Who cares? An iPad and iPod are not a smartphone, or a smartphone substitute. They're in a completely different market.
They're only in a different market if you are a telco. If you are a developer trying to make money by making applications for these devices, 'phone' is just another feature like GPS. What really matters would be the total number of devices that your app can be bought for. If one of the OSs has the developers for the most and best apps, it gives it an advantage over the other phones. Given that the Android developer market currently seems to be split up between different versions of OS and hardware, Apple has a little bit more weight to its cause when not talking strictly phones.
There's been anecdotal evidence that there isn't as much money to be made writing Android apps as there is to be made writing iPhone apps.
One theory has gone "that's because the user base isn't there yet; when the users show up, the developers will come".
Well. It looks like the users are showing up in numbers that are becoming difficult to ignore. So now it's time to keep a close eye on app developers, and see what happens!
Except I don't think it is that simple. Just because there are that many android devices out there, does not mean they are all one market. From my understanding, they are essentially multiple versions of the hardware and software out there and each one must be effectively tailored to fit one particular model. You do not program for Android OS, but rather for the Droid or the G1 phones with whatever version of the Android OS they are running. Different screen sizes, phone features, OS versions, and controlling companies effectively make it impossible to make on app that could go everywhere. There may be more total Android OS phones out there but at any given time you can only develop software for one small selection of them.
but if you're seeing red shift on stuff that took 9 billion years to reach you, isn't it possible for the universe to have expanded for 8 billion years, then now it's collapsing at the speed of light - and you wouldn't have any way of telling it's reversed course?
It's possible, but the same what it is possible that the sun went out less than six minutes ago and we'll find out as soon as we are plunged into darkness. That's the way it works but there is no real way we could figure why it would. Also, one of the assumptions of physics is that physics is uniform throughout the universe. This has been tested and there has been no evidence to suggest that things are different anywhere else than they are here. This also goes for the expansion of the universe. If space were really collapsing that quickly, we'd see it in a few minutes are we get real close to the sun and other planets all of a sudden.
There's only one real way to get Flash on the iPhone. Put Flash on other platforms such as Android. Make it good enough that it becomes a selling point for those platforms. When Apple's sales start hurting because of it's lack of Flash on the iPhone, the iPhone will get Flash.
But then, why all the crying for Flash and none for Java? Flash is just one thing that is hit by a larger policy. Even the new license hit several companies that were making developer tools specifically for the iPhone while iPhone compatability is all just a minor subsection of Flash. (Although it could have made it big because then people like me who have just Flash knowledge could then make apps for the iPhone.) There's much more being affected here than just Flash, but Flash gets all the headline titles. Java seems more important. Most of the enterprise web apps I'm familiar with are in Java and if it ran on the iPhone or iPad, that would open up many opportunities in enterprise as people could include those in their off site workflows for business. Still, I guess videos and games trumps enterprise apps for most people.
The only way I see cartridges ever coming back is if the physical security of having a media type that the public cannot buy blanks for or manufacture themselves turns out to be more effective the DRM. Still, even if the public couldn't make cartridges themselves, they could read the information on a cartridge and then make a virtual cartridge on their computer. So, you'd need some sort of DRM also on the cartridge to prevent straight reading. It would have to be encrypted and never have the code all be in memory at the same time or a reproducible form. You could pretty much do that with non-cartridge games and since that would be the hardest part to overcome and making a virtual disk out of a cartridge would probably be trivial, I really don't see cartridges ever coming back.
How come Flash was fine on hardware 7 years ago, but is not suited for modern low power hardware?
My attempt at a Funny/Insightful answer would be: "5 year ago Flash was owned by Macromedia."
My attempt at an Informative/Insightful answer would be: "Because we are not looking at 7 year old Flash sites. Flash and its applications now includes 7 years worth of features and coding in newer versions that have been built with expectations of higher powered machines. If we were to go back and try and code Flash MX 2004 (7) and then view websites built with it, it might work fine. Then again, people were complaining of it being slow on their home and work PCs back then also. Flash, like many software programs, has been built and upgraded to be feature rich, not to be fast and stable."
Same, except left pocket. The system fails when you change your trousers...but even then you just have to find your trousers...which is far easier.
Yep, the only times I've locked myself out have been when I changed pants and forgot to transfer everything. Now I have a ritual of patting myself down for everything before closing the front door to make sure I got everything. I also do the same after going to the bathroom ever since my wallet fell out of my pants in a public restroom once.
