Yeah. I just don't like moving points of reference. A camera integrated for convenience into a device we always carry, and claiming very small part of cost and even space inside that device, can be at most pretty damn good; for those descriptions to remain meanigful.
Well, he did go too far with the claim (especially with the example at the end...) and focusing only on aperture, but there is some truth in what he says.
It's about certain "undesirable" optical effects - for two lenses of given size (and assuming the same amount of engineering that went into them, the same price), one for smaller sensor and one for larger, the former will be better. Of course in practise that's also a dance of balancing with the quality of the sensor, which will be worse in the smaller one. About properties of smaller lens masking what could easily become a defect in larger ones. Or, in other words - when you increase the sensor size, the minimum acceptable size of the lenses also increases.
I don't think "extremely impressive" is appropriate for anything using such small sensor and lenses. Some DSLRs which can shoot video are extremelly impressive. Some digicams (Canon SX200 IS for example) are quite impressive. A mobile phone can be at most in the category of pretty damn good, IMHO...
Opera Mini is the #1 mobile browser looking at website stats (and that despite the fact of large portion of its users being rather cautious when it comes to amount of browing, data charges being expensive to them)
Also, Apple sales share is 2%. Even when looking at ill-defined category of "smartphones", they are #3, soon to #4 or 5 (it will get interesting when Samsung starts to ship bada OS on large portion of their phones; and unexpceted to many, from what I see)
"Muslim" is probably too big of an umbrella - Bosnia and Herzegovina is Muslim in half (and it seems that part of population was one of less warmongering during Balkan wars), is on the way towards EU membership with which it shouldn't have major issues; and generally with integrating. Germany has also large Muslim population, which despite any problems is quite succesfully integrated; Turks, accidentally. Spain should be do well in the future, too; with already over one million Muslims, and more (mostly Moroccans) surely to come.
There would be of course a problem with many Muslim countries of the group that is more or less bordering the EU sphere of influence, but nobody considers their accession; on either side(*). Except the case of Turkey, of course - and it seems that one might be clearing up soon, eh? (hm, I wouldn't be too surprised if the current situation is considered desirable by many parts of the EU; and with the hopes of slightly pouring oil on the fire - not as some sort of conspiracy of course, but as common goal)
(*) There's the issue of unwilling to integrate immigrants from many of those places, but that's a separate thing.
I wouldn't be that certain even of this part, either. For just one example - true, when my country entered NATO it was formally a "democracy" for almost a decade, but does anybody really think those were some sudden major shifts? "Communists" were since a long time ago predominantly locals, too; and the best part - the accession happened in the middle of 2-term, decade long presidency of somebody originating from them. And just before parliamentary elections won decisively by...former communists (who also led the place to the EU...). But even among them there was plenty of anti-Russian sentiment. Plus - NATO didn't really seem to have a problem with Jugoslavia. Yeah, opposing Russia and its allies (or pretty much any large unaligned block) seems to be the idea.
We're talking about mobile phones here. Simple fact is, they are already the largest, by far, installed base of videocall capable devices. Universally interoperable between each other (who cares that some people release some closed software for PCs? It's a different usage scenario, private & made in a comfortable place, for starters; one that is actually used because of that; we already have standard there, too - Jingle). Nobody cares, mobile videocalling is a good idea for SciFi mostly.
But hey, if you're now in the mode of what "Apple wants"...
When looking at average, Apple is certainly far from making people use more phone features.
Anyway, you will surely see a small craze for some time; just like there was with 3G videocalls. But it passed, it's just not a good idea. As you said, you've never seen anybody using it (people "show off" features of their phone at your place?...)
"May eventually" vs. one widely supported "GSM" (as in, what people perceive to be part of GSM association) standard - which is used by vast majority of the world. Used by iPhone, too (though without utilising videocall standard...); plus I wouldn't be surpised if hypothetical "Verizon version" of iPhone were to show up only together with ongoing LTE adoption by Verizon (LTE which is essentially also a "GSM association" thing)
And if the speed of "IP transfer" is sufficient for videocall, you're in UMTS coverage area anyway.
