I'd imagine they are comparable to the old powerpc based laptop model in terms of battery life. While there is more stuff packed into the systems, one of the hallmarks of the new Intel Core Duo chips is very efficient power consumption. Of course, this is just speculation as we'll have to see some real tests to confirm this.
I realize the Pentium name is very recognizable but when you think about it, how many flavors of Pentiums are out there right now? A ton. So many that the name Pentium really has just been kept there for name's sake alone. I mean we have dual core pentiums, single core pentiums, pentium mobiles and that's just the most current generation, things are likely to grow worse in terms of diversity as time goes on.
Yes, in the past when processors had a natural growth pattern of just speed increases it made sense to keep the name. But, these days the industry is moving more towards gradual speed increases coupled with other additional technologies/designs to improve the chip. When you reach the point where you have 15+ different 3ghz Pentiums and all operate at different performance levels, you're only really paying attention to the model number anyway at that point.
I agree that I tend to skip a generation or two before upgrading(I'm still on my ATI 9800xt as a matter of fact). But, I think the primary reason people upgrade these days isn't simply for new graphic "goodies". A lot of people are moving into the high resolution LCD market as the prices plumet on these screens. I myself run a 1680x1050 resolution screen. My primary concern when I decide to upgrade is when the tradeoff between running a game at native resolution and sacraficing visual quality/fps gets too huge. So, in the case of my ATI 9800xt, it's reaching the end of it's life span in my computer because it's starting to have to work harder on some of the newer games out there and still run at 1680x1050.
I have to ask this question because I can point to a very similar company in design standards that has the exact same situation: Nintendo. Nintendo certainly takes a share in the home console market but their real money maker is, and always has been since the early 90s, their handheld systems. Yet, despite that, Nintendo is the only console company out there that makes a consitant profit. In fact in over 50 years of company existance they have only had one single quarter where they posted a loss(they still pulled a profit overall for that fiscal year too).
The comparisons between the two companies is also pretty similar when you look at it. Both companies are concerned about the user experience. Be it customer support, system design, interface, etc they both try to make it a special experience for the user. And, they use that positive experience to build a brand loyalty that helps to sell even more systems.
Anyway, the point is even if it is the iPods that are helping to propel Apple right now, it isn't the first time this has happened to a technology company. And, the profit they make due to the iPod success can only help them to expand slowly into other markets as well as evidenced by the heightened interest in the new intel powered Apple computer platforms.
I always love seeing stuff like this because often you see more innovation or cool gameplay concepts in these and independant games than you see in the "big company" games. Athough mentioned awhile back on slashdot I believe, I also recommend people check out http://www.igf.com/2006entrants.shtml to see all the finalists in this year's indie games competition. Proffessor Fizzwizzle has consumed countless hours of my free time lately much as Breakquest did for me last year.
Black Holes are just that, holes in space-time. While, to an outside observer, time appears to stop at the event horizon that doesn't mean that time stops for the person going into the black hole. All it means is at that point the object is no longer moving forward in time with the rest of us. The person/object could just as easily be moving backwards in time or broken free of time, both of which are plausible explainations if you look at the structure of space-time in an Einsteinian manner.
Regardless of any other arguements, Sony will likely lose if the software installs regardless of agreement to the EULA. If you follow rulings made involving software EULAs over the last few years it pretty much boils down to two points:
1) EULAs are "king". Once you agree to them you have little to argue about unless it is extreme or unusual circumstances (like the EULA violating your fundimental rights, etc).
2) Consumers *must* be allowed the opportunity to decline the EULA and have nothing changed on their system, and, in conjunction with this, they must be allowed to return the software if they do not agree to the EULA.
The second point was what got MS in trouble over the way you had to agree to their EULA by opening the box before you could even read the EULA, and thus voiding any return possibilities. In this case, if Sony is installing software without your consent, and specifically if you decline the EULA, then they are liable and will likely lose this suit.