I keep my keys in my front right pocket. They don't go anywhere else. They're always there unless they are in my hand and I'm unlocking something. If I do set them down, I usually notice that they are missing (and also am in the habit of patting myself down to make sure they are there before leaving the house etc). The same goes for my cell phone in my other front pocket and my wallet in my back pocket. that's where they go and I simply don't put them anywhere else except for unusual situations. That usually solves my losing things issue and when people ask me how many times I've lost my phone, I can say 0.
For too many keys, since I didn't want to change my system, I eventually had to split up my key rings. One for every day, always have keys. Another for the car. Another for my photostudio. Another one for work keys. The work keys go on my lanyard at work and the others I only pick up and put in my pocket when I actually use them. They actually do fit better on different key rings rather than all on one. Otherwise, they sit in the same coffee mug on my desk at home.
They still haven't fixed it, and they're clearly not going to. All the talk in the world about HTML 5 doesn't change the fact that many, many web sites use Flash, or that there's no HTML 5 equivalent of the Flash developer tools. Until either the iPad changes or the web changes, the iPad will be cut off from a big part of the web.
Trouble is that I have an iPhone and do lots of browsing on it already. So far, I've found no regular site I go to that uses Flash, at least not any that I don't already use an iPhone app for. If I find one that does, it's usually some funny link somebody sent me that isn't worth the effort to worry about. The only sites I use regularly that have Java are work related and usually tied to IE only use anyway. In short, I've already been using the same thing to look at webpages for three years it hasn't been an issue. The one thing I have noticed over the years is my constant thinking while browsing on an iPhone of "Gee, I'd love a larger one of these."
Careful, you are in danger of making his point through use of unintended irony.
It may be "crap," "wrong," and "bullshit" but according to the market, it's still head and shoulders above all the other crappy bullshit that is flogged by Apple's competitors. This is where the nerd cognitive dissonance tends to kick in: "If *I* think it's crap, but the marketplace thinks it's vastly superior, the only way to resolve this paradox is to assume that the marketplace is profoundly stupid and duped by Apple's svengali-like marketing. Because it couldn't possibly be that I don't have a freaking clue what people want."
Brilliant post. Applies to so many things. I'm going to have to copy it down so I can reuse it later and claim it as my own.
You may not like it but the fact is no one cares. Don't develop for Apple. No one will miss you. No one needs you.
But if they end missing and needing you, Apple will care and about face as quick as they can. So, if you want to see these things on the iPhone, go someplace else and make them. Get Flash and Java on Android. Make tons of killer apps for some other phone that allows the coding methods you desire. Hell, build a new phone. According to all the bitching here, there seems to be a good opening in the market with demand. As soon as the things that Apple doesn't allow become selling points to the general public, they will allow those things.
That being said, keep bitching. Remember that Apple didn't originally even want apps on the iPhone. Everything was supposed to be a webapp. However, with demand, they came out with the IDE (although I suspect there would have been one out anyway.) Apple does reverse their stand if they feel the outcry is loud enough. We've seen articles about reversed rejected app decisions here on/. Apple rumor sites are filled with stories though the years of public outcry being met with Apple changing their ways and giving the public what they want. I's say that Apple is one of the few companies that bitching too actually does work. Still, it's not enough just to be loud, you have to be loud and have a crowd behind you.
If this doesn't work, their next option is to wall off the Gulf of Mexico, drain the water, and let the entire thing fill with oil like a gigantic bathtub. Then, we'll get a bunch of old hippies together, throw in a giant effigy, light the whole thing on fire, and have the best Burning Man festival ever!
As somebody that goes to Burning Man every year, I can tell you that this plan will never pass the environmental and Leave No Trace policies set by the BMorg and burners.
You know, I actually had that same thought while typing my post. However, they are just doing what our government said to do (for the most part, outlayers exist). Our elected government decided on that course of actions and set the policy, not them. They are essentially just public servants who are there either because they are trying to do their duty for the country or had no where else to go. I think the entire 'baby killer' thing of the 60's put a scar on the psyche of the US. Something that nobody is really proud of. It's like yelling at a clerk at astore for some company policy decided upon by people in a corporate office that they'll never even talk to.
Come on now. These are adults. If they choose to skip class because they feel their time is better spent elsewhere, that's their business. If they're wrong, they'll be punished at exam time. No attendance checks are necessary.
They aren't adults! They're freshmen.
