You might build computers comparable to the Mac Pro, but I'm willing to bet you're not building computers comparable to an iMac or Mac Mini. Or are you really building i5 machines the size of 4 CD jewel cases?
(And yes, my hand-built PCs are generally from superior parts from vendor PCs, including box, cooling, PSU...)
And of a completely different form factor. You can have an iMac on a table with literally one cable running up into it, did you calculate that into your price?
Yes, everybody is stupid but you. Give me a fucking break, AC, the reason the ipod pretty much created the modern digital music player market because of it's usability, not in spite of it.
It's not that hard to beat Windows, but you must offer apps that people want so badly that they'll dump Windows apps for it.
Sure, you just need a better, more stable, easier-to-use OS with more exclusive, powerful, easy to use apps that runs on 500 million different computer setups.
Talk to any company that develops for both Android and iOS, ask them which platform makes them more money. See if you can compare income to phone market penetration.
It's more than most people spend on music in 2011, just because most people pirate music. Really, it's only two albums. I pirate music like I'm Long John Silver, but give me an option to pay $25/year to make my music legit, and I'll be the first in line to do it.
I remember the demo scene. I remember having to use QEMM to get enough ram for the demos to run, then having them crash. I remember some demos working on my gfx card and not my friends', I remember having drivers for specific sound cards, etc.
Not everything Apple does is a hit, the same as Google - usually for different reasons, but usually with same outcome: a killed product/product line quietly brushed under the rug.
Apple takes existing technology and polish the implementation until it fits the average user perfectly. You'll never see them deliver well on any technology that hasn't been well rehearsed elsewhere first. Yeah, like Firewire, USB, touch screen cell phones, app stores, Thunderbolt, unibody laptops, single-unit computers, etc.
For a community that's been up in arms agains anti-OSS FUD over the past decade, slashdot sure has no problem using the same tactics against non-OSS products/companies.
This contrasts many eastern european schools where "honors" students come out knowing aprox 3,000 equations but don't have enough practical life skills to open a bank account or form an original thought.
Apple also tends to keep it's mouth shut until the day their product is ready to ship (they released the iPhone before it was available because of leaks) but it's always been that way: the day they release something is the day you can go into an Apple Store in the afternoon and pick it up.
Apple, unlike pretty much every other major player in the consumer electronics/computer market, has a great track record of having products available to buy the day they're announced. The online Apple store always goes down on days when new products are announced so people can order stuff as soon as it's been presented.
If motorola isn't updating their devices and engaging in "apple" tactics, then they are no better than they are.
What "apple tactics"? The 3G runs the current version of iOS, and it was released four months before Android was released. I also have an Android phone from Google's manufacturer HTC that I bought new last year in May and I can't upgrade it past 1.6.
Honestly, it'd be great if Android headset manufacturers started engaging in "apple tactics": supporting their phones for more than two weeks after release.
Generally speaking, Creative Commons is a fine license for most sorts of creative output for one simple reason: piggybacking. If you make music, you can use somebody's CC'd vocals in your track, they can use your drum loops or guitar riffs. In writing, you can use somebody else's characters, somebody else can use the world you've created. And so on.
For photography, it sucks. The photographer gets nothing out of it. They produce, but there's no reciprocation. Your photos get used by other people, sometimes they'll do something cool with it (I've had some of my stuff used as the basis for illustrations) but usually it's to illustrate some bullshit article on some crap blog. This is where the bigger problem with CC comes into play: your work gets tied to people who use it.
If I take a picture of a dog biting a dark skinned man and release it with a CC license, it can get legally picked up by a neo-nazi site/magazine, printed and credited to my name. Not only do people whose politics I find to be morally repugnant get to use my work, they get to tie me to their publication. Boned. Think that's unlikely? How about this example, where a french girl's self-portrait was used to illustrate an article about a lawsuit involving hotel pool sperm.
To be honest, there is no country that I know of where identity theft is a problem as big as it is in the US. I have a national ID card here in Poland, and you know what? It's a HUGE bitch to fake, I suspect it would be easier to steal my identity by faking my passport and driver's license. That still wouldn't do you much good, since I could have any of those three documents invalidated - when you sign any sort of contract here, you put down both your ID/Tax number and your ID number. The corporate equivalent of identity theft is much more prevalent over here.
