Please do be sure to post your blow by blow accounts of how you will be beaten within an inch of hope by this process, so that we may make snide comments while we secretly are grateful for your courage to wander into this firestorm of global-scale corporate tiddlywinks.
A good place for these blow by blow accounts is AVS Forum, where someone has already bought a $1000 Blu-ray player and is waiting for Blu-ray titles to arrive. Read fascinating details like how the Blu-ray player boots up and how well it up-converts standard DVD movies. See exciting photos of the Blu-ray player's box!
Or when home PC's went from Win95/98/ME to XP? Remember all the hype and hysteria about the requirements back then?
Um.... I went from Windows 98 to Win2000. Stability of NT with Game compatibility of win98. (Just without all the bluescreens)
Everyone who knew anything about computers should have known to put Windows 2000 pro on their computer when it came out and not WinME or Win98.
I also went from Win98 to Win2000 on my PC, but note that he said "home PC's." The vast majority of "home" PCs were not sold with Win2000 (Win98/ME was the "home OS" at the time). Windows 2000 Professional was a "professional/business" OS and was not an appropriate upgrade (IMO) for the vast majority of "home" Win98 users. Before Windows XP Home was released in late 2001, Win2000's hardware/software support was relatively poor (if I remember correctly). Also, Win2000 was too difficult/confusing to use for most Win98 users. I think Windows XP Home was the first OS with the NT kernel that was "easy enough" for most "home users."
WinXP got domniance because it was just put on new computers that came out and you couldn't get Win2000 anymore.
You never could get Win2000 on most "home PCs." For the vast majority of home users, WinXP was a monumental improvement over Win98/ME. On the other hand, WinXP Professional was not such a huge upgrade for Win2000 Pro users. Many users of Win2000 (advanced users, businesses, etc) were slow to upgrade to WinXP and some still haven't upgraded (Win2000 has "extended support" until 2010).
If I remember correctly, hardware and sofware support (especially games) for Win2000 improved after WinXP was released. Win2000 was so rare on "home" PCs that many hardware and software companies didn't bother supporting it. But after WinXP Home was released, they were forced to support the NT 5.1 kernel. After that, adding support for Win2000's NT 5.0 kernel was relatively easy.
I pretty much agree with the rest of your post, but you (and I) are not like most "home PC" users.
That's fantastic (the fact that it is shipping to retailers). I won't "eat" until the reviews (and brave early buyers at avsforum) confirm that "it works" without any overly annoying bugs. I'll prepare a Taiyo Yuden disc, just in case.
If there's one thing I've learned from these format wars (Blu-Ray vs HD DVD), it's that "announced" dates don't mean squat. HD DVD was supposed to launch in time for 2005's Christmas shopping season, but was actually released on April 18. The Sony PS3 was supposed to launch in March 2006, but won't be available until November (at the earliest). Sony says Blu-Ray-related technologies are the main reason for PS3's delay, but I'm not sure I believe it (November?).
At this year's CES, it was announced that Blu-Ray would be released in May 23, but it has been delayed until June 25. As TFA says, Sony and Pioneer announced set-top Blu-Ray players for that June 25 launch date, but have delayed their players until August and September. After those delays, I am very surprised to see TFA saying that Samsung is now "shipping" their Blu-Ray players to retailers.
I'll believe it when I see it. If stores start selling a relatively bug-free Blu-Ray player on June 25, then I'll eat a dual-layer DVD (not literally).
Also there are very few titles availabe for HD DVD. Maybe they do this on purpose because people cannot see yet that there are a lot of other 'big releases' missing, not all studios signed up for hd dvd.
"A few" is more than ZERO releases of BD movies, which I guess doesn't matter since there are ZERO BD players available to consumers for another couple of weeks anyways.
Actually, tweny-four titles have been released for HD DVD and three more will be released tomorrow. For those that want to see the release titles, look at the right-hand side of HDDVD.org.
"A few" (2-6 titles) have been released every week since HD DVD's launch.
"Mac" is the brand name of a product line (of computers) made by Apple. Products do not troll.
C'mon. You and everybody else knew what mfh meant. This isn't English class.
