"We don't know who struck first, us or them. But we do know it was us that scorched the sky. At the time, they were dependent on solar power. It was believed they would be unable to survive without an energy source as abundant as the sun" -Morpheus
Creative's large storage mp3 players were on the market for almost 18 months before the iPod was publically announced, and with an interface that was almost identical to the "revolutionary" iPod interface. At the time, Zens were available in 5 and 10GB - while the iPod was 10, 15, and later 20.
The first Zen came out after the First iPod. Creative surely did have large capacity players prior to the iPod, but the "Zen" was not one of them. I believe it was the Nomad.
Also, the original iPod was 5 gigs (October 2001) then added a 10 (in March 2002) and then went "second generation" when they added a 20 Gig model and changed from the mechanical scroll on the original, to solid state (touch sensitive) controls.
A 15 gig iPod did not exist until the "3rd generation" when they introduced the Dock connector, in mid 2003, almost 2 years after the original iPod debuted.
The iPod [used] the "click-wheel" technology, rather than traditional buttons. Other than that, they were about the same.
As mentioned above, the original iPod used mechanical buttons and a mechanical wheel in the original model. The 2nd generation used a no moving parts solid state interface, and the "Click wheel" iPod you mentioned was released in July 2004, as solid state for the wheel functions, but the wheel physically rocked back and up and down to activate the controls (the center button also pushes in). This continues to be the method of interface today
Now, if I understand correctly, there is little to no way to tell if one of these CDs are the Fun DRM'd, rootkit, privacy-killing variety by simply looking at the packaging.
So my question is, if I buy the CD, get this Crap-tastic EULA, and decide I do not want to accept it, can I simply click no, or decline or whatever, and return the CD?
I would imagine that there has to be SOME way to get your money back if you decide to not accept the terms. Any lawyers, or people who fancy them selves as such who can answer this question?
Then you reveal your ignorance of the product, and thus, prove my point. They make SD cards in sizes larger than 23 megs, you know. (or maybe you didn't know, as your tech knowledge appears limited to whatever appears on the apple website)
Yeah, because I like buying things to make my devices work as advertised.
The treo is likely a good concept, but your advocacy of it is worse than even the biggest Apple-Fan-boys. Is it elegant? It it simple and trouble free? Does it come with everything built into it you need to make it work the way it claims? Your pushing of the Treo without acknowledging any of the shortcomings is annoying at best. You sound like someone who bought a Treo because of what you thought it was and now push it to anyone who would listen in order to justify your own purchase. Sure you can buy more memory for it. But why should you have to? If the thing was really designed to do all the things it claims to do it would have the storage to do it. It seems more like an afterthought.
Thats the thing about the iPod, it doesn't have any afterthought features. If its not built in right off the bat, its not there. If they want to add it, they release a new iPod with the new features fully integrated, fully supported as if it was there since day one. Thats what appeals to so many users of it. It may not do everything, but what it does it does so well. Thats why its good. Its simple, elegant, and it works as advertised.
Now, seriously. Stop trolling. After checking your past posts, its a little sad to see how many Flamebait, Troll, Redundant etc, posts you have. You think you're insightful, and you think your interesting, but obviously most other people think differently.
Although the intel switch will be monumental for sure, there will certainly be a market for PPC macs for a while. regardless of whats coming a year from now, or even two years, people still need to upgrade. Of course it will suck when the new machines come out and blow these away but thats the way computers work.
I needed a laptop, and last month I bought a refurb iBook from Last rev (2 revs now). I know the intel machines are coming out, but when? Some people simply can't wait.
Even aside from that, I'm sure plenty of people will be clinging to PPC for a while, just like they do classic. Thats why apple kept one Classic bootable machine around for so long. People wanted and in some cases needed it, and it sold fairly well. And when the last PPC machine disappears from Apples site, it will make news on Slashdot just as the last Classic bootable Mac did.
They're actually competing. When was the last time a Windows release felt any pressure from a competitor?
That is pretty impressive. Seriously, when was the last time Coke mentioned Pepsi? Usually the dominating brand just ignores the little guy, from their POV they aren't competing, they are barely playing in the same sandbox.
The fact that MS is trying to justify their system is better (and not 2 weeks from shipping) shows that Apple, at least to some degree, has them worried about losing sales.