While I do agree that having a software update section would be preferable, it is important to keep in mind that, next to operating systems, office software is the most commonly installed and used software on any non-server computer. As such, updates to office software carry a bit more weight, especially since you have much larger deployment issues to deal with in a business setting.
Some high density platter 10k rpm SATA drives out of the merged company I'd be happy. I'd like to actually push my SATA connection for a change instead of having a lot of wasted bandwidth.
That is a good point. It is especially important with certain bands. Take, for example, Pearl Jam. Pearl Jam has had an official bootleg release for almost every single live show they have done since '98. As such, there are about 5 billion versions of every single song in their catalog.
The difference here is Google isn't providing the lyrics themselves, they are merely pulling it from various sites already listed on their search engine. If the MPA(Music Publisher's Association) shuts down those sites, then google won't be listing any lyrics.
Google, as with most of their services, isn't doing anything beyond organizing information that is provided by others. While that doesn't make them bulletproof given the nature of American and World justice systems, it gives them a lot more breathing room.
The music industry's latest antics combined with their rediculously high pricing schemes(and wanting to raise them even more) that is hurting them, not Apple. If anything, Apple has helped by keeping the music industry *in check*. If they hadn't then we'd all be paying $3 to $5 a song by now and legal filesharing would be totally dead.
This piece comes off more as a paid attempt by the music industry to weaken Apple's position and power. Anyone who has been following the news knows that there is a bit of a mini-power struggle going on between Apple, who wants to keep things affordable, and the music industry. While I certainly think Apple could do better than they have been, at least they are thinking ahead and pushing in the direction music and consumer tastes are moving towards instead of clinging to the past model like the RIAA has, which has done nothing but hurt them the last 10 years.
Will be the one where one of the tourists gets ejected into space but manages to hold his breath long enough to make it back inside. Also, thankfully, the gravity generators work outside the ship.
This issues does deserve to have some attention called to it. Not just the power supply heating problem though, but other design defects/flaws/bad choices that really just shouldn't be there in a $400 piece of equipment.
The major issues with the X-box 360 seem to be:
1) The power supply can overheat. It seems most often this is due to poor placement of the power supply. Still, no mention is made anywhere about this problem. So what happens when your average Joe Shmoe consumer or kid gets their Xbox 360 and runs into this problem or sets their carpet on fire because they aren't told in the packaging of a design flaw?
2) Some Xbox 360's just outright have crashing problems not related to the power supply. This seems to be more the case of first batch of a new generation hardware defects. These happen all the time and can't be helped. And when you ahve a low supply like the 360 has, these tend to be more glaring than they really are. This is just an issue of replacing the system for a non-defective one. It stinks, but it happens.
3) Moving the 360 from a horizontal to vertical position, or vice versa, while a disc is spinning will result in serious disc scratching. Now, we're all tech guys so this is sort of no-duh to us. I mean all our PC's and similar hardware all are mostly the same way for that style of drive loading. That said, again it is a case of your average Joe probably won't realize this. I mean the unit is advertised as being equally useful in both a vertical and horizontal position. Sooner or later some dude is going to either accidentally knock the xbox into horizontal position, or move his 360 while in a game and ruin a game disc. Accidents happen, but Microsoft, again, has not advertised that this can even happen. So design choice, flaw, or what have you, it's still their problem.
Again, I think the suit is dumb and either some guy is going after cash or he or someone who paid him has an anti-microsoft agenda. But that doesn't change the fact that the issues are there and MS at the very least needs to make a more concerted effort to at least tell it's consumers what isn't recommended to do to avoid these things happen. That's just common sense business ethics right there.
that the Xbox360 power supply was sponsered by Duraflame logs as part of an intentional relief effort to combat the rising costs of heating oil for homes.
You really do have to admit, when it comes to the portable gaming market, Nintendo is king and will do anything it takes to protect their market space. Now, yes, the PSP has made *some* headway against big N. But, when you look at the sophistication of the PSP's hardware combined with the Sony name, it just shows how strong Nintendo's hand is when Sony only has captured a small portion of the market.