Well, if those people insist on not getting even cheap BT headset so they won't have to operate the car with one hand... (which is probably not that big of a problem in itself; but I noticed that people tend to have, also when driving, a reflex of instantly trying to pick up their dropped phone (it will inevitably happen from time to time) - which even in stationary car can be a bit more problematic than usual; in a moving car it gets really dangerous, if those people are unable to stop that reflex)
BTW, talking while driving apparently can be much more distracting than music. That shuld be covered during driver training anyway...
And I mostly wouldn't care about those things (mostly - they can mean higher insurance on everybody and general economic loss; or, rarely, those people playing the pity card and demadning care from others - if they merely damaged themselves severely, without dying). If not for the needless increase of risk for other people on the road.
I'm left wondering why everybody assumed I wasn't joking...
Anyway, regarding one detail you wrote in the above post, many South Koreans would take issue with "up until the war, when SK was left capatialist and NK stayed communist"; S. Korea was also quite totalitarian (but "on our side"; they even had some, essentially, ethnic cleansings initially plus later riots and protests not dissimilar to those behind Iron Curtain) for few decades after the war. Not at all unlike to how China works now.
Look, you obviously were unaware even of the fact that UMTS videocalling exists and you are surely just as unaware of how easy and straightforward it is But it turns out it's just a gimmick, in the case of mobile device. People ususally at most did a few videocalls when it was a novelty for them and...moved on (and the same people can use, say, Skype video regularly - but it makes sense, when they sit comfortably in a private place, etc.)
Just because a phone implements a video calling technology, doesn't mean that the phone you are calling also supports it.
And again, you just show how you are unaware of how straightforward UMTS videocalling is - it's integrated into phones, into their voice calling funcionality! If you inititate a voicecall with any UMTS phone that also supports videocalling, the option to switch during call will be there! (and to switch back to normal voicecall for that matter, too; all without hanging up)
Is that why there's no MS Office 13 or no "13 anything" in hotels? (surely pandering to people "sufficiently educated to have grown out of that kind of nonsense"...)
Besides, those markets you so favorably speak of are the ones with most growth potential...and you have to realise that even on simple marketing & linguistic level the name of new iPhone is a very poor choice - it literally sounds like "iPhone Death"!
They are ready; virtually every UMTS mobile phone supports videocalling, even if it doesn't have front facing camera (I have one such simple phone) - which isn't much of a problem, it turns out, since the only semi-common usage scenario is for people to...show their surroundings to the other party.
You saying that the usage is trending down ever since the novelty factor wore out - that's misleading. It just shows that mobile videocalling is generally a poor idea, which looks good mostly only in SciFi. Despite many major phones / phone families already having this feature, and already working " "with a click of a touch screen"/button.
It is a standard of the specs; hundreds millions of UMTS mobile phones used right now already support easy videocalling (and better one than this new Apple "solution" in search of a problem). I even have one basic "feature phone" which does videocalls despite not having front camera ffs... (which is actually more sensible than it sounds - it turns out that the only semi-common usage of mobile videocalls is to show the other party your surroundings)
Not just on any new Android phone, also generally on hundreds millions of UMTS mobile phones used already throughout the world...and of course nobody cares.
BTW, Apple taking jackassery to a NEXT level is understandable, considering some of earlier Jobs ventures;)
Hundreds of millions of UMTS mobile phones already in the wild: 1) Make an ordinary call 2) If the other party has a phone supporting videocalling, the option of switching to it during voicecall will be there
There are already hundreds millions of devices supporting mobile videocalling standard, one that is better than this Apple thing, too. That's not common to you?
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Yeah. I just don't like moving points of reference. A camera integrated for convenience into a device we always carry, and claiming very small part of cost and even space inside that device, can be at most pretty damn good; for those descriptions to remain meanigful.
I doubt it would help much against knowledge of the true name of "iPhone Death" finding its way...
So, when will some places start banning phones? (not like that could ever happen already, somewhere... ;) )
Well, he did go too far with the claim (especially with the example at the end...) and focusing only on aperture, but there is some truth in what he says.