Now, I'm admitting I know little about this, so forgive my ignorance.
They say it will eventually fail and start to fall back to earth, could they wait for it to get closer then send out a rescue mission when it it close enough to the ISS, Or would the then gyroless Hubble be too much of a risk to attempt to grab from space?
Firstly, part of the DRM is that you can share the file with 3 people - so its not just your personal use. I can buy a song from iTMS and give it to 3 friends, no prob. It works, Apple allows it, They can then Burn it and do with it as they please. It is thiers.
Aside from that, you can, in fact, sell music you have bought from the iTMS, its been done. It was insanely complicated to do (especially considering it was only one song) but it was done via ebay as a test to show that one can in fact transfer ownership of music bought bought from the iTMS in complete agreement with Apple's terms. IIRC the guy who did it was in touch with Apple making sure what he was doing was entirely on the up and up.
You're right about Marathon 2 and Myth but thats it.
All accounts of Myth 2 say they shipped together, but the Mac version was available first because a Virus was found in the PC Gold Master and the PC version recalled. In most Cases stores pulled all versions from the shelf Mac and PC. After that you would find it as a Hybrid Box sporting an orange sticker claiming to be Version 1.1 (and for all intents and purposes the same game, just Virus Free)
When Bungie announced they were selling to MS, both Oni and Halo were in production. In fact, so was Myth 3.
Oni was in Late Beta when sold and was finished by Rockstar, originally intended as a Simultaneous release for Mac and PC in the same box. I am unsure if they shipped at the same time, but I know they didn't ship in one box. It did not however, include the Multiplayer Death match Jason Jones told me had so many latency issues at the MacWorld Demo.
Myth 3 was finished by someone else as well, Gathering of Developers if I recall correctly. I believe Myth 3 wasn't even at First playable yet, if it even left the drawing room stage.
But both Oni and Myth 3 were published by Take-Two Interactive
Halo was supposed to be released on Mac and PC from the start, but it was going to be on the Mac FIRST. I was at the MacWorld Keynote speech where Halo was first introduced (the same one we first saw the clamshell iBook).
I believe it was Jason Jones on stage with Steve Jobs who narrated the trailer they were playing before the crowd as he explained what we were watching was played on a G4 with a ( then unavailable for the Mac) nVidia video card running hacked drivers.
He emphasized that the game would be for the Mac First with later release for the PC. The audience had been in quiet awe during the presentation when this caused the crowd to erupt into cheers.
And please, mods - If You Don't know if someone is right, don't mod them up Just because it sounds right !!
Is Apple going to sue slashdot now for telling us what the lawsuits were about?
RTFA - Apple is suing people who released the info to the sites, not the sites themselves. The only reason the sites were mentioned is because Apple is asking them to reveal their sources.
And of course they validated the Rumor, its what Apple does, they let stuff leak, and if it happens quietly they sue. It hits more news sites, more people hear about it and they force the leakers to sign papers saying they will never do it again. Which doesn't matter cuz they will never work with Apple again anyway.
Its like the plans to the Death Star II, Emperor Jobs let the codes out to lure the rebels, er I mean rumor sites in.
It's their loss. Mac gamers are just going to have to do what everyone who gets fed up with Gamespy does and switch to another server browser.
Then you don't really understand the point here. The issue here is that a lot of games are made on the PC use gamespy. They are then ported over to the Macintosh and the gamespy browser is also ported. This allows Mac and PC users to game against/with eachother. This is done in the game, its the developers choice to use this browser, not the gamers. It isn't as simple as the choosing Firefox over IE.
With Gamespy pricing themselves out of the Mac biz the pool of online players becomes considerably smaller. There already IS alternative game browsers for the Macintosh (http://www.gameranger.com/). But it only works on the Mac Platform, and its requires running a third party app (unless the Mac Developer decides to integrate it) to connect to games as opposed to doing it through the game interface. Get bumped from a server? Quit the game, launch Game Ranger, look for a game, launch the game... ad naseum. Even if Game Ranger was made cross platform, PC users in general won't download it just to game with Mac users, why would they?
So aside from being less than elegant, This means that games in the near and far future will lack the ability to challenge your buddies head to head if they use PC's. I game on my Mac, but a lot of people I know game on their PC's. I buy games so I can play with them online, now thats taken away from me. Why should I want to buy the games then?