Nokia also made the mistake of not understanding that if people are buying a machine for portable gaming, the games need to be first, and all other functions secondary. Sony has made a similar mistake with their PSP, but to a much lesser extent, still the numbers reflect this gaming first trend.
To be honest, I think the "big convergence" of phones and gaming units is going to come first *from* Nintendo or Sony, perhaps partnered with a mobile phone company, rather than by the phone company itself. With their already existing Wi-Fi features, and the touch screen and mic capabilities of the Nintendo DS, it doesn't take a huge stretch of the imagination to see phone features coming in future generations. Or, at least, VOIP.
But, it is important to keep in mind the technology still has a ways to go. As more people start using wireless it becomes pretty obvious that improving the infastructure of wireless networks really is the next big step. Where wireless really is incredibly useful is:
1) In homes where people own a laptop
2) In homes/businesses where running cat from one end of the building to the other would be cost prohibitive or a plain old pain in the butt.
3) Any form of mobile technology(gaming units, phones, mp3 players, etc).
4) And long term: once long range wireless technology begins to improve/be implemented, it will be a great last mile and/or cost effective solution to getting the internet into people's homes with little latency.
In my case I use it in my home to avoid the cat cable running nightmare. My roommate has one machine hooked directly into the router and I have my two computers on the other end of the house networked by wire then connected to the router wirelessly. I also use the wireless network for my Nintendo DS and PSP.
Do people get a bit too crazy over wireless networks? Yeah a bit, but really it is an incredibly useful technology that just needs to improve in certain areas to accomodate what is obviously a growing demand.
The serious spyware writers design their programs to try and avoid detection. So, often times things get missed. Bottom line, to keep your computer completely clean either:
A) Never go on the internet, ever.
B) Use an OS other than Windows.
C) Try and get MS to improve Windows so that spyware has limited impact(good luck there)
The first year of the charity it was only for the local children's hospital in Seattle. It turned into such a huge success that the second year they opened it up to 2 or 3 children's hospitals throughout the US. Now, this year, there are multiple hospitals involved and for the first time, 3 different countries.
So, the charity is growing each year, and I wouldn't be surprised to see it expanding into even more countries as each christmas rolls around.
beat out WiMax in the near future, but this does indicate that there is a lot more we can do with the techology. Plus, at the rate wireless is developing, I don't think it would be too surprising to see how it will someday replace landline connections once the technology truly gets "good enough".
It still has a ways to go, but it is catching up quickly. It certainly would be nice if we can some day see a world where, outside of possibly power, all our other forms of communication are done wirelessly. Anyway, I'm glad to see the technology advancing. Between this and WiMax, we should be able to close that last mile in no time.
When I can also put linux on my ipod(see ipodlinux.org) it gives me that much more my ipod can do while still maintaining all the ipod functionality I enjoy(installation of ipodlinux sets up a dualboot system). I can play videos on my non-video ipod, play games like doom, emulate gameboy color, and a bunch of other useful applications. It lets me get the absolute most out of my apple hardware, which is pretty much on par with anything else any other mp3 player company can offer.
I'm still not saying this is a bad idea, I'm just saying there already is an opensource solution for ipod owners and it is quite good.
A few notes to people thinking about trying this out:
1) First, this will void your warantee so keep that in mind.
2) Installation is easy but even then if something goes wrong you can use the apple firmware installer to reformat your ipod and start over fresh and clean.
3) Not all ipods are fully supported yet. Obviously the video ipod isn't fully supported yet because it is new and has new hardware. The Nano models and the newer ipod colors are also getting fine tuned at the moment as well, but the last of the major hurdles with those two are about done so its just a matter of going back and touching up the coding on the various software. So, before long every ipod model save for maybe the 5g video ipod should be good to go:)
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I'd imagine they are comparable to the old powerpc based laptop model in terms of battery life. While there is more stuff packed into the systems, one of the hallmarks of the new Intel Core Duo chips is very efficient power consumption. Of course, this is just speculation as we'll have to see some real tests to confirm this.