I find it hilarious how derisive you are of Apple being able to "package things in a way that has appeal". It's this thinking, so prevalent on places like/., that keeps people from understanding why Apple makes billions of dollars a year. The "packaging", the interface, is absolutely key. There is no benefit to the consumer if they buy a product with functionality that's difficult to use. My last Nokia smartphone, a 6370 running Symbian, had, on paper, all the functionality of my iPhone 3G - email, GPS, web browser, ability to install apps, etc. In reality, the only one of those things that was useful was mail app - the GMail app would crash, along with most of the other apps I used. The IRC app would crash if I used T9, usingthe radio would reset the phone, etc. In the end, I only used it as a phone. My previous Nokia, an E51, was a bit better in that respect, fewer apps would install on it but they wouldn't crash as often. GMail worked. The native mail app would crash though and bluetooth was wonky.
Now I have an iPhone 3G, which I bought for $70 from a friend after getting tired of yet another first tier app not installing on my HTC Android phone. It works. I've had one app refuse to install (WordLens), everything else - games, productivity apps, whatever - just works. All the built in apps work and I actually *use them*. And that's that difference that nerds keep making fun of, while Apple's pockets get fatter and fatter.
Except that iOS developers tend to make a lot more money from their apps than Android developers. There are a lot more Symbian headsets the world over than iOS or Android phones, and nobody's making a killing on Symbian apps for the simple reason that Symbian users don't use apps and if they do, they very rarely pay for them.
Look, Windows might have more applications by sheer number, but I find OS X apps to be of higher quality, and it sure does seem like more of the people I know who run OS X tend to actually buy software.
Are we counting position by market share or by profit? If we use the latter, than a very profitable non-first place is where it's at, just look at Apple right now, with its 21% profit margin. Dell's margin is 2.8%, which is why in 2009, when Dell outsold Apple 4:1, it ended up making $8.5bln less.
And as far as viability, I would love for somebody, ANYBODY, to give me some sales figures for Android apps that show them as coming anywhere near the kind of numbers people make selling apps in the App Store.
Slashdot Mirror
You might build computers comparable to the Mac Pro, but I'm willing to bet you're not building computers comparable to an iMac or Mac Mini. Or are you really building i5 machines the size of 4 CD jewel cases?
(And yes, my hand-built PCs are generally from superior parts from vendor PCs, including box, cooling, PSU ...)
And of a completely different form factor. You can have an iMac on a table with literally one cable running up into it, did you calculate that into your price?
Yes, everybody is stupid but you. Give me a fucking break, AC, the reason the ipod pretty much created the modern digital music player market because of it's usability, not in spite of it.
Everyone but Windows and Mac users, yes.
So everyone but 95% of PC users on the planet.
It's not that hard to beat Windows, but you must offer apps that people want so badly that they'll dump Windows apps for it.
Sure, you just need a better, more stable, easier-to-use OS with more exclusive, powerful, easy to use apps that runs on 500 million different computer setups.
Easy.
My iPhone 3G won't take the latest iOS, it was also released before the first Android phone came out.
Nothing like some good old freetard FUD.
Talk to any company that develops for both Android and iOS, ask them which platform makes them more money. See if you can compare income to phone market penetration.
The fact that you were able to get knocked out reliably means that medical practices have gotten a LOT better.
It's more than most people spend on music in 2011, just because most people pirate music. Really, it's only two albums. I pirate music like I'm Long John Silver, but give me an option to pay $25/year to make my music legit, and I'll be the first in line to do it.
I remember the demo scene. I remember having to use QEMM to get enough ram for the demos to run, then having them crash. I remember some demos working on my gfx card and not my friends', I remember having drivers for specific sound cards, etc.
Not everything Apple does is a hit, the same as Google - usually for different reasons, but usually with same outcome: a killed product/product line quietly brushed under the rug.
Apple takes existing technology and polish the implementation until it fits the average user perfectly. You'll never see them deliver well on any technology that hasn't been well rehearsed elsewhere first.
Yeah, like Firewire, USB, touch screen cell phones, app stores, Thunderbolt, unibody laptops, single-unit computers, etc.
For a community that's been up in arms agains anti-OSS FUD over the past decade, slashdot sure has no problem using the same tactics against non-OSS products/companies.
This contrasts many eastern european schools where "honors" students come out knowing aprox 3,000 equations but don't have enough practical life skills to open a bank account or form an original thought.
Usenet, son.
Apple also tends to keep it's mouth shut until the day their product is ready to ship (they released the iPhone before it was available because of leaks) but it's always been that way: the day they release something is the day you can go into an Apple Store in the afternoon and pick it up.