A lot of Mac gamers will think the same way, so they won't buy those games anymore, or at least they'll buy less. Now the sales start to drop for Aspyr and Macsoft, so they port less games, so less sell etc etc, repeat as needed. Next thing you know the Mac Game market is drying up again and Gamespy is going "See?! We knew this would happen!", not admitting that they caused it.
What's needed is an Open Source alternative. Something that can be supported by the community and made 100% cross platform compatible. If that will actually happen though... well that remains to be seen.
(something interesting I actually found while researching this- Gamespy CHARGES to post on their message boards... wtf is that?!)
I was just thinking that if the guys who did Farscape (Writers, directors etc.) were tapped for this, it has huge potential.
Farscape was an hour long huge story arc type of show. Featred a group of rogues on their own in the universe just trying to get by. Blaster fights, space battles and interesting Non-CG aliens (courtesy of Henson),
The upcoming mini-series is likely the end of the Franchise (books and maybe games not withstanding) and these guys will have a lot of time on their hands.
Put these guys in the setting/time frame of KotOR game as someone esle sugested, and you could have a hit on your hands.
I'd love to see a system with the same stats, without the LCD being offered to the education and enterprise markets. That would kick up Apple's market share in a heartbeat.
They did that a few years back - it was called the G4 Cube and it did horribly.
It was too pricey to justify it not having a Monitor OR any expansion. I have a feeling that with the LCD iMacs they can save some of the cost of the Hardware in the mass produced screen. Take out the screen and its harder to do make a profit.
Slashdot Mirror
"We don't know who struck first, us or them. But we do know it was us that scorched the sky. At the time, they were dependent on solar power. It was believed they would be unable to survive without an energy source as abundant as the sun"
-Morpheus
I agree whole-heartidly, people who get their work done at Best Buy don't know better. End of story.
In these people's case though, now they do.
The first Zen came out after the First iPod. Creative surely did have large capacity players prior to the iPod, but the "Zen" was not one of them. I believe it was the Nomad.
Also, the original iPod was 5 gigs (October 2001) then added a 10 (in March 2002) and then went "second generation" when they added a 20 Gig model and changed from the mechanical scroll on the original, to solid state (touch sensitive) controls.
A 15 gig iPod did not exist until the "3rd generation" when they introduced the Dock connector, in mid 2003, almost 2 years after the original iPod debuted.
The iPod [used] the "click-wheel" technology, rather than traditional buttons. Other than that, they were about the same.
As mentioned above, the original iPod used mechanical buttons and a mechanical wheel in the original model. The 2nd generation used a no moving parts solid state interface, and the "Click wheel" iPod you mentioned was released in July 2004, as solid state for the wheel functions, but the wheel physically rocked back and up and down to activate the controls (the center button also pushes in). This continues to be the method of interface today
I don't know about anyone else, but this is just cool. How long before we can have something like this attached to our own at home networks?
... and I'll say it again
Fucking Jersey.
..For all the new Late night infomercials, telling us how being fat isn't our fault. Oh, a whole new generation of snake-oil is on the horizon
So they want to break the internet to make more money for themselves?
Will anyone actually go for this?
Seriously, what ever happened to running a business on the merits of its product, not on cash generated by hidden surcharges?
Now, if I understand correctly, there is little to no way to tell if one of these CDs are the Fun DRM'd, rootkit, privacy-killing variety by simply looking at the packaging.
So my question is, if I buy the CD, get this Crap-tastic EULA, and decide I do not want to accept it, can I simply click no, or decline or whatever, and return the CD?
I would imagine that there has to be SOME way to get your money back if you decide to not accept the terms. Any lawyers, or people who fancy them selves as such who can answer this question?
Then you reveal your ignorance of the product, and thus, prove my point. They make SD cards in sizes larger than 23 megs, you know. (or maybe you didn't know, as your tech knowledge appears limited to whatever appears on the apple website)
Yeah, because I like buying things to make my devices work as advertised.
The treo is likely a good concept, but your advocacy of it is worse than even the biggest Apple-Fan-boys. Is it elegant? It it simple and trouble free? Does it come with everything built into it you need to make it work the way it claims? Your pushing of the Treo without acknowledging any of the shortcomings is annoying at best. You sound like someone who bought a Treo because of what you thought it was and now push it to anyone who would listen in order to justify your own purchase. Sure you can buy more memory for it. But why should you have to? If the thing was really designed to do all the things it claims to do it would have the storage to do it. It seems more like an afterthought.