Apple's OS X v. Windows XP ads are hardly trolling. It is not trolling when a company compares their product line against their competitor's in a non-subjective way.
I would agree that it's hardly trolling (depending on one's definition of "trolling"), but to say Apple is comparing "Mac" to "PC" in a "non-subjective way" is laughable.
When I pull up the terminal window and type 'uptime' my Mac will return a date figure which is in months (and for a while there in years + months!) I have owned a PC running Windows XP and this was never the case.
In this case, you're comparing your Mac (hardware and software) to your Windows XP PC. Uptime depends on much more than just the OS. Bad hardware and drivers will kill the uptime of both OS X and WinXP. Running unpatched WinXP in administrator mode with the firewall turned off will also kill uptime. Sure, there are a lot more crappy PCs out there than crappy Macs (which do exist). But there are plenty of non-crappy PCs with Service Pack 2 that don't freeze or need to be rebooted regularly. I'm surprised yours isn't one of them.
The iLife suite of applications, like iPhoto, iTunes, iEtc, is far better integrated, reliable and functional than any of the lifestyle applications that Microsoft bundles with Windows. So again, the point that Apple is making is legitimate.
Not legitimate, IMO. iLife is not bundled with OS X, it is bundled with new Macs and costs $79 seperately. You compared a $79 suite to whatever is included with Windows, not whatever is bundled with a new PC. Some PC companies bundle comparable software with their new PCs or make it an option. You should compare iLife (which is not free) to software bundled with a new PC, not with whatever is free with Windows.
Many PC makers bundle (or offer as a cheap option) Microsoft Works Suite, which includes Word 2002, Works (basic spreadsheet, database, calendar), Digital Image Standard (iPhoto), Encarta, Money, and Streets & Trips Essentials. Every PC sold with a DVD burner is bundled with DVD creation software (iDVD) and the vast majority are also bundled with movie-making software (iMovie). Whether or not the software bundled with a particular PC is comparable to iLife (or is better) depends on the PC.
I think I agree with the rest of your comment. I just think the new Apple ads are almost as misleading as Bill O'Reilly or Michael Moore.
I was wondering why they did not use an AMD AM2 CPU that uses the same DDR2 RAM.
I also wondered, but my quick froogle search for available AM2 (DDR2 800) FX 60 CPUs brought up nothing. On the other hand, Socket 939 (DDR 400) FX 60 CPUs (which Intel used) are widely availablle. Therefore, the fastest available AMD Athlon platform that Intel could buy was Socket 939 FX 60, which uses DDR 400. It seems Intel made it even more fair by overclocking the FX 60 to approximate the performance of the unavailable FX 62.
Maybe Intel could have "borrowed" an AM2 FX 60 from an OEM, but I'm sure AMD wouldn't have allowed this.
It will either mean cheaper Macs, or Macs with more features for the same price...
However, as a Mac owner and someone who's looking to replace an iBook with a MacBook (Pro) in the near future, this is good news indeed.
As I explained in my other comment, current Core Duo CPUs will likely get modest price cuts (up to 15%) because Intel will introduce a new fastest model (2.33GHz) on June 25. I bet Apple will just bump the CPU speeds up one level and keep their prices the same. This is still good news, though. Faster MacBooks for the same price and the overheating problems should be fixed by then.
the world's biggest computer-chip maker plans to reduce prices on Pentium processors by as much as 60 percent...
Intel officials told them the price cuts will start July 23...
Intel said it will reduce prices of faster dual-core chips by about 15 percent... Intel also told him that it plans to lower Pentium prices by 60 percent.
TFA doesn't say specifically which Intel CPUs will get the big price cuts ("as much as 60 percent"), but I think it's pretty obvious that they're talking about the Pentium D and Pentium 4 processors, which Apple does not and will not use in their Macs. The smaller price cuts ("about 15 percent") is probably Core Duo because Intel plans to introduce a faster model (2.33GHz) on June 25.
