufacturers on what the new product range was.
Which means that the estimated sales figures may have some from the information that the model was disappearing, rather than the other way around.
Don't get me wrong, I have no idea how well the 17" sold, and I'm sure the cheaper, smaller models sold more quantity. But this is the first Ive heard that it was selling so badly, so that's why I disputed your "by all accounts".
Trouble is, even the best of the laptops you list there has a much worse spec than the new MBP. Slower CPU, same standard RAM, but yours not expandable beyond 8GB. Apple 512GB SSD vs your old 500GB HD. You do know what an SSD is don't you?
And thats only the very basics.
Thus your link proves that what you said was indeed bullshit.
Anyway, enough of this shit. There's always a cheapskate who has no sense of quality who tries these stupid comparison, every time Apple releases a new groundbreaking computer. And it's like whac-a-mole. Prove them wrong on one computer comparison, and they'll go away, and pop up later with yet another failed attempt. I've better things to do. The WWDC keynote video is up now. I'd rather watch that than waste time with this nonsense.
Slashdot Mirror
And here for example is an cheap one that's still on the App Store.
http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/autoverbal-pro-talking-soundboard/id368727888?mt=8
Though I suspect the $299 that's been taken down has something that neither this nor your suggestions have that makes it both much more expensive, and subject to the patent lawsuit. Apparently the previous options were in the thousands of dollars price range.
If Apple think that the app is indeed infringing the patent, then they must withdraw it, because they would also by infringing the patent by selling it.
Ah yes, side loading. Yet another of the many reasons the girl isn't really being deprived of her app. Jailbreaking.
Will she get cancer? Will she get knocked down by a bus? Will a meteorite hit the house?
Also, while the app is there currently for Dana, it's not available any longer for others who could benefit from it.
This is not the only product on the market. It just happens to be the one she chose.
Cut the supermarket tabloid emotional sensationalism.
Which is there for use in a hypothetical malware situation. As yet it's apparently never been or needed to be used. And it certainly hasn't been used in this case.
So it's irrelevant to this discussion. She still has the app.
The law IS an appropriate reason. By law, any person who makes, uses, offers or sells something that is protected by a current patent, or who imports into the United States anything that is protected by a current patent, is guilty of patent infringement.
So if Apple believes that the patent(s) has indeed been infringed, the only lawful thing for them to do is to remove it from their store.
Apps generally don't stop working when an new OS or device comes out. But if at some point in the iPad she has stops working, and new devices are incompatible with the app, she can buy an older one second hand. And restore from iTunes.
Sorry but the sensationalism of taking away an app from a child that needs it just doesn't hold water. And the law, as best as the legal dept see it, must be obeyed.
iOS wins either way.
You probably just want to stop posting shit till you know what you are talking about. All the links to Apple that you provide are to the non-Retina display models.
There are two retina display models. ($2199 & $2799). Both come with 8GB memory, configurable to 16GB. Both come with SSD (i.e. flash drives) as standard. And the more expensive one has 512GB in that SSD.
http://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/specs/
Absolutely. But that's the point. They have freedom of speech for use in whistleblowing etc. But using it for trollish purposes is punished.
If it's Harassment, then get off your arse and do detective work
That's what this law is allowing. Police to do detective work to find out who those indulging in harassment on the internet are. Gathering information from an individual or company that has incriminating evidence IS detective work. It's not wandering round with a magnifying glass looking for clues you know. Well not for the most part - that's for forensic and SOCO specialists.
Should we install cameras outside of your hose if someone sneaks up and sticks "WANKER" notes on your door?
Clearly not. This isn't about the occasional robust insult. It's about dealing with people who for example seek out Facebook tribute sites for people that have died, and post offensive comments about the person they never met, for no better reason than to get a reaction from grieving relatives.
Of course the parliamentary hecklers aren't anonymous, and there are rules about "unparliamentary language", which can be punished by a suspension from the house for some days.
So there's no argument by analogy there against unmasking internet trolls and making them subject punishment where they overstep the legal line on harassment.
You make some good points. Nice to have some non-trolls on the thread at last. A couple of things:
The only mac that can hold my iTunes collection and offer me an internal time machine backup disk is a Mac Pro.
