Just because you have everything you want, doesn't mean that there won't be some killer app that you never thought of that will come along later. Also it doesn't mean that someone else doesn't want or need apps that don't exist on Android. Sure there is a lot of App store spam for iOS, but there are also tons of gems.
Getting people involved and excited in development is a good thing for developers and consumers. You get more competition with iOS in both perception and reality, and competition within the Android Market. The last thing I want is for Android developers to sit on their laurels and say "oh well App X is the best right now, I don't need to ever make something else." Why? Because it means nothing else will ever be better. Sure you'll get lots of misses, but you'll end up with some great hits too.
Thanks to iOS, Google released Android to compete. Never underestimate the power of true and proper competition.
Lots of comments about how suing is evil and hope this guy loses blah blah blah. Anyone ask why this guy got booted? The guy basically has not been told why he was booted. Despite repeated emails all he was told was "you violated our terms of service" which is a nice generic cop out for "out automated processes found something and we don't feel like treating you like a human being to give you any more specifics." It seems like suing to find out why is his only option since Facebook isn't cooperating.
Sure it's a free service, sure it's quite possible that it's not a big deal since it's only a social networking site and little of value will truly be lost. However, Facebook offered it's service for free, the guy used it, and then got booted without discussion. The guy deserves at least some answers, any human being would. And it looks like the only way to get answers is to make it relevant to Facebook that they should be providing them or risk this and other lawsuits. It sounds less frivolous and more like the guy just wants some respect and I think he deserves it. Otherwise we risk other people being treated like this. I urge this man to go go go.
The scientific and skeptical community finds the anti-vaccination community a bunch of bullshit too, but they yell loudly enough and sometimes even get on Oprah, and this affects what people think. It's important that thinking people look at Microsoft's propaganda and address it appropriately, showing the fallacies and holes, and then provide counter examples.
Bill Gates being more popular than the pope yes is fluff, but that had no bearing on anything, and I believe it was appropriately in the idle section, so it is fluff. MS putting out anti OSS propaganda is not fluff, it's a problem that needs to be addressed and countered.
...and subjected them to the tortures of growing up, socially aclimating, dealing with capricious governments, selfish and ignorant individuals, crime, and random medical maladies. And who knows... YOU yourself could be the cause of pain for those children as well!
On top of that, Altruism is, in fact, not only selfish, because it's been medically shown to release endorphins in the brain as powerful as an orgasm, but that scientists are starting to show examples of altruism in nature and how it can be a survival trait. There really is no true unselfish act.
On the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much - the wheel, New York, wars and so on - whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man - for precisely the same reasons.
But it doesn't matter, dolphins will be leaving the planet soon, right before the hyperspace bypass comes through this area of the galaxy. The last ever Dolphin message will be misinterpreted as surprisingly sophisticated attempt to do a double-backwards-somersalt through a hoop whilst whistling the star spangled banner, but in fact the message will be this: "So long and thanks for all the fish."
...most media groups release the "new digitally remastered" or the "20th anniversary edition with new interviews" and simply do it once. George has demonstrated how to successfully milk a cow even after it's desiccated.
I used to work with one of these brilliant jerks. For years he did a job only he could do for the company, and he knew it. However, he thought he was always right because he was good. I used to be one of these brilliant jerks, too, but I was saved early on by a good manager and I was taught the opposite, to be good, you have to be always right. He was constantly telling people that they weren't doing their job and screwing things up and causing more work for him. However, he made mistakes. But his ego was impenetrable... "of course I'm right!" So how did I deal with him? By always being right. Checking my facts, double checking them, testing, retesting, drilling down, using logic, and presenting my conclusion. And then I'd fire off my email including his manager and mine and simply presented the facts. When I got no response, I knew I had one, because the onus on fixing whatever screwup there was fell properly in his lap. If he was right, I never had to fire off the email because I had already checked my facts and moved on. And yet the guy respected me! He never said he was wrong, but we were on excellent working terms.
That's how I dealt with him. How did management deal with him? Hint... follow the money...
One day several years ago he walked into one junior VPs office and essentially said "I want an X dollar raise or I'm walking." He figured that he could do his job on a consulting basis and make more money personally than working for this company. And he was right. The higher level senior VP at the time wanted to fire him, but the junior VP said "we can't afford it, because he's right, no one else can do that job" So he got his raise. He was good, so he felt he must be right. It worked that time.
A year later the software he was working on was transitioned to a completely new package. It still performed the same function, but it was different code base, different design package, and in general, more people were familiar with it's inner workings. So he suddenly went from "irreplaceable" to "very valuable, but replaceable." I don't think he ever acknowledged this to himself. Well, I don't know all the details, but word is he said the wrong thing in an email that included another VP, and next thing you know his manager is escorting him to the door.
Our company has found a way to do his job without him just fine.
The Zune gave no competition to the iPod. The Kin gave no competition to any phone. The Windows phone isn't giving any real competition. Hell, why are we talking about MS and competition? They didn't even compete with Windows and DOS! They stifled competition rather than compete with it.
Microsoft's corporate culture doesn't know how to compete. In fact it's funny you mention the xbox 360, because Microsoft is so bad with competition that they just created something that will compete with their own product!
Entering a password for the store doesnt get you security (someone can still steal my phone, read my data, etc). It just minimizes billing headaches for Apple and makes absolutely no sense with free purchases.
If someone steals my phone, they don't steal my iTunes account, because they don't have the password. It's security for your iTunes account, not security for your phone. I never said it was security for your phone. And minimizing billing headaches for Apple minimizes headaches for yourself. Losing a $200 phone is bad. Having your account drained when someone purchases $4000 of music and movies is a disaster.
From a UI perspective its terrible. Especially watching these iphone users screw up caps, numbers, etc.
