I am awake and Murdoch is a paying customer for Jobs. In fact, I work for Murdoch and help to put hundreds of things on the iPad for one of his fringe outfits.
You must be a member of the Australian Parliament.
It's not about "not choosing an Apple product", it's about the veneer of Android looking impressive enough to make people think it's just like an iOS product. There's no visible unified ecosystem for Android like there is for iOS and you, my friend, are in the tiny minority of people who will sudo apt-get install git-core.
Anyone who has asked me about what to buy has had a few concerns, none of which had anything to do with whether it went with their shoes. The days of "cool factor" and "impressing their friends" were done a few years ago, so that's a bullshit argument. Their concerns are about security, whether it works with their media and whether the cell service is any good. Security in Android is as good as buying your apps out of the trunk of a car in Baltimore. Some even know that their Android device is in danger of never upgrading beyond what it is out of the box (like the Xperia X10 which wouldn't get past Android 2.1 when it was only 3 months old). Most people want an appliance that just works and lets them do what they need without any hacking around - and nobody has asked about an "evil corporation". Just you.
Exactly what do you suppose is "evil" about Apple? Their stuff works because normal people can't really screw it up? They've kept the RIAA at bay with pricing (they wanted like $2.50 per song)? They've created a platform where developers can make real up front money instead of needing to annoy their users with ads? They're pushing the technology envelope and putting things unimaginable a few years ago in the hands of people who don't have to live in their mom's basement and eat boogers to use it? They've figured out how to make something light and responsive with 11 hour battery life for a reasonable price? They're trying their best to keep users safe from exploits rather than allowing anything and everything to load and run?
If any of that "evil" goes against your grain, certainly do something else (as you have). I like hacking as much as the next geek but the vast majority of people who use anything technical REALLY need to be hooked in to that which you think is "evil".
Selling the woosh and swoosh of a single device against the entire Apple ecosystem takes some shallow customers to be successful. You could argue the opposite depending on what's important to the individual. Unless Apple stops selling products today and goes on a five year cruise, I don't think the balance will change that much in five years.
It's just as likely that Android or Windows Phone will be relegated to cult followers, but I don't think that will happen either. It'll take perhaps 10 years before the current balance changes enough to declare any of these items marginalized, if at all. It took 15 years to go from the first Mac to the Marginalized Apple In Trouble phase of that company and they tried their hardest to screw it up.
Android is just one self propagating destructive worm away from oblivion, which is a distinct possibility. Besides, incumbents are hard to unseat, no matter how badly they perform. It could happen, but I doubt it. I'll file this away and look again in five years. That's the only way to know - and frankly I don't actually care. It's just funny to watch what people think is important and how much emotion they put behind what they've chosen.
The people I know with Android devices are (1) "anything but Apple" geeks, (2) buy only on initial price, (3) can't tell the difference between iOS, Android or anything else they're looking at or (4) don't really care (a rarity). I've helped these people set up their Androids for various things (mail accounts, ringtones, Wi-Fi access) and I get the "what were they thinking" feeling about how Android behaves. It's relatively clunky, vague, inconsistent, rigid and confusing compared to iOS across all the devices.
Funny thing is Android users typically don't even want to touch an iPhone or iPad. They apparently don't want to know the differences for fear of feeling foolish, or fooled maybe. I don't think they have anything to worry about - to each, his own. They won't hesitate to challenge me to some sort of page loading duel or app demonstration which usually ends badly for them or at least at a draw - their brand new Android against my two year old 3GS. When they do touch an iOS device, however, they're astonished at how fluidly their fingers seem to connect to what's on the screen and can't put it down.
Android has replicated a lot of the whoosh and swoosh from the original iPhone and that's good enough for most people - the "sizzle off the steak". The real geeks love Android because they can "do whatever they want" - but few of them actually do it, they just talk about it. The real key is the entire Apple ecosystem of products that can't be replicated by all these disconnected devices. Solve that equation and Android could achieve functional parity with iOS in a large desirable ecosystem. Unfortunately, Android is starting to look a lot like the "Plays For Sure" products with hundreds of junkyard class competitors which will surely overcome the iPod.
I'll put 97% of my money on this. Same logins as used by the hacked Sony accounts. I'm surprised the number of compromises isn't much higher. Alright... everyone change their passwords NOW.
The funniest part is the asshole who owns the computer has to keep downloading and infecting himself over and over - AND DOES IT!!! The next patch should start a counter which scolds the user after the third iteration of being an idiot.
Does that mean you have to fall for that trick over and over again to reinfect yourself? The next patch should make the computer punch the user in the mouth when he clicks on it again.
Where's the OSS oversight for all the random "open" apps on Android? Doesn't exist, buddy. The "open" model just broke. People can write anything and release it with millions of suckers getting hosed instantly.
It's "open" like your anus. Android - the electronic equivalent of being bent over in Times Square with your knickers down to your ankles. You call that success? The whole ecosystem of Google appears to be malware. All your datas belong to us! Now these hoseheads are showing up in droves.