That's only a bit of a joke. There are several arguments. One being that coming fresh out of high school where attendance was mandatory for every class, most of them don't have the self discipline to actually go to class (and therefore pass) yet. I saw enough of this when I was in the dorms. Kids away from home for the first time with nobody to watch over them. There's always a couple of guys on each floor (of 64 people) who just don't go to any classes and flunk out the first semester anyway. Not only is it a service to them whether they know it or not to take attendance some times, but it also benefits the school as it helps them stay in college and pay more tuition next semester. The other argument being that these are usually state colleges and therefore the students aren't just wasting their or their parents money by skipping class, but also that of the state taxpayers. Therefore, the school is protecting taxpayer money.
All laws are just observations. All a 'law' means is that it can be written down in a numerical form, usually an equation. It doesn't mean that it is correct, or correct for all cases. Newton's law of gravity is not 'correct'. It breaks down with relativity and we need Einstein to describe things better. These too fail to describe everything they are supposed to unerringly at quantum levels. Moore's law certainly seems to be correct even if only for a short period of time. That the period in time that it is true is the one that it is important tends to help. At a later time it might need to be refined to a different law. Perhaps the increase in transistors is actually a log function. We'll find out.
Once transistors get below a certain size, of course it will end. Parallel or serial doesn't change things. We either have more processors in the same space, more complex processors or simply smaller processors. There's no "saving" to be done.
Unless we start stacking them. Just layer more substrates and transistors on top of each other and Moore's law can go on. Then if we can use quantum or photo effects to create multiple virtual transistors in the same space, they could grow even denser. Of course, I'm just making stuff up but it would sound neat in a sci-fi story.
Note that this article predicts both the Internet and wireless technology, but with no mention of the digital aspects.
But he did. Telsa was the inventor of the AND logic gate. When computers started to catch on and research was done and people went to patent their inventions, some of them found out that Telsa already had the patents some more than 50 years earlier because he was already developing the same techniques while trying to control devices wirelessly. So, he did do that, it just wasn't mentioned in the article probably because it wasn't seen as important at the time and because it was quite simply beyond everybody else.
When Tesla developed weapons for the military and displayed them at a World's Fair, he demonstrated remote controlled submarines and torpedoes and tried to explain how both the submarines and torpedoes could be controlled and guided wirelessly by operators far away. In a time where a simply wireless system that allowed ships to talk to each other reliably, submarines, or torpedoes would have been a major military breakthrough, the army and navy just couldn't even comprehend what he was talking about let alone figure out how to use remote drones effectivly.
... Tesla was preoccupied with wireless transmission of power, not information.
That's because wireless transmission of information had been done already and he had lost interest. Tesla was an experimenter, not a business man. Once he completed something and understood how it worked, he very quickly seemed to lose interest in it. He could have made millions just working on electric generators all his life (in fact he did but let the power companies keep the money when they claimed they couldn't pay as what he saw as his gift to the world).
They should also look into why Apple refuses to allow people to isntall OSX on their "non Apple PCs"
Same damn hardware but you cant run OSX unless you buy your PC hardware from Apple.
Microsoft on the other hand, sells an OS that runs on the very same PC hardware that makes up the MAC.... except they dont restrict its usage to only "Microsoft sold PCs"
I dont know how Apple got away with that for years.
Sigh. Apple makes hardware and MS doesn't. Apple doesn't support installs on other people's hardware because they haven't tested it with everything and really don't care to. MS gets away with it because as they don't make any computers, the installed OS and it's support belong to the OEM. MS only supports shrink wrapped box OS that everybody complains about the price. As somebody that had some friends that did MS support, they will kill the call quicker than anybody if it can be pegged to a hardware issue. Likewise, if you install MacOS on a Dell, Dell isn't going to support it any more than Apple is. You probably can't even begin to install Dell's OEM copy of Windows on anything. I've tried and they almost are always tied to the exact model of Dell they were sold with.
There's also very little crime in a facist country run with an iron fist, and there is (in theory) no inequality within communisim...that doesn't make it a good idea.
It may be a little fascist country run with an iron fist, but you can always just pack up and walk across the border whenever you want. You can commute back and forth every day even. In fact, you can stand on the border and do one action on one side and not on the other and they're ok with that.
I hadn't thought of this, and this is exactly right. I don't even think they need to find an email: this seems (perhaps illegally) anti-competitive on its face.