I realize the Pentium name is very recognizable but when you think about it, how many flavors of Pentiums are out there right now? A ton. So many that the name Pentium really has just been kept there for name's sake alone. I mean we have dual core pentiums, single core pentiums, pentium mobiles and that's just the most current generation, things are likely to grow worse in terms of diversity as time goes on.
Yes, in the past when processors had a natural growth pattern of just speed increases it made sense to keep the name. But, these days the industry is moving more towards gradual speed increases coupled with other additional technologies/designs to improve the chip. When you reach the point where you have 15+ different 3ghz Pentiums and all operate at different performance levels, you're only really paying attention to the model number anyway at that point.
I agree that I tend to skip a generation or two before upgrading(I'm still on my ATI 9800xt as a matter of fact). But, I think the primary reason people upgrade these days isn't simply for new graphic "goodies". A lot of people are moving into the high resolution LCD market as the prices plumet on these screens. I myself run a 1680x1050 resolution screen. My primary concern when I decide to upgrade is when the tradeoff between running a game at native resolution and sacraficing visual quality/fps gets too huge. So, in the case of my ATI 9800xt, it's reaching the end of it's life span in my computer because it's starting to have to work harder on some of the newer games out there and still run at 1680x1050.
I have to ask this question because I can point to a very similar company in design standards that has the exact same situation: Nintendo. Nintendo certainly takes a share in the home console market but their real money maker is, and always has been since the early 90s, their handheld systems. Yet, despite that, Nintendo is the only console company out there that makes a consitant profit. In fact in over 50 years of company existance they have only had one single quarter where they posted a loss(they still pulled a profit overall for that fiscal year too).
The comparisons between the two companies is also pretty similar when you look at it. Both companies are concerned about the user experience. Be it customer support, system design, interface, etc they both try to make it a special experience for the user. And, they use that positive experience to build a brand loyalty that helps to sell even more systems.
Anyway, the point is even if it is the iPods that are helping to propel Apple right now, it isn't the first time this has happened to a technology company. And, the profit they make due to the iPod success can only help them to expand slowly into other markets as well as evidenced by the heightened interest in the new intel powered Apple computer platforms.
I always love seeing stuff like this because often you see more innovation or cool gameplay concepts in these and independant games than you see in the "big company" games. Athough mentioned awhile back on slashdot I believe, I also recommend people check out http://www.igf.com/2006entrants.shtml to see all the finalists in this year's indie games competition. Proffessor Fizzwizzle has consumed countless hours of my free time lately much as Breakquest did for me last year.
Black Holes are just that, holes in space-time. While, to an outside observer, time appears to stop at the event horizon that doesn't mean that time stops for the person going into the black hole. All it means is at that point the object is no longer moving forward in time with the rest of us. The person/object could just as easily be moving backwards in time or broken free of time, both of which are plausible explainations if you look at the structure of space-time in an Einsteinian manner.
Censoring things? No! Never! *cough*FoxNews*cough*.
Regardless of any other arguements, Sony will likely lose if the software installs regardless of agreement to the EULA. If you follow rulings made involving software EULAs over the last few years it pretty much boils down to two points:
1) EULAs are "king". Once you agree to them you have little to argue about unless it is extreme or unusual circumstances (like the EULA violating your fundimental rights, etc).
2) Consumers *must* be allowed the opportunity to decline the EULA and have nothing changed on their system, and, in conjunction with this, they must be allowed to return the software if they do not agree to the EULA.
The second point was what got MS in trouble over the way you had to agree to their EULA by opening the box before you could even read the EULA, and thus voiding any return possibilities. In this case, if Sony is installing software without your consent, and specifically if you decline the EULA, then they are liable and will likely lose this suit.
While I do agree that having a software update section would be preferable, it is important to keep in mind that, next to operating systems, office software is the most commonly installed and used software on any non-server computer. As such, updates to office software carry a bit more weight, especially since you have much larger deployment issues to deal with in a business setting.