The big price cuts will supposedly start on July 23, which is also the day Conroe (LGA775 Core 2 Duo for desktops) will be introduced. Conroe will be replacing the current Pentium D and Pentium 4 processors, and eventually Celeron D (Apple will not use any of these CPUs). Compared to Conroe, the current high-end Pentium D will look like a mid range CPU. The mid-range Pentium 4 will look like a low-end CPU. The big price cuts will look appropriate. Note that Pentium D, Pentium 4, and Celeron D will work in Core 2 Duo desktop motherboards.
Apple so far has only used Yonah-based Core Duo and Core Solo, which don't use the same chipsets and sockets as Core 2 Duo for desktops. Core 2 Duo for notebooks will not be introduced until late August at the earliest, so I'm sure the big price cuts will not apply to Yonah CPUs. The smaller price cut mentioned in TFA (15 percent) makes sense because a 2.33GHz Core Duo will be introduced on June 25. This new fastest Core Duo should be priced about the same as the current fastest model (2.16GHz) and the second-fastest model is usually about 15 percent cheaper than the fastest.
Virtally all laptops now support at least 1280x1024 (which allows 720p, or 1280x720), and many now come with 1920x1200 (allowing 1080p at 1920x1080).
Also, any notebook with an HD DVD or Blu Ray drive can serve as a portable player that can be connected to many HDTVs. There are a lot of HDTVs out there without set top HD DVD players. Toshiba's and Acer's new HD DVD-equiped notebooks have HDMI outputs, so I can see them being connected to many HDTVs before set top players become common.
I used to think the same thing about those portable DVD players with tiny LCD screens. At first glance, they didn't seem worth it. However, set top DVD players were still uncommon at the time and those portable DVD players could be connected to any of the three televisions in your house, your friends' televisions, or hotel televisions.
Windows, on the other hand, has hundreds of thousands of apps that expect to be administrator. The software companies don't want to fix them, and Microsoft doesn't want to break them.
So MS defined a middle ground -- annoying prompts which you can't get rid of. Since there isn't a special security level which hides the prompts
I haven't been testing Vista personally, but I just read a Paul Thurrott article on User Account Control that seems to indicate that these annoying prompts do go away after installation. From the article:
Under the covers, UAC also provides some interesting features related to backwards compatibility. On a typical Windows XP system, applications are typically granted complete control over the system they are installed to, so it's possible for them to read and write information anywhere in both the Registry and the file system. In Windows Vista, the Registry and file system are locked down, however. So UAC provides Registry and file system virtualization services that silently redirect read and write operations from protected portions of the Registry and file system to unprotected places located with the user's profile. Let's see what this looks like.
Like you, I install various applications and many of them assume they have complete control of the system. One of them is Microsoft's MSN Messenger application. If you navigate to this application's folder (or any other application that assumes it can write to any folder on the system), you'll see a new button appear in the Windows Explorer toolbar called Compatibility Files:
(screenshot illustrating this)
If you click this button, you'll be redirected to a hidden location under your user profile where certain files have been redirected. The file here, ErrorResponse.xml, believes it is located in C:\ Program Files\MSN Messenger. It is, however, really located in D:\Users\Paul\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files\MSN Messenger.
So all those "apps that expect to be administrator" (writing to "Program Files" and protected parts of the registry) will be "tricked" into actually writing to the user's profile. Doesn't this mean users will no longer need to use "Run as" or mess with user permissions anymore to get rid of the prompts?
Well, most people don't have anywhere to get Windows Server 2003 at something close to a reasonable price for workstation use... But yeah, Server 2003 is without a doubt the best version of Windows NT 5 around.
You might know this already, but Windows XP Professional x64 Edition is uses the same codebase as Windows Server 2003. So if you're willing to deal with drawbacks of XP x64 (e.g. lack of drivers/apps), then isn't this a reasonably priced ($150 OEM) workstation option?
Here is what Bruce Schneier thinks of Vista's UAC feature.
The bulk of that blog post just praises Paul Thurrott's infamous rant about then-unfixed problems with the Vista February Community Technology Preview (Build 5342).