There is a pretty opaque wall to what is going on at Apple and Adobe. For all we know there are emails of Apple telling Adobe not to do it because it will fail well in advance. Other bloggers have stated this is probably the case but it was an example of Adobe coming out with a product that couldn't be used in an effort to get Apple to either ok it or cause them a bad rep. These two companies are supposed to have pretty high level talks about such things as they are tied pretty close together. Still, that hasn't stopped Adobe from pulling surprises on Apple or vice versus.
Actually, Lala extingushed themselves due to a business model that did not include a "profit" part. But why be rational when you can bash Apple for picking up the pieces?
Actually, sounds like their business model was to produce a good product with a good audience and then get bought out by somebody which is exactly what happened. Seems like a pretty standard startup practice. Doesn't always work but is probably better than actually trying to come up with a profitable company while competing with the big boys. If nothing else, it seems like a good exit strategy since Lala had basically admitted failing anyway. I can't find any records but I imagine that the stock holders made a pretty penny on the buy out.
What does Apple get? They get the better product as well as the people who programed it. They are not killing it as much as absorbing it. The company had essentially failed already. They are not getting rid of competition as much as hiring all of the people who would soon be out of a job in one deal. While they aren't interested in the business model, apparently the code back on the servers is worth it to Apple to get and integrate into their own. Then there's always the customers who might stick around anyway. Namespace as after Lala goes away, the domain name will probably take people to itunes.com.
That's a lightweight curriculum. It looks like a rehash of a theater arts course. And not a good one, like UCLA Film School. It's not technical at all. Nor does it include intensive art training. The people who come out of it won't be able to either program or do game artwork.
They don't even cover issues like playability, the psychology of reward systems, the social dynamics of multiplayer games, in-game economics, the management of game projects, or the economics of the industry.
There's no math at all. (Well, there's analytic geometry and calculus; high school level math.)
What are those graduates going to do?
Sounds like they are being prepped to be managers.
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They're only in a different market if you are a telco. If you are a developer trying to make money by making applications for these devices, 'phone' is just another feature like GPS. What really matters would be the total number of devices that your app can be bought for. If one of the OSs has the developers for the most and best apps, it gives it an advantage over the other phones. Given that the Android developer market currently seems to be split up between different versions of OS and hardware, Apple has a little bit more weight to its cause when not talking strictly phones.
Except I don't think it is that simple. Just because there are that many android devices out there, does not mean they are all one market. From my understanding, they are essentially multiple versions of the hardware and software out there and each one must be effectively tailored to fit one particular model. You do not program for Android OS, but rather for the Droid or the G1 phones with whatever version of the Android OS they are running. Different screen sizes, phone features, OS versions, and controlling companies effectively make it impossible to make on app that could go everywhere. There may be more total Android OS phones out there but at any given time you can only develop software for one small selection of them.
It's possible, but the same what it is possible that the sun went out less than six minutes ago and we'll find out as soon as we are plunged into darkness. That's the way it works but there is no real way we could figure why it would. Also, one of the assumptions of physics is that physics is uniform throughout the universe. This has been tested and there has been no evidence to suggest that things are different anywhere else than they are here. This also goes for the expansion of the universe. If space were really collapsing that quickly, we'd see it in a few minutes are we get real close to the sun and other planets all of a sudden.
There's only one real way to get Flash on the iPhone. Put Flash on other platforms such as Android. Make it good enough that it becomes a selling point for those platforms. When Apple's sales start hurting because of it's lack of Flash on the iPhone, the iPhone will get Flash.
But then, why all the crying for Flash and none for Java? Flash is just one thing that is hit by a larger policy. Even the new license hit several companies that were making developer tools specifically for the iPhone while iPhone compatability is all just a minor subsection of Flash. (Although it could have made it big because then people like me who have just Flash knowledge could then make apps for the iPhone.) There's much more being affected here than just Flash, but Flash gets all the headline titles. Java seems more important. Most of the enterprise web apps I'm familiar with are in Java and if it ran on the iPhone or iPad, that would open up many opportunities in enterprise as people could include those in their off site workflows for business. Still, I guess videos and games trumps enterprise apps for most people.
The only way I see cartridges ever coming back is if the physical security of having a media type that the public cannot buy blanks for or manufacture themselves turns out to be more effective the DRM. Still, even if the public couldn't make cartridges themselves, they could read the information on a cartridge and then make a virtual cartridge on their computer. So, you'd need some sort of DRM also on the cartridge to prevent straight reading. It would have to be encrypted and never have the code all be in memory at the same time or a reproducible form. You could pretty much do that with non-cartridge games and since that would be the hardest part to overcome and making a virtual disk out of a cartridge would probably be trivial, I really don't see cartridges ever coming back.