It's about certain "undesirable" optical effects - for two lenses of given size (and assuming the same amount of engineering that went into them, the same price), one for smaller sensor and one for larger, the former will be better. Of course in practise that's also a dance of balancing with the quality of the sensor, which will be worse in the smaller one.
About properties of smaller lens masking what could easily become a defect in larger ones.
Or, in other words - when you increase the sensor size, the minimum acceptable size of the lenses also increases.
I don't think "extremely impressive" is appropriate for anything using such small sensor and lenses. Some DSLRs which can shoot video are extremelly impressive. Some digicams (Canon SX200 IS for example) are quite impressive. A mobile phone can be at most in the category of pretty damn good, IMHO...
Opera Mini is the #1 mobile browser looking at website stats (and that despite the fact of large portion of its users being rather cautious when it comes to amount of browing, data charges being expensive to them)
Also, Apple sales share is 2%. Even when looking at ill-defined category of "smartphones", they are #3, soon to #4 or 5 (it will get interesting when Samsung starts to ship bada OS on large portion of their phones; and unexpceted to many, from what I see)
"Muslim" is probably too big of an umbrella - Bosnia and Herzegovina is Muslim in half (and it seems that part of population was one of less warmongering during Balkan wars), is on the way towards EU membership with which it shouldn't have major issues; and generally with integrating. Germany has also large Muslim population, which despite any problems is quite succesfully integrated; Turks, accidentally. Spain should be do well in the future, too; with already over one million Muslims, and more (mostly Moroccans) surely to come.
There would be of course a problem with many Muslim countries of the group that is more or less bordering the EU sphere of influence, but nobody considers their accession; on either side(*). Except the case of Turkey, of course - and it seems that one might be clearing up soon, eh? (hm, I wouldn't be too surprised if the current situation is considered desirable by many parts of the EU; and with the hopes of slightly pouring oil on the fire - not as some sort of conspiracy of course, but as common goal)
(*) There's the issue of unwilling to integrate immigrants from many of those places, but that's a separate thing.
...just as long as they aren't communist...
I wouldn't be that certain even of this part, either. For just one example - true, when my country entered NATO it was formally a "democracy" for almost a decade, but does anybody really think those were some sudden major shifts? "Communists" were since a long time ago predominantly locals, too; and the best part - the accession happened in the middle of 2-term, decade long presidency of somebody originating from them. And just before parliamentary elections won decisively by...former communists (who also led the place to the EU...). But even among them there was plenty of anti-Russian sentiment.
Plus - NATO didn't really seem to have a problem with Jugoslavia. Yeah, opposing Russia and its allies (or pretty much any large unaligned block) seems to be the idea.
We're talking about mobile phones here. Simple fact is, they are already the largest, by far, installed base of videocall capable devices. Universally interoperable between each other (who cares that some people release some closed software for PCs? It's a different usage scenario, private & made in a comfortable place, for starters; one that is actually used because of that; we already have standard there, too - Jingle). Nobody cares, mobile videocalling is a good idea for SciFi mostly.
But hey, if you're now in the mode of what "Apple wants"...
When looking at average, Apple is certainly far from making people use more phone features.
Anyway, you will surely see a small craze for some time; just like there was with 3G videocalls. But it passed, it's just not a good idea. As you said, you've never seen anybody using it (people "show off" features of their phone at your place?...)
BS. They are all interoperable. It's a UMTS 3G standard.
"May eventually" vs. one widely supported "GSM" (as in, what people perceive to be part of GSM association) standard - which is used by vast majority of the world. Used by iPhone, too (though without utilising videocall standard...); plus I wouldn't be surpised if hypothetical "Verizon version" of iPhone were to show up only together with ongoing LTE adoption by Verizon (LTE which is essentially also a "GSM association" thing)
And if the speed of "IP transfer" is sufficient for videocall, you're in UMTS coverage area anyway.