Some high density platter 10k rpm SATA drives out of the merged company I'd be happy. I'd like to actually push my SATA connection for a change instead of having a lot of wasted bandwidth.
That is a good point. It is especially important with certain bands. Take, for example, Pearl Jam. Pearl Jam has had an official bootleg release for almost every single live show they have done since '98. As such, there are about 5 billion versions of every single song in their catalog.
The difference here is Google isn't providing the lyrics themselves, they are merely pulling it from various sites already listed on their search engine. If the MPA(Music Publisher's Association) shuts down those sites, then google won't be listing any lyrics.
Google, as with most of their services, isn't doing anything beyond organizing information that is provided by others. While that doesn't make them bulletproof given the nature of American and World justice systems, it gives them a lot more breathing room.
Make sure the study becomes large and well known enough so MS's payoff for you to "adjust" your findings is higher.
Hopefully they'll employ that cutting edge technology devised by those U.K. Television execs and install gravity generators on all outbound vehicles.
The music industry's latest antics combined with their rediculously high pricing schemes(and wanting to raise them even more) that is hurting them, not Apple. If anything, Apple has helped by keeping the music industry *in check*. If they hadn't then we'd all be paying $3 to $5 a song by now and legal filesharing would be totally dead.
This piece comes off more as a paid attempt by the music industry to weaken Apple's position and power. Anyone who has been following the news knows that there is a bit of a mini-power struggle going on between Apple, who wants to keep things affordable, and the music industry. While I certainly think Apple could do better than they have been, at least they are thinking ahead and pushing in the direction music and consumer tastes are moving towards instead of clinging to the past model like the RIAA has, which has done nothing but hurt them the last 10 years.
Will be the one where one of the tourists gets ejected into space but manages to hold his breath long enough to make it back inside. Also, thankfully, the gravity generators work outside the ship.
This issues does deserve to have some attention called to it. Not just the power supply heating problem though, but other design defects/flaws/bad choices that really just shouldn't be there in a $400 piece of equipment.
The major issues with the X-box 360 seem to be:
1) The power supply can overheat. It seems most often this is due to poor placement of the power supply. Still, no mention is made anywhere about this problem. So what happens when your average Joe Shmoe consumer or kid gets their Xbox 360 and runs into this problem or sets their carpet on fire because they aren't told in the packaging of a design flaw?
2) Some Xbox 360's just outright have crashing problems not related to the power supply. This seems to be more the case of first batch of a new generation hardware defects. These happen all the time and can't be helped. And when you ahve a low supply like the 360 has, these tend to be more glaring than they really are. This is just an issue of replacing the system for a non-defective one. It stinks, but it happens.
3) Moving the 360 from a horizontal to vertical position, or vice versa, while a disc is spinning will result in serious disc scratching. Now, we're all tech guys so this is sort of no-duh to us. I mean all our PC's and similar hardware all are mostly the same way for that style of drive loading. That said, again it is a case of your average Joe probably won't realize this. I mean the unit is advertised as being equally useful in both a vertical and horizontal position. Sooner or later some dude is going to either accidentally knock the xbox into horizontal position, or move his 360 while in a game and ruin a game disc. Accidents happen, but Microsoft, again, has not advertised that this can even happen. So design choice, flaw, or what have you, it's still their problem.
Again, I think the suit is dumb and either some guy is going after cash or he or someone who paid him has an anti-microsoft agenda. But that doesn't change the fact that the issues are there and MS at the very least needs to make a more concerted effort to at least tell it's consumers what isn't recommended to do to avoid these things happen. That's just common sense business ethics right there.
that the Xbox360 power supply was sponsered by Duraflame logs as part of an intentional relief effort to combat the rising costs of heating oil for homes.
You really do have to admit, when it comes to the portable gaming market, Nintendo is king and will do anything it takes to protect their market space. Now, yes, the PSP has made *some* headway against big N. But, when you look at the sophistication of the PSP's hardware combined with the Sony name, it just shows how strong Nintendo's hand is when Sony only has captured a small portion of the market.