My attempt at a Funny/Insightful answer would be: "5 year ago Flash was owned by Macromedia."
My attempt at an Informative/Insightful answer would be: "Because we are not looking at 7 year old Flash sites. Flash and its applications now includes 7 years worth of features and coding in newer versions that have been built with expectations of higher powered machines. If we were to go back and try and code Flash MX 2004 (7) and then view websites built with it, it might work fine. Then again, people were complaining of it being slow on their home and work PCs back then also. Flash, like many software programs, has been built and upgraded to be feature rich, not to be fast and stable."
Yep, the only times I've locked myself out have been when I changed pants and forgot to transfer everything. Now I have a ritual of patting myself down for everything before closing the front door to make sure I got everything. I also do the same after going to the bathroom ever since my wallet fell out of my pants in a public restroom once.
I keep my keys in my front right pocket. They don't go anywhere else. They're always there unless they are in my hand and I'm unlocking something. If I do set them down, I usually notice that they are missing (and also am in the habit of patting myself down to make sure they are there before leaving the house etc). The same goes for my cell phone in my other front pocket and my wallet in my back pocket. that's where they go and I simply don't put them anywhere else except for unusual situations. That usually solves my losing things issue and when people ask me how many times I've lost my phone, I can say 0.
For too many keys, since I didn't want to change my system, I eventually had to split up my key rings. One for every day, always have keys. Another for the car. Another for my photostudio. Another one for work keys. The work keys go on my lanyard at work and the others I only pick up and put in my pocket when I actually use them. They actually do fit better on different key rings rather than all on one. Otherwise, they sit in the same coffee mug on my desk at home.
Trouble is that I have an iPhone and do lots of browsing on it already. So far, I've found no regular site I go to that uses Flash, at least not any that I don't already use an iPhone app for. If I find one that does, it's usually some funny link somebody sent me that isn't worth the effort to worry about. The only sites I use regularly that have Java are work related and usually tied to IE only use anyway. In short, I've already been using the same thing to look at webpages for three years it hasn't been an issue. The one thing I have noticed over the years is my constant thinking while browsing on an iPhone of "Gee, I'd love a larger one of these."
Brilliant post. Applies to so many things. I'm going to have to copy it down so I can reuse it later and claim it as my own.
But if they end missing and needing you, Apple will care and about face as quick as they can. So, if you want to see these things on the iPhone, go someplace else and make them. Get Flash and Java on Android. Make tons of killer apps for some other phone that allows the coding methods you desire. Hell, build a new phone. According to all the bitching here, there seems to be a good opening in the market with demand. As soon as the things that Apple doesn't allow become selling points to the general public, they will allow those things.
That being said, keep bitching. Remember that Apple didn't originally even want apps on the iPhone. Everything was supposed to be a webapp. However, with demand, they came out with the IDE (although I suspect there would have been one out anyway.) Apple does reverse their stand if they feel the outcry is loud enough. We've seen articles about reversed rejected app decisions here on /. Apple rumor sites are filled with stories though the years of public outcry being met with Apple changing their ways and giving the public what they want. I's say that Apple is one of the few companies that bitching too actually does work. Still, it's not enough just to be loud, you have to be loud and have a crowd behind you.
As somebody that goes to Burning Man every year, I can tell you that this plan will never pass the environmental and Leave No Trace policies set by the BMorg and burners.
You know, I actually had that same thought while typing my post. However, they are just doing what our government said to do (for the most part, outlayers exist). Our elected government decided on that course of actions and set the policy, not them. They are essentially just public servants who are there either because they are trying to do their duty for the country or had no where else to go. I think the entire 'baby killer' thing of the 60's put a scar on the psyche of the US. Something that nobody is really proud of. It's like yelling at a clerk at astore for some company policy decided upon by people in a corporate office that they'll never even talk to.
They aren't adults! They're freshmen.
That's only a bit of a joke. There are several arguments. One being that coming fresh out of high school where attendance was mandatory for every class, most of them don't have the self discipline to actually go to class (and therefore pass) yet. I saw enough of this when I was in the dorms. Kids away from home for the first time with nobody to watch over them. There's always a couple of guys on each floor (of 64 people) who just don't go to any classes and flunk out the first semester anyway. Not only is it a service to them whether they know it or not to take attendance some times, but it also benefits the school as it helps them stay in college and pay more tuition next semester. The other argument being that these are usually state colleges and therefore the students aren't just wasting their or their parents money by skipping class, but also that of the state taxpayers. Therefore, the school is protecting taxpayer money.