Finally, I should note that UAC is evolving over the course of the Windows Vista beta. When I wrote When Vista Fails, the fifth part of my Windows Vista February 2006 CTP/Build 5342 review, UAC was popping up consent dialogs too frequently. Also, there was a bug in UAC that resulted in certain consent dialogs appearing repeatedly with no way to authenticate certain tasks. The proliferation of dialogs and aforementioned bug have been fixed in Windows Vista Beta 2. Better still, Microsoft also promises to make further changes to UAC over the remainder of the beta program to further reduce the number of times users will have to provide consent. In short, what was once aggravating is now quite bearable. The security benefits of UAC far outweigh whatever annoyances its dialogs might cause.
Since Bruce Schneier seemed to base his opinion on Vista UAC on other bloggers' experiences, his current opinion might be different now.
This rule becomes more true as you move towards consoles, since there is no way to grab an indie game demo on a quick download for your 360, and hence there is no development for consoles.
I'm not much of a gamer (I don't own a console), but isn't "downloadable indie game demos" (Xbox Live Arcade) one of the selling points of the Xbox 360 and its free Xbox Live Silver membership?
Sure, some of them are just old arcade games (like Joust) updated for online play. But games like Outpost Kaloki X looks like a good example of an indie game developer making a name for themselves on the Xbox 360.
Again, I'm not a console gamer. I just read about this in a rather glowing Extremetech opinion article by Loyd Case.
Also it had cooperative multitasking which is not real multitasking at all. That means if an app froze it would take down the whole system as Windows would wait for the token to be released to run the other apps. Obviously an infinite loop in a program you wrote would require a reset button hit.
All apps that multitasked shared memory and if anyone used a memory address that another app used then CRASH. I had GP faults by the hour when I ran more than 2 apps. It was purely defective in my eyes and I prefered DOS. It crashed almost every day...
I am still astounded Microsoft was able to actually keep making Windows.
I became a Microsoft hater from that day as I shook my head and wondered why people actually paid money for this when unix, macos, and os/2 were available and many many times better.
I think you might be forgetting some things about Unix, Maco OS, and OS/2 from those days if you actually wonder why people used Windows 3.1 instead. If I remember correctly, Unix workstations were uber-expensive and not easy enough to use by the masses. Mac OS memory management was also lousy (crashes requiring reboots) and wouldn't get real multitasking until OS X in 2001. The Mac price premium, which is debatable today, was real in those days. OS/2 was a nice alternative, especially in 1994, but how many Windows 3.1 users ever saw a PC running OS/2? Not many. Was it poor promotion by IBM or illegal monopolistic actions by Microsoft?
As bad as Windows 3.x was, I remember it being the first version that was "good enough" (for most users) to be an alternative to Mac OS, with more apps and a wide selection of inexpensive "IBM-compatibles." Unix was not yet a real alternative for most Windows/Mac OS users (Linux was years away from being an option) and OS/2 was not a choice if people didn't see it.
But, my parents use Windows ME with no problem at all. They didn't buy it separately or anything, it came preinstalled, and it's actually much better than Windows 98.
Since i've installed Firefox as default browser, AVG Antivirus and AdAware, there have been no problems at all with spyware, crashes and slow loading times.
You're not alone. I think the key difference is "it came preinstalled," which means it had probably been thoroughly tested by the computer manufacturer to make sure it (and the drivers) worked reliably with their hardware.
Upgrading to WinME is risky, though. I'm pretty sure upgraders are the source of most of the legitimate complaints about this maligned OS.
I have a computer novice friend with WinME preinstalled on a 700MHz Celeron HP Pavilion, upgraded to 192MB RAM. I also installed AVG and Ad-aware (and ZoneAlarm), then set a system restore point. No major problems running MS Office and using broadband internet.
we are potentially TWELVE MONTHS away from widespread release on a product thats been in development for FOUR YEARS and people are "impressed" that a SECOND beta is relatively stable. And this is considered a news story.
I don't think this would be a Slashdot news story if Slashdot's previous Vista beta news stories hadn't been overly negative. Note the phrases "Not so bad?" and "counterpoint to the negative impressions of Vista's Beta 2 going around" in this story's summary.