Oh, great - everyone is working hard to support WebM, a crudely inferior codec, and they're going to harm Chrome in the process.
I just compressed a 45 second slice of Monsters Inc (Sully with all the hair and, yes, I work with The Mouse occasionally). The video source is 10-bit uncompressed made from DPX files compressed into both H.264 and WebM. 1920x1080, 23.98fps and chose 4Mbits/sec which should be challenging.
H.264 blew WebM away. WebM showed macroblocking, I-frames popping, muddy details in low contrast areas and a few other things that make me frown. H.264 had a few macroblock issues in rapid motion but nothing like WebM. I had to cut the H.264 data rate in half to get a picture approaching something as poor as WebM and it was still better.
Maybe that's actually the evil plan - a poison pill which will drive people to use Flash. It's a conspiracy!
Or, it could be exactly what it looks like; a land grab which might blow up in their faces. It would work if two things happened; 1) WebM looked at least as good as H.264 at the same data rate, which it doesn't and 2) everyone else drops H.264 support for HTML5, which they won't.
The differentiator will be better looking video which is only available on competing browsers which allow the "full Internet" as opposed to the sawed off Internet. Sound familiar? H.264 will live on and thrive, plus the competitors can (will) also support WebM.
I would say the PWN to Own contests prove you wrong.
Oh, those contests where people write clever, specialized code and willingly execute it to create an artificial problem? That's a far cry from catching an exploit in the wild.
Some day, somewhere, someone MIGHT be able to crack OS X with an automatic exploit and everyone will rejoice, even though more successful exploits happen on Windows every two minutes than happened on Macs in the last 25 years.
Your basic wording on the rest is right on the money, though. On OS X and Linux, you have to be sitting at the keyboard with the Admin password to install most anything. What you're talking about is phishing and trojans, not automatically executing, unauthenticated, self propagating viruses which is the domain of Windows. People typing their passwords without knowing what they're doing is stupid and nothing can protect you when you're being stupid.
I think of it this way; the Taliban has an AK-47 round which will penetrate Kevlar vest 70% of the time but it will only penetrate a shear-thickening liquid armor vest.00003% of the time. Which vest would you like to wear in the wild?
Slashdot Mirror
I am awake and Murdoch is a paying customer for Jobs. In fact, I work for Murdoch and help to put hundreds of things on the iPad for one of his fringe outfits.
You must be a member of the Australian Parliament.
Good for you. Seriously.
It's not about "not choosing an Apple product", it's about the veneer of Android looking impressive enough to make people think it's just like an iOS product. There's no visible unified ecosystem for Android like there is for iOS and you, my friend, are in the tiny minority of people who will sudo apt-get install git-core.
Anyone who has asked me about what to buy has had a few concerns, none of which had anything to do with whether it went with their shoes. The days of "cool factor" and "impressing their friends" were done a few years ago, so that's a bullshit argument. Their concerns are about security, whether it works with their media and whether the cell service is any good. Security in Android is as good as buying your apps out of the trunk of a car in Baltimore. Some even know that their Android device is in danger of never upgrading beyond what it is out of the box (like the Xperia X10 which wouldn't get past Android 2.1 when it was only 3 months old). Most people want an appliance that just works and lets them do what they need without any hacking around - and nobody has asked about an "evil corporation". Just you.
Exactly what do you suppose is "evil" about Apple? Their stuff works because normal people can't really screw it up? They've kept the RIAA at bay with pricing (they wanted like $2.50 per song)? They've created a platform where developers can make real up front money instead of needing to annoy their users with ads? They're pushing the technology envelope and putting things unimaginable a few years ago in the hands of people who don't have to live in their mom's basement and eat boogers to use it? They've figured out how to make something light and responsive with 11 hour battery life for a reasonable price? They're trying their best to keep users safe from exploits rather than allowing anything and everything to load and run?
If any of that "evil" goes against your grain, certainly do something else (as you have). I like hacking as much as the next geek but the vast majority of people who use anything technical REALLY need to be hooked in to that which you think is "evil".
Selling the woosh and swoosh of a single device against the entire Apple ecosystem takes some shallow customers to be successful. You could argue the opposite depending on what's important to the individual. Unless Apple stops selling products today and goes on a five year cruise, I don't think the balance will change that much in five years.
It's just as likely that Android or Windows Phone will be relegated to cult followers, but I don't think that will happen either. It'll take perhaps 10 years before the current balance changes enough to declare any of these items marginalized, if at all. It took 15 years to go from the first Mac to the Marginalized Apple In Trouble phase of that company and they tried their hardest to screw it up.
Android is just one self propagating destructive worm away from oblivion, which is a distinct possibility. Besides, incumbents are hard to unseat, no matter how badly they perform. It could happen, but I doubt it. I'll file this away and look again in five years. That's the only way to know - and frankly I don't actually care. It's just funny to watch what people think is important and how much emotion they put behind what they've chosen.