Thats the thing about the iPod, it doesn't have any afterthought features. If its not built in right off the bat, its not there. If they want to add it, they release a new iPod with the new features fully integrated, fully supported as if it was there since day one. Thats what appeals to so many users of it. It may not do everything, but what it does it does so well. Thats why its good. Its simple, elegant, and it works as advertised.
Now, seriously. Stop trolling. After checking your past posts, its a little sad to see how many Flamebait, Troll, Redundant etc, posts you have. You think you're insightful, and you think your interesting, but obviously most other people think differently.
I think you're both wrong and right.
According to Dictionary.com Mute has "Expressed without speech" listed as a valid definition.
Maybe moot is correct as well, and certainly is the older term, but it appears both are valid.
Anyone that needs a new iBook.
Although the intel switch will be monumental for sure, there will certainly be a market for PPC macs for a while. regardless of whats coming a year from now, or even two years, people still need to upgrade. Of course it will suck when the new machines come out and blow these away but thats the way computers work.
I needed a laptop, and last month I bought a refurb iBook from Last rev (2 revs now). I know the intel machines are coming out, but when? Some people simply can't wait.
Even aside from that, I'm sure plenty of people will be clinging to PPC for a while, just like they do classic. Thats why apple kept one Classic bootable machine around for so long. People wanted and in some cases needed it, and it sold fairly well. And when the last PPC machine disappears from Apples site, it will make news on Slashdot just as the last Classic bootable Mac did.
They're actually competing. When was the last time a Windows release felt any pressure from a competitor?
That is pretty impressive. Seriously, when was the last time Coke mentioned Pepsi? Usually the dominating brand just ignores the little guy, from their POV they aren't competing, they are barely playing in the same sandbox. The fact that MS is trying to justify their system is better (and not 2 weeks from shipping) shows that Apple, at least to some degree, has them worried about losing sales.
Now, I'm admitting I know little about this, so forgive my ignorance.
They say it will eventually fail and start to fall back to earth, could they wait for it to get closer then send out a rescue mission when it it close enough to the ISS, Or would the then gyroless Hubble be too much of a risk to attempt to grab from space?
Firstly, part of the DRM is that you can share the file with 3 people - so its not just your personal use. I can buy a song from iTMS and give it to 3 friends, no prob. It works, Apple allows it, They can then Burn it and do with it as they please. It is thiers.
Aside from that, you can, in fact, sell music you have bought from the iTMS, its been done. It was insanely complicated to do (especially considering it was only one song) but it was done via ebay as a test to show that one can in fact transfer ownership of music bought bought from the iTMS in complete agreement with Apple's terms. IIRC the guy who did it was in touch with Apple making sure what he was doing was entirely on the up and up.
...and like the blind protagonist from a Greek tragedy, Bush, in an effort to change a prophecy instead fullfills it.
That actually made me smile to see.
Gives me a warm feeling inside, but that may just be the hot cocoa.
we all know that it's terrorists launching asteroids at the Eart
I thought those were bugs?
Would you like to know more?
I can cancel my bomb shelter purchase now...
:\
It was gonna be a first if I didn't hit reply so quick
You need a Bungie history lesson.
So do you.
You're right about Marathon 2 and Myth but thats it.
All accounts of Myth 2 say they shipped together, but the Mac version was available first because a Virus was found in the PC Gold Master and the PC version recalled. In most Cases stores pulled all versions from the shelf Mac and PC. After that you would find it as a Hybrid Box sporting an orange sticker claiming to be Version 1.1 (and for all intents and purposes the same game, just Virus Free)
When Bungie announced they were selling to MS, both Oni and Halo were in production. In fact, so was Myth 3.
Oni was in Late Beta when sold and was finished by Rockstar, originally intended as a Simultaneous release for Mac and PC in the same box. I am unsure if they shipped at the same time, but I know they didn't ship in one box. It did not however, include the Multiplayer Death match Jason Jones told me had so many latency issues at the MacWorld Demo.