To me, it looks like Slashdot is making an attempt to appear "fair and balanced" after posting negative reviews by computer illiterates and self-important blowhards. Also note that this "positive" news story is from a blog.
Generally speaking, clusters who want high performance used something like Myrnet instead of ethernet. It's like the difference between consumer, prosumer, and professional products you see in, oh, every industry across the board.
Just a thought, but a lot of things change in 4 years, particularly with computer apps. It's probably wise to verify such things before making statements (or just stating the version of PowerDVD that doesn't work).
Especially since Window XP, the first "home" version of Windows that had limited user accounts, was released about 4 years ago (beginning of 2002). That version of PowerDVD from 4 years ago could have been CyberLink's first attempt at PowerDVD for a true multi-user OS. Sure, they should have gotten it right the first time, IMO, but to assume it still doesn't work is a strange assumption.
This must be part of the wireless patents Apple filed for a while back... The ipod could become much more than an mp3 player, and could help collect data (pedometer, etc) and stream music to different sources automatically.
This seems like exactly the thing Jobs and Apple would pursue, a seamless system of wireless integration would perfectly embody their philosophies of style, power, simplicity, and having things 'just work'. It may be just a new shoe accessory right now, but I for one could see this type of technology evolving into new areas
Although this looks like a very nice product, I don't think this is new technology and I don't think Apple is an innovator here.
Nike and Philips released the MP3Run player/pedometer in July 2004. A Bluetooth module clipped onto your shoelaces and the player kept track of your time, distance, speed, and pace. In addition to the screen showing your running information, a voice announced your progress either on demand or at preset intervals. The player kept your running history by date, which could be downloaded to your PC and uploaded to the nikerunning.com training log. Does all this sound familiar?
That said, the Nike/Philips MP3Run was a typically unrefined version 1.0 product. It had a great FM tuner (strong signals, 10 presets), but it didn't work if you were using the pedometer (WTF?). The sound quality was subpar, but perhaps good enough if you only used it when exercising. The capacity (initially) was only 256MB and didn't work with DRM protected WMA or AAC. Some good points: the player was weatherproof/sweatproof and had a built-in strobe light for night running.
The Nike/Apple product looks like a much better and more refined product with updated technology (and a convenient Nike shoe lock-in), but it's not new. Also, wireless Bluetooth accessories for the iPod are already in existence for your car and home stereo. I'm sure the Apple-branded accessories, if Apple makes them, will be better and more integrated, but I don't think Apple patents or innovations apply here.
Currently, the biggest difference you can make comes from the CPU. Go with a P4, and you might as well abandon power consumption as a design constraint. On the opposite end of that spectrum, if you don't need a lot of horsepower, the Via Epia boards... For my "real" machines, I currently have Athlon64s... A Pentium-M would give more bang-per-watt, but they cost a hell of a lot more. And as I mentioned, the next-gen Core Duos look very promising.
As a low-power desktop platform, the current-gen Intel Core Duo/Solo/Celeron M is not all that expensive anymore, although the selection is limited. An ASUS microATX board based on the mobile (low-power) 945GM chipset (model N4L-VM DH) is $145 at Newegg. A Core Duo 2300 can be bought for less than $250. If you don't need dual-core or SpeedStep on your desktop PC, then a Core Solo-based Celeron M (TDP 27W) will be around $130 when they become available (stores are listing them for pre-order). The Core Solo doesn't save you much over the Core Duo.
Note that Core 2 Duo (Merom) is supposedly compatible with the current Core Duo chipset and socket. However, it might be worth waiting 2-3 months for the really good Core 2 Duo CPU/motherboards.
I haven't seen any reasonable-priced full-ATX motherboards announced for Core Duo. It seems like there should be more Core Duo desktop motherboards since Intel makes a desktop chipset specifically for low-power Core Duo desktops (945GT).
we'll all be on point and have been handed yet one more piece of a puzzle to understand (I read the article, I'm not totally sure it makes sense to me) and be able to guide friends and family to informed decisions about what equipment to buy and how to make it work. (To friends and family: "You'll have to make sure the TV and player you buy has HDMI so you'll get to see the pretty pictures. No, wait!, You might not need HDMI afterall. Of course, you'll have to have it by the year 2010.")