Apple, unlike pretty much every other major player in the consumer electronics/computer market, has a great track record of having products available to buy the day they're announced. The online Apple store always goes down on days when new products are announced so people can order stuff as soon as it's been presented.
If motorola isn't updating their devices and engaging in "apple" tactics, then they are no better than they are.
What "apple tactics"? The 3G runs the current version of iOS, and it was released four months before Android was released. I also have an Android phone from Google's manufacturer HTC that I bought new last year in May and I can't upgrade it past 1.6.
Honestly, it'd be great if Android headset manufacturers started engaging in "apple tactics": supporting their phones for more than two weeks after release.
Generally speaking, Creative Commons is a fine license for most sorts of creative output for one simple reason: piggybacking. If you make music, you can use somebody's CC'd vocals in your track, they can use your drum loops or guitar riffs. In writing, you can use somebody else's characters, somebody else can use the world you've created. And so on.
For photography, it sucks. The photographer gets nothing out of it. They produce, but there's no reciprocation. Your photos get used by other people, sometimes they'll do something cool with it (I've had some of my stuff used as the basis for illustrations) but usually it's to illustrate some bullshit article on some crap blog. This is where the bigger problem with CC comes into play: your work gets tied to people who use it.
If I take a picture of a dog biting a dark skinned man and release it with a CC license, it can get legally picked up by a neo-nazi site/magazine, printed and credited to my name. Not only do people whose politics I find to be morally repugnant get to use my work, they get to tie me to their publication. Boned. Think that's unlikely? How about this example, where a french girl's self-portrait was used to illustrate an article about a lawsuit involving hotel pool sperm.
Of course the biggest lie of "Identity Theft" is that it's just a rebranded name for "the bank got conned out of money".
To be honest, there is no country that I know of where identity theft is a problem as big as it is in the US. I have a national ID card here in Poland, and you know what? It's a HUGE bitch to fake, I suspect it would be easier to steal my identity by faking my passport and driver's license. That still wouldn't do you much good, since I could have any of those three documents invalidated - when you sign any sort of contract here, you put down both your ID/Tax number and your ID number. The corporate equivalent of identity theft is much more prevalent over here.
I find it hilarious how derisive you are of Apple being able to "package things in a way that has appeal". It's this thinking, so prevalent on places like /., that keeps people from understanding why Apple makes billions of dollars a year. The "packaging", the interface, is absolutely key. There is no benefit to the consumer if they buy a product with functionality that's difficult to use. My last Nokia smartphone, a 6370 running Symbian, had, on paper, all the functionality of my iPhone 3G - email, GPS, web browser, ability to install apps, etc. In reality, the only one of those things that was useful was mail app - the GMail app would crash, along with most of the other apps I used. The IRC app would crash if I used T9, usingthe radio would reset the phone, etc. In the end, I only used it as a phone. My previous Nokia, an E51, was a bit better in that respect, fewer apps would install on it but they wouldn't crash as often. GMail worked. The native mail app would crash though and bluetooth was wonky.
Now I have an iPhone 3G, which I bought for $70 from a friend after getting tired of yet another first tier app not installing on my HTC Android phone. It works. I've had one app refuse to install (WordLens), everything else - games, productivity apps, whatever - just works. All the built in apps work and I actually *use them*. And that's that difference that nerds keep making fun of, while Apple's pockets get fatter and fatter.
Except that iOS developers tend to make a lot more money from their apps than Android developers. There are a lot more Symbian headsets the world over than iOS or Android phones, and nobody's making a killing on Symbian apps for the simple reason that Symbian users don't use apps and if they do, they very rarely pay for them.
Look, Windows might have more applications by sheer number, but I find OS X apps to be of higher quality, and it sure does seem like more of the people I know who run OS X tend to actually buy software.
I bought one of those £150 android devices. A good 90% of the major apps I wanted to run on it (dropbox, evernote, etc) aren't supported.
Are we counting position by market share or by profit? If we use the latter, than a very profitable non-first place is where it's at, just look at Apple right now, with its 21% profit margin. Dell's margin is 2.8%, which is why in 2009, when Dell outsold Apple 4:1, it ended up making $8.5bln less.
And as far as viability, I would love for somebody, ANYBODY, to give me some sales figures for Android apps that show them as coming anywhere near the kind of numbers people make selling apps in the App Store.
While I agree with you, there are situations where caps lock is useful - when writing in caps along with numbers and punctuation.