Myth 3 was finished by someone else as well, Gathering of Developers if I recall correctly. I believe Myth 3 wasn't even at First playable yet, if it even left the drawing room stage.
But both Oni and Myth 3 were published by Take-Two Interactive
Halo was supposed to be released on Mac and PC from the start, but it was going to be on the Mac FIRST. I was at the MacWorld Keynote speech where Halo was first introduced (the same one we first saw the clamshell iBook). I believe it was Jason Jones on stage with Steve Jobs who narrated the trailer they were playing before the crowd as he explained what we were watching was played on a G4 with a ( then unavailable for the Mac) nVidia video card running hacked drivers.
He emphasized that the game would be for the Mac First with later release for the PC. The audience had been in quiet awe during the presentation when this caused the crowd to erupt into cheers.
And please, mods - If You Don't know if someone is right, don't mod them up Just because it sounds right !!
-Malacon
Is Apple going to sue slashdot now for telling us what the lawsuits were about?
RTFA - Apple is suing people who released the info to the sites, not the sites themselves. The only reason the sites were mentioned is because Apple is asking them to reveal their sources.
And of course they validated the Rumor, its what Apple does, they let stuff leak, and if it happens quietly they sue. It hits more news sites, more people hear about it and they force the leakers to sign papers saying they will never do it again. Which doesn't matter cuz they will never work with Apple again anyway.
Its like the plans to the Death Star II, Emperor Jobs let the codes out to lure the rebels, er I mean rumor sites in.
It's their loss. Mac gamers are just going to have to do what everyone who gets fed up with Gamespy does and switch to another server browser.
Then you don't really understand the point here. The issue here is that a lot of games are made on the PC use gamespy. They are then ported over to the Macintosh and the gamespy browser is also ported. This allows Mac and PC users to game against/with eachother. This is done in the game, its the developers choice to use this browser, not the gamers. It isn't as simple as the choosing Firefox over IE.
With Gamespy pricing themselves out of the Mac biz the pool of online players becomes considerably smaller. There already IS alternative game browsers for the Macintosh (http://www.gameranger.com/). But it only works on the Mac Platform, and its requires running a third party app (unless the Mac Developer decides to integrate it) to connect to games as opposed to doing it through the game interface. Get bumped from a server? Quit the game, launch Game Ranger, look for a game, launch the game... ad naseum. Even if Game Ranger was made cross platform, PC users in general won't download it just to game with Mac users, why would they?
So aside from being less than elegant, This means that games in the near and far future will lack the ability to challenge your buddies head to head if they use PC's. I game on my Mac, but a lot of people I know game on their PC's. I buy games so I can play with them online, now thats taken away from me. Why should I want to buy the games then?
A lot of Mac gamers will think the same way, so they won't buy those games anymore, or at least they'll buy less. Now the sales start to drop for Aspyr and Macsoft, so they port less games, so less sell etc etc, repeat as needed. Next thing you know the Mac Game market is drying up again and Gamespy is going "See?! We knew this would happen!", not admitting that they caused it.
What's needed is an Open Source alternative. Something that can be supported by the community and made 100% cross platform compatible. If that will actually happen though... well that remains to be seen.
(something interesting I actually found while researching this- Gamespy CHARGES to post on their message boards... wtf is that?!)
now all we have to do is find a use for 20 minute missions. :)
I was just thinking that if the guys who did Farscape (Writers, directors etc.) were tapped for this, it has huge potential.
Farscape was an hour long huge story arc type of show. Featred a group of rogues on their own in the universe just trying to get by. Blaster fights, space battles and interesting Non-CG aliens (courtesy of Henson),
The upcoming mini-series is likely the end of the Franchise (books and maybe games not withstanding) and these guys will have a lot of time on their hands.
Put these guys in the setting/time frame of KotOR game as someone esle sugested, and you could have a hit on your hands.
I could also see this going south way quick.
I'd love to see a system with the same stats, without the LCD being offered to the education and enterprise markets. That would kick up Apple's market share in a heartbeat.
They did that a few years back - it was called the G4 Cube and it did horribly.
It was too pricey to justify it not having a Monitor OR any expansion. I have a feeling that with the LCD iMacs they can save some of the cost of the Hardware in the mass produced screen. Take out the screen and its harder to do make a profit.
No, I don't think I could... but yes, Farscape would likely be up there :)