ATI, NVIDIA, Philips, and Samsung officially threw their support behind DisplayPort this week. Others like Dell, HP, and Lenovo had already supported DisplayPort, but now the "GPU Big Two" and television manufacturers are starting to support it.
In the article, ATI says they will introduce products supporting DisplayPort in 2007. Note that DisplayPort, like HDMI, is supposedly backwards-compatible with DVI. It better be easy to hook up an DisplayPort video player to an HDMI television without losing the ability to play HDCP content.
Not sure why my post was rated funny, but oh well. Karma is karma.
Being modded "Funny" doesn't improve you karma anymore. Your post seems to indicate that you didn't know this, but I'm not sure. Anyhoo, here's the relevant FAQ:
What is karma?
Your karma is a reference that primarily represents how your comments have been moderated in the past. Karma is structured on the following scale "Terrible, Bad, Neutral, Positive, Good, and Excellent." If a comment you post is moderated up, your karma will rise. Consequently, if you post a comment that has been moderated down, your karma will fall.
In addition to moderation, other things factor into karma as well. You can get some karma by submitting a story that we decide to post. Also, metamoderation can cause your karma to change. This encourages good moderators, and ideally removes moderator access from bad ones.
Note that being moderated Funny doesn't help your karma. You have to be smart, not just a smart-ass.
Slashdot Mirror
If I remember correctly, hardware and sofware support (especially games) for Win2000 improved after WinXP was released. Win2000 was so rare on "home" PCs that many hardware and software companies didn't bother supporting it. But after WinXP Home was released, they were forced to support the NT 5.1 kernel. After that, adding support for Win2000's NT 5.0 kernel was relatively easy.
I pretty much agree with the rest of your post, but you (and I) are not like most "home PC" users.
That's fantastic (the fact that it is shipping to retailers). I won't "eat" until the reviews (and brave early buyers at avsforum) confirm that "it works" without any overly annoying bugs. I'll prepare a Taiyo Yuden disc, just in case.
At this year's CES, it was announced that Blu-Ray would be released in May 23, but it has been delayed until June 25. As TFA says, Sony and Pioneer announced set-top Blu-Ray players for that June 25 launch date, but have delayed their players until August and September. After those delays, I am very surprised to see TFA saying that Samsung is now "shipping" their Blu-Ray players to retailers.
I'll believe it when I see it. If stores start selling a relatively bug-free Blu-Ray player on June 25, then I'll eat a dual-layer DVD (not literally).
"A few" (2-6 titles) have been released every week since HD DVD's launch.
Many PC makers bundle (or offer as a cheap option) Microsoft Works Suite, which includes Word 2002, Works (basic spreadsheet, database, calendar), Digital Image Standard (iPhoto), Encarta, Money, and Streets & Trips Essentials. Every PC sold with a DVD burner is bundled with DVD creation software (iDVD) and the vast majority are also bundled with movie-making software (iMovie). Whether or not the software bundled with a particular PC is comparable to iLife (or is better) depends on the PC.
I think I agree with the rest of your comment. I just think the new Apple ads are almost as misleading as Bill O'Reilly or Michael Moore.
Maybe Intel could have "borrowed" an AM2 FX 60 from an OEM, but I'm sure AMD wouldn't have allowed this.
The big price cuts will supposedly start on July 23, which is also the day Conroe (LGA775 Core 2 Duo for desktops) will be introduced. Conroe will be replacing the current Pentium D and Pentium 4 processors, and eventually Celeron D (Apple will not use any of these CPUs). Compared to Conroe, the current high-end Pentium D will look like a mid range CPU. The mid-range Pentium 4 will look like a low-end CPU. The big price cuts will look appropriate. Note that Pentium D, Pentium 4, and Celeron D will work in Core 2 Duo desktop motherboards.