Internal time machine backup seems like a bad idea to me. When bad things happen is when you need a backup, and having the backup in the same box as the main drive seems to be inviting disaster in quite a lot of scenarios. I think WiFi is the perfect connection for Time Machine. It can be in a different room. And background backups don't have to be ultra fast. Nor does accessing music media files come to that.
I must admit though that I compromise with a USB time machine drive that I plug in to my laptop from time to time.
Oh, it's certainly gone away, for now. It's no longer on the Apple Store website.
Oh noes! They've lost the recent bride who doesn't have a DVD player under the TV market.
Seriously, if it's for low volume duplication of Bluray discs, such as a wedding videographer had a need for, an external DVD drive which lives on the desk of his office will be fine. And also more reliable, and easier to replace.
Face it, it's a fringe activity. The use of physical media for video is on it's way out, other than for brides who need that physical item to be emotional about.
And if they lose a few wedding videographers, it's not as many people as they'll gain from the mainstream for having an ultra-light laptop.
Ah well, if you have nothing interesting to talk about...
That was spoken like someone who can't admit he's been beaten.
Truly spoken like someone who has never given a presentation. Here is a better platitude for the situation: whatever can go wrong will go wrong, and at the worst possible time.
And that was spoken like someone who's computer is a cheap linux PC.
Requiring a dongle for an ubiqitous need like USB is just stupid beyond belief. That alone is a reason I will never own an ipad
Luckily for Apple they have 600 million customers who are more rational than you.
But I often don't take my laptop bag everywhere. Its 20lbs of cables, adapters, and tools.
Sounds like your problem is with your existing kit.
Well that's not a criticism of the new MBP then. It can take 16GB.
"Separate bag"? Your laptop bag doesn't have a pocket for extras such as a PSU? If you're carrying a PSU, an ethernet dongle isn't going to add much to size or weight. And what it does add is more than saved by the thinness and light-weight of the new MBP.
Apple has launched the word's most advanced laptop today. Retina display, SSD, 7hours battery life, and so very thin. And you think it's a joke because its too thin to house a built in RJ45? How moronic is that?
Are you telling that going from 720x480 to 1920x1080 (6x the pixels) makes a smaller difference than going from 1680x1050 to 2880x1800 (2.93x the pixels)?
No I said it made more sense. Sense is not measured in pixel deltas.
People tend to watch TV from the other side of the room, and they're watching a car chase, or sport, or the news or something. Many people can't tell the difference at all from normal viewing distance. And even for those that can, little is lost on standard def vs HDTV. I don't even bother recording movies in HDTV on the PVR any more. I go for standard def as they use less disk space.
With a laptop, you're working with text, and potentially smallish UI elements, from a much closer range. I've not seen the new MacBook yet, but going on the retina displays on the new iPad and iPhone, it makes a huge difference to clarity. Like printed text rather than the usual slightly blurry computer screen text we're used to.
Thats interesting. A spot on prediction from 2 months ago. But analysing sales can't possibly have given him his prediction of a new laptop type between the Air and the MBP. It seems more likely there was a leak from manufacturers on what the new product range was.
Which means that the estimated sales figures may have some from the information that the model was disappearing, rather than the other way around.
Don't get me wrong, I have no idea how well the 17" sold, and I'm sure the cheaper, smaller models sold more quantity. But this is the first Ive heard that it was selling so badly, so that's why I disputed your "by all accounts".
Rather than retyping it, I will refer you to these two (rather short and sweet) posts.
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2908871&cid=40288291
WHat you can get for $480 and 800 these days in the PC worlds.
Trouble is, even the best of the laptops you list there has a much worse spec than the new MBP. Slower CPU, same standard RAM, but yours not expandable beyond 8GB. Apple 512GB SSD vs your old 500GB HD. You do know what an SSD is don't you?
And thats only the very basics.
Thus your link proves that what you said was indeed bullshit.
Anyway, enough of this shit. There's always a cheapskate who has no sense of quality who tries these stupid comparison, every time Apple releases a new groundbreaking computer. And it's like whac-a-mole. Prove them wrong on one computer comparison, and they'll go away, and pop up later with yet another failed attempt. I've better things to do. The WWDC keynote video is up now. I'd rather watch that than waste time with this nonsense.