Nokia also made the mistake of not understanding that if people are buying a machine for portable gaming, the games need to be first, and all other functions secondary. Sony has made a similar mistake with their PSP, but to a much lesser extent, still the numbers reflect this gaming first trend.
To be honest, I think the "big convergence" of phones and gaming units is going to come first *from* Nintendo or Sony, perhaps partnered with a mobile phone company, rather than by the phone company itself. With their already existing Wi-Fi features, and the touch screen and mic capabilities of the Nintendo DS, it doesn't take a huge stretch of the imagination to see phone features coming in future generations. Or, at least, VOIP.
But, it is important to keep in mind the technology still has a ways to go. As more people start using wireless it becomes pretty obvious that improving the infastructure of wireless networks really is the next big step. Where wireless really is incredibly useful is:
1) In homes where people own a laptop
2) In homes/businesses where running cat from one end of the building to the other would be cost prohibitive or a plain old pain in the butt.
3) Any form of mobile technology(gaming units, phones, mp3 players, etc).
4) And long term: once long range wireless technology begins to improve/be implemented, it will be a great last mile and/or cost effective solution to getting the internet into people's homes with little latency.
In my case I use it in my home to avoid the cat cable running nightmare. My roommate has one machine hooked directly into the router and I have my two computers on the other end of the house networked by wire then connected to the router wirelessly. I also use the wireless network for my Nintendo DS and PSP.
Do people get a bit too crazy over wireless networks? Yeah a bit, but really it is an incredibly useful technology that just needs to improve in certain areas to accomodate what is obviously a growing demand.
Since the Vatican has publicly gone out of its way lately to oppose intelligent design, could they now theoretically excomunicate Kansas?
The serious spyware writers design their programs to try and avoid detection. So, often times things get missed. Bottom line, to keep your computer completely clean either:
A) Never go on the internet, ever.
B) Use an OS other than Windows.
C) Try and get MS to improve Windows so that spyware has limited impact(good luck there)
The first year of the charity it was only for the local children's hospital in Seattle. It turned into such a huge success that the second year they opened it up to 2 or 3 children's hospitals throughout the US. Now, this year, there are multiple hospitals involved and for the first time, 3 different countries.
So, the charity is growing each year, and I wouldn't be surprised to see it expanding into even more countries as each christmas rolls around.
beat out WiMax in the near future, but this does indicate that there is a lot more we can do with the techology. Plus, at the rate wireless is developing, I don't think it would be too surprising to see how it will someday replace landline connections once the technology truly gets "good enough".
It still has a ways to go, but it is catching up quickly. It certainly would be nice if we can some day see a world where, outside of possibly power, all our other forms of communication are done wirelessly. Anyway, I'm glad to see the technology advancing. Between this and WiMax, we should be able to close that last mile in no time.
When I can also put linux on my ipod(see ipodlinux.org) it gives me that much more my ipod can do while still maintaining all the ipod functionality I enjoy(installation of ipodlinux sets up a dualboot system). I can play videos on my non-video ipod, play games like doom, emulate gameboy color, and a bunch of other useful applications. It lets me get the absolute most out of my apple hardware, which is pretty much on par with anything else any other mp3 player company can offer.
:)
I'm still not saying this is a bad idea, I'm just saying there already is an opensource solution for ipod owners and it is quite good.
A few notes to people thinking about trying this out:
1) First, this will void your warantee so keep that in mind.
2) Installation is easy but even then if something goes wrong you can use the apple firmware installer to reformat your ipod and start over fresh and clean.
3) Not all ipods are fully supported yet. Obviously the video ipod isn't fully supported yet because it is new and has new hardware. The Nano models and the newer ipod colors are also getting fine tuned at the moment as well, but the last of the major hurdles with those two are about done so its just a matter of going back and touching up the coding on the various software. So, before long every ipod model save for maybe the 5g video ipod should be good to go