Apple so far has only used Yonah-based Core Duo and Core Solo, which don't use the same chipsets and sockets as Core 2 Duo for desktops. Core 2 Duo for notebooks will not be introduced until late August at the earliest, so I'm sure the big price cuts will not apply to Yonah CPUs. The smaller price cut mentioned in TFA (15 percent) makes sense because a 2.33GHz Core Duo will be introduced on June 25. This new fastest Core Duo should be priced about the same as the current fastest model (2.16GHz) and the second-fastest model is usually about 15 percent cheaper than the fastest.
I used to think the same thing about those portable DVD players with tiny LCD screens. At first glance, they didn't seem worth it. However, set top DVD players were still uncommon at the time and those portable DVD players could be connected to any of the three televisions in your house, your friends' televisions, or hotel televisions.
The responses to your joke (and the "Troll" mod) are tragically funny.
Vista is currently at Beta 2 (Build 5384) and Thurrott's opinion of Vista's UAC feature has changed. That link has a full review of Beta 2's current implementation of UAC and offers the following opinion:
Since Bruce Schneier seemed to base his opinion on Vista UAC on other bloggers' experiences, his current opinion might be different now.Sorry, I couldn't resist. Throw tomatoes at me.
Sure, some of them are just old arcade games (like Joust) updated for online play. But games like Outpost Kaloki X looks like a good example of an indie game developer making a name for themselves on the Xbox 360.
Again, I'm not a console gamer. I just read about this in a rather glowing Extremetech opinion article by Loyd Case.
As bad as Windows 3.x was, I remember it being the first version that was "good enough" (for most users) to be an alternative to Mac OS, with more apps and a wide selection of inexpensive "IBM-compatibles." Unix was not yet a real alternative for most Windows/Mac OS users (Linux was years away from being an option) and OS/2 was not a choice if people didn't see it.
Upgrading to WinME is risky, though. I'm pretty sure upgraders are the source of most of the legitimate complaints about this maligned OS.
I have a computer novice friend with WinME preinstalled on a 700MHz Celeron HP Pavilion, upgraded to 192MB RAM. I also installed AVG and Ad-aware (and ZoneAlarm), then set a system restore point. No major problems running MS Office and using broadband internet.
To me, it looks like Slashdot is making an attempt to appear "fair and balanced" after posting negative reviews by computer illiterates and self-important blowhards. Also note that this "positive" news story is from a blog.
In the TOP500, it looks like ethernet is not yet an "outsider." Perhaps in the "top 100."
Nike and Philips released the MP3Run player/pedometer in July 2004. A Bluetooth module clipped onto your shoelaces and the player kept track of your time, distance, speed, and pace. In addition to the screen showing your running information, a voice announced your progress either on demand or at preset intervals. The player kept your running history by date, which could be downloaded to your PC and uploaded to the nikerunning.com training log. Does all this sound familiar?
That said, the Nike/Philips MP3Run was a typically unrefined version 1.0 product. It had a great FM tuner (strong signals, 10 presets), but it didn't work if you were using the pedometer (WTF?). The sound quality was subpar, but perhaps good enough if you only used it when exercising. The capacity (initially) was only 256MB and didn't work with DRM protected WMA or AAC. Some good points: the player was weatherproof/sweatproof and had a built-in strobe light for night running.
The Nike/Apple product looks like a much better and more refined product with updated technology (and a convenient Nike shoe lock-in), but it's not new. Also, wireless Bluetooth accessories for the iPod are already in existence for your car and home stereo. I'm sure the Apple-branded accessories, if Apple makes them, will be better and more integrated, but I don't think Apple patents or innovations apply here.
Note that Core 2 Duo (Merom) is supposedly compatible with the current Core Duo chipset and socket. However, it might be worth waiting 2-3 months for the really good Core 2 Duo CPU/motherboards.
I haven't seen any reasonable-priced full-ATX motherboards announced for Core Duo. It seems like there should be more Core Duo desktop motherboards since Intel makes a desktop chipset specifically for low-power Core Duo desktops (945GT).
In the article, ATI says they will introduce products supporting DisplayPort in 2007. Note that DisplayPort, like HDMI, is supposedly backwards-compatible with DVI. It better be easy to hook up an DisplayPort video player to an HDMI television without losing the ability to play HDCP content.