The people I know with Android devices are (1) "anything but Apple" geeks, (2) buy only on initial price, (3) can't tell the difference between iOS, Android or anything else they're looking at or (4) don't really care (a rarity). I've helped these people set up their Androids for various things (mail accounts, ringtones, Wi-Fi access) and I get the "what were they thinking" feeling about how Android behaves. It's relatively clunky, vague, inconsistent, rigid and confusing compared to iOS across all the devices.
Funny thing is Android users typically don't even want to touch an iPhone or iPad. They apparently don't want to know the differences for fear of feeling foolish, or fooled maybe. I don't think they have anything to worry about - to each, his own. They won't hesitate to challenge me to some sort of page loading duel or app demonstration which usually ends badly for them or at least at a draw - their brand new Android against my two year old 3GS. When they do touch an iOS device, however, they're astonished at how fluidly their fingers seem to connect to what's on the screen and can't put it down.
Android has replicated a lot of the whoosh and swoosh from the original iPhone and that's good enough for most people - the "sizzle off the steak". The real geeks love Android because they can "do whatever they want" - but few of them actually do it, they just talk about it. The real key is the entire Apple ecosystem of products that can't be replicated by all these disconnected devices. Solve that equation and Android could achieve functional parity with iOS in a large desirable ecosystem. Unfortunately, Android is starting to look a lot like the "Plays For Sure" products with hundreds of junkyard class competitors which will surely overcome the iPod.
I'll put 97% of my money on this. Same logins as used by the hacked Sony accounts. I'm surprised the number of compromises isn't much higher. Alright... everyone change their passwords NOW.
Nobody ever hacked my cassette deck.
"You are a little bit harsh and have some claims out of your ass that don't hold."
If it weren't for your low user ID, I'd say "you must be new here".
They can just hire Google to drive around and map the locations of all the WiFi routers.
We call it AOL.
The funniest part is the asshole who owns the computer has to keep downloading and infecting himself over and over - AND DOES IT!!! The next patch should start a counter which scolds the user after the third iteration of being an idiot.
Does that mean you have to fall for that trick over and over again to reinfect yourself? The next patch should make the computer punch the user in the mouth when he clicks on it again.
Ballmer? Is that you?
It took color television 25 years to get into half of U.S. households. By all these metrics, it was a failure.
Missed the point: open was supposed to be much better than closed. Everyone said so. They still say so. Everyone else is more full of shit.
Where's the OSS oversight for all the random "open" apps on Android? Doesn't exist, buddy. The "open" model just broke. People can write anything and release it with millions of suckers getting hosed instantly.
It's "open" like your anus. Android - the electronic equivalent of being bent over in Times Square with your knickers down to your ankles. You call that success? The whole ecosystem of Google appears to be malware. All your datas belong to us! Now these hoseheads are showing up in droves.
This is PC vs Mac all over again.
Um... not NASA... it's NSA which is the National Security Agency.
Oh, great - everyone is working hard to support WebM, a crudely inferior codec, and they're going to harm Chrome in the process.
I just compressed a 45 second slice of Monsters Inc (Sully with all the hair and, yes, I work with The Mouse occasionally). The video source is 10-bit uncompressed made from DPX files compressed into both H.264 and WebM. 1920x1080, 23.98fps and chose 4Mbits/sec which should be challenging.
H.264 blew WebM away. WebM showed macroblocking, I-frames popping, muddy details in low contrast areas and a few other things that make me frown. H.264 had a few macroblock issues in rapid motion but nothing like WebM. I had to cut the H.264 data rate in half to get a picture approaching something as poor as WebM and it was still better.
This decision is all political, not technical.
You know nothing about John Gruber.
You know a great deal about John C. Dvorak.
Maybe that's actually the evil plan - a poison pill which will drive people to use Flash. It's a conspiracy!
Or, it could be exactly what it looks like; a land grab which might blow up in their faces. It would work if two things happened; 1) WebM looked at least as good as H.264 at the same data rate, which it doesn't and 2) everyone else drops H.264 support for HTML5, which they won't.
The differentiator will be better looking video which is only available on competing browsers which allow the "full Internet" as opposed to the sawed off Internet. Sound familiar? H.264 will live on and thrive, plus the competitors can (will) also support WebM.
Goodbye Chrome. You had such great promise.
How the mighty have fallen.
I would say the PWN to Own contests prove you wrong.
Oh, those contests where people write clever, specialized code and willingly execute it to create an artificial problem? That's a far cry from catching an exploit in the wild.
Some day, somewhere, someone MIGHT be able to crack OS X with an automatic exploit and everyone will rejoice, even though more successful exploits happen on Windows every two minutes than happened on Macs in the last 25 years.
Your basic wording on the rest is right on the money, though. On OS X and Linux, you have to be sitting at the keyboard with the Admin password to install most anything. What you're talking about is phishing and trojans, not automatically executing, unauthenticated, self propagating viruses which is the domain of Windows. People typing their passwords without knowing what they're doing is stupid and nothing can protect you when you're being stupid.
I think of it this way; the Taliban has an AK-47 round which will penetrate Kevlar vest 70% of the time but it will only penetrate a shear-thickening liquid armor vest .00003% of the time. Which vest would you like to wear in the wild?
Ballmer? Is that you?