Well, if those people insist on not getting even cheap BT headset so they won't have to operate the car with one hand... (which is probably not that big of a problem in itself; but I noticed that people tend to have, also when driving, a reflex of instantly trying to pick up their dropped phone (it will inevitably happen from time to time) - which even in stationary car can be a bit more problematic than usual; in a moving car it gets really dangerous, if those people are unable to stop that reflex)
BTW, talking while driving apparently can be much more distracting than music. That shuld be covered during driver training anyway...
And I mostly wouldn't care about those things (mostly - they can mean higher insurance on everybody and general economic loss; or, rarely, those people playing the pity card and demadning care from others - if they merely damaged themselves severely, without dying). If not for the needless increase of risk for other people on the road.
More generally, the GP is wondering what kind of thinking (some insecurity perhaps?) prevented everybody from considering his post as a joke...
I'm left wondering why everybody assumed I wasn't joking...
Anyway, regarding one detail you wrote in the above post, many South Koreans would take issue with "up until the war, when SK was left capatialist and NK stayed communist"; S. Korea was also quite totalitarian (but "on our side"; they even had some, essentially, ethnic cleansings initially plus later riots and protests not dissimilar to those behind Iron Curtain) for few decades after the war. Not at all unlike to how China works now.
Look, you obviously were unaware even of the fact that UMTS videocalling exists and you are surely just as unaware of how easy and straightforward it is
But it turns out it's just a gimmick, in the case of mobile device. People ususally at most did a few videocalls when it was a novelty for them and...moved on (and the same people can use, say, Skype video regularly - but it makes sense, when they sit comfortably in a private place, etc.)
Just because a phone implements a video calling technology, doesn't mean that the phone you are calling also supports it.
How...the frak...iPhone...is supposed...to improve that? O_o
And again, you just show how you are unaware of how straightforward UMTS videocalling is - it's integrated into phones, into their voice calling funcionality! If you inititate a voicecall with any UMTS phone that also supports videocalling, the option to switch during call will be there! (and to switch back to normal voicecall for that matter, too; all without hanging up)
If you throw "the tablet", why not Apple TV?
Is that why there's no MS Office 13 or no "13 anything" in hotels? (surely pandering to people "sufficiently educated to have grown out of that kind of nonsense"...)
Besides, those markets you so favorably speak of are the ones with most growth potential...and you have to realise that even on simple marketing & linguistic level the name of new iPhone is a very poor choice - it literally sounds like "iPhone Death"!
They are ready; virtually every UMTS mobile phone supports videocalling, even if it doesn't have front facing camera (I have one such simple phone) - which isn't much of a problem, it turns out, since the only semi-common usage scenario is for people to...show their surroundings to the other party.
You saying that the usage is trending down ever since the novelty factor wore out - that's misleading. It just shows that mobile videocalling is generally a poor idea, which looks good mostly only in SciFi.
Despite many major phones / phone families already having this feature, and already working " "with a click of a touch screen"/button.
It is a standard of the specs; hundreds millions of UMTS mobile phones used right now already support easy videocalling (and better one than this new Apple "solution" in search of a problem). I even have one basic "feature phone" which does videocalls despite not having front camera ffs... (which is actually more sensible than it sounds - it turns out that the only semi-common usage of mobile videocalls is to show the other party your surroundings)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Videophone#Current_usage
Not just on any new Android phone, also generally on hundreds millions of UMTS mobile phones used already throughout the world...and of course nobody cares.
BTW, Apple taking jackassery to a NEXT level is understandable, considering some of earlier Jobs ventures ;)
Who are you kidding? There are hundreds millions of mobile phones with easy videocalling in the wild right now.
Millions of people already have mobile phones capable of easy videocalling - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Videophone#Current_usage
Video chats via an open standard are already a reality for many years, on hundreds millions of UMTS mobile phones.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Videophone#Current_usage
Hundreds of millions of UMTS mobile phones already in the wild:
1) Make an ordinary call
2) If the other party has a phone supporting videocalling, the option of switching to it during voicecall will be there
There are already hundreds millions of devices supporting mobile videocalling standard, one that is better than this Apple thing, too. That's not common to you?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Videophone#Current_usage