I don't yell "baby killer" and spit on them like my parent's generation did.
All laws are just observations. All a 'law' means is that it can be written down in a numerical form, usually an equation. It doesn't mean that it is correct, or correct for all cases. Newton's law of gravity is not 'correct'. It breaks down with relativity and we need Einstein to describe things better. These too fail to describe everything they are supposed to unerringly at quantum levels. Moore's law certainly seems to be correct even if only for a short period of time. That the period in time that it is true is the one that it is important tends to help. At a later time it might need to be refined to a different law. Perhaps the increase in transistors is actually a log function. We'll find out.
Unless we start stacking them. Just layer more substrates and transistors on top of each other and Moore's law can go on. Then if we can use quantum or photo effects to create multiple virtual transistors in the same space, they could grow even denser. Of course, I'm just making stuff up but it would sound neat in a sci-fi story.
But he did. Telsa was the inventor of the AND logic gate. When computers started to catch on and research was done and people went to patent their inventions, some of them found out that Telsa already had the patents some more than 50 years earlier because he was already developing the same techniques while trying to control devices wirelessly. So, he did do that, it just wasn't mentioned in the article probably because it wasn't seen as important at the time and because it was quite simply beyond everybody else.
When Tesla developed weapons for the military and displayed them at a World's Fair, he demonstrated remote controlled submarines and torpedoes and tried to explain how both the submarines and torpedoes could be controlled and guided wirelessly by operators far away. In a time where a simply wireless system that allowed ships to talk to each other reliably, submarines, or torpedoes would have been a major military breakthrough, the army and navy just couldn't even comprehend what he was talking about let alone figure out how to use remote drones effectivly.
That's because wireless transmission of information had been done already and he had lost interest. Tesla was an experimenter, not a business man. Once he completed something and understood how it worked, he very quickly seemed to lose interest in it. He could have made millions just working on electric generators all his life (in fact he did but let the power companies keep the money when they claimed they couldn't pay as what he saw as his gift to the world).
Sigh. Apple makes hardware and MS doesn't. Apple doesn't support installs on other people's hardware because they haven't tested it with everything and really don't care to. MS gets away with it because as they don't make any computers, the installed OS and it's support belong to the OEM. MS only supports shrink wrapped box OS that everybody complains about the price. As somebody that had some friends that did MS support, they will kill the call quicker than anybody if it can be pegged to a hardware issue. Likewise, if you install MacOS on a Dell, Dell isn't going to support it any more than Apple is. You probably can't even begin to install Dell's OEM copy of Windows on anything. I've tried and they almost are always tied to the exact model of Dell they were sold with.
It may be a little fascist country run with an iron fist, but you can always just pack up and walk across the border whenever you want. You can commute back and forth every day even. In fact, you can stand on the border and do one action on one side and not on the other and they're ok with that.
There is a pretty opaque wall to what is going on at Apple and Adobe. For all we know there are emails of Apple telling Adobe not to do it because it will fail well in advance. Other bloggers have stated this is probably the case but it was an example of Adobe coming out with a product that couldn't be used in an effort to get Apple to either ok it or cause them a bad rep. These two companies are supposed to have pretty high level talks about such things as they are tied pretty close together. Still, that hasn't stopped Adobe from pulling surprises on Apple or vice versus.
Actually, sounds like their business model was to produce a good product with a good audience and then get bought out by somebody which is exactly what happened. Seems like a pretty standard startup practice. Doesn't always work but is probably better than actually trying to come up with a profitable company while competing with the big boys. If nothing else, it seems like a good exit strategy since Lala had basically admitted failing anyway. I can't find any records but I imagine that the stock holders made a pretty penny on the buy out.
What does Apple get? They get the better product as well as the people who programed it. They are not killing it as much as absorbing it. The company had essentially failed already. They are not getting rid of competition as much as hiring all of the people who would soon be out of a job in one deal. While they aren't interested in the business model, apparently the code back on the servers is worth it to Apple to get and integrate into their own. Then there's always the customers who might stick around anyway. Namespace as after Lala goes away, the domain name will probably take people to itunes.com.
Cute. I'll have to remember that one.
Sounds like they are being prepped to be managers.