Everyone screws up their password, even on a desktop keyboard, please don't put that on iPhone users only. But if you are talking about free apps only and the password, yes I see your point. There are probably other technical issues when it comes to that, and unfortunately I'm not knowledgeable as to if there any technical or security reasons to enter the password strictly for free apps. However I bet it has to do with "freemium" content that comes up in free apps. As with any security system, you have to sacrifice some convenience for security. I'd be interested in hearing about articles about how Android's app purchasing system works and how it handles security.
My android backs up my contacts wirelessly and without intervetion. That is true for gmail contacts or Activesync contacts. No need to plug it in. What is this? 1995?
Your original statement appeared to be about activation, not contacts. Also, I conceded that you don't force a backup people, but it does encourage it. At the same time, I'm talking about backing up EVERYTHING, not just contacts. Do you commit full backups of all apps and app data over wifi, and sync new music podcast content?
I also contend plugging in a cable is still easier and more reliable than setting up a wifi connection to properly sync. I challenge you to find a half dozen people who have had fewer headaches setting up wifi connections than they have setting up a cabled connection of any kind. It's simply harder to set up wifi than it is to plug in a cable. For you and I, it's easy, not so for everyone. Statistically speaking, wifi at this point simply poses more problems because it's newer and the technology is more of a moving target in terms of specs and features and it adds a layer of complexity to any setup. A cabled connection of any kind is both easier to plug in, and because it powers the phone while it syncs, you don't run into data problems if the phone loses power during a sync, and reliability=ease of use when it comes to total ownership of any device.
And while we are talking about technology and you brought up "1995", why aren't you using a cloud service to "backup" your contacts? Both the iPhone and Android support this with gmail, and do it quite well, and suddenly there is 0 need on either device to sync contacts via wifi. Why waste time with wireless sync of contacts any more? What is this? 2002?
There are android-only apps too. Instead of hashing it out lets just say that you suffer from confirmation bias.
Okay so let me change my point. I was trying to point out how many Apps there are for iPhone vs Android. Most pro-android users rabidly point out that they think most are fart apps, but that's simply not true.
I'm 100% sure there are apps on Android not available for Android, so I concede your point. However, what I should have said, and what I meant, was that there are more apps, and also more significant apps, for iPhone. If you want to show I have confirmation bias, please provide the actual names of these apps and their significance. The two I mentioned are in the top 25 most downloaded and top grossing iPhone apps of all time. Again my point was not to say that Android had no apps, but at the current time, it's easier to get apps and
Android phones and iPhones aren't drastically different in terms of usability or customization. I would say they are 90% the same. But as with lots of things it's that 10% that differentiates them. Both can access Gmail services, but Android's Google voice system is probably slightly better on the Android because you can build an app that's more deeply integrated with the phone. Both have relatively easy interfaces, but Apple's is probably much more consistent because there is only one iOS and one phone, where each android phone choses different input methods. Apple is hyper concerned about UI consistency and ease of use and it's something they built into the first iOS so they didn't have to worry about it later. A smart user will have no problem figuring out either, but it depends on if you want to go for the 10% that have no time to figure out technology and just want something to work.
I agree the plugging in the phone is annoying, as is typing in the password, but there is something very important that this gets you later... security. Plugging in the phone means you have a backup of your phone available. Sure many people probably don't do that later, but if you have a smartphone, you really need to be backing it up. There will still be some people who don't ever back it up again, but still there are some that say "hey maybe this is a good idea to constantly backup my information" and might just learn. As for the password, the last thing you need is an eager 4 year old buying $500 worth of apps using a password you have stored on your phone. You are going to say "but just don't give your phone to your 4 year old!" I 100% agree with you on this, but a large portion of people will be sharing their Phones with their children, and it is incredibly easy to download content on your iPhone aside from that password. I'd personally not want to have to enter in that password in, but I understand the the theory behind the UI and
The iTunes store has more market penetration than all the Android markets combined so far, and while 90% of the important apps are on the Android, there are still some apps not available for Android. The iTunes store makes it very easy to find lots of content and is unified across movies, songs, TV and apps. I hate to say it but it's the walmart of apps and content. It's not perfect but it's incredibly easy to download stuff. And if you don't like games, that's fine, but Android got Angry birds after the iPhone, and it's great you finally have fruit ninja, but there are no plans to bring Infinity Blade or Chaos Rings to the Android.
Android does have advantages when it comes to media content, in that DRM is a pain. My son bought an iPod Touch and never synced it to a computer. When I bought him a MacBook, it was a pain getting it synced without losing all the content that he had downloaded direct to the iPod. Fortunately, we spent a little time yesterday making sure everything was synced over properly without losing everything, and I'm betting that would have been a whole lot easier on an android phone with no DRM. The same problem would have existed for iPhone. Note that most of the content is DRM free, aside from apps.
I've experienced annecdotes just like yours, but I've experienced annecdotes which contradict yours. Some of the "conventional wisdom" may be marketing, but some of that is also based on the experience of the masses and statistics. You can't use annedotes to counter conventional wisdom, you need numbers.
Yes but the average delawarian is a little more sane than the average Alaskan or Texan. Delaware is a swing state and the Republicans and Democrats they elect are moderate. Put Christine O'Donnell in Kansas and she might get her ass elected.
Also remember Palin won in Alaska. The US on the whole is more right leaning than Delaware is on the whole. There are enough nutjobs that think that voting for a Democrat amounts to treason and will even vote in an idiot like Palin to avoid that.
Although the movie wasn't a tour de force, I thought the "creepiness" of Clu's facial expressions was actually a plus, because he was supposed to be creepy, he's the bad guy! The theme was the attempt by Flynn at perfection, and you can see that perfection isn't perfect in Clu's face. However, it probably would have been a better idea to use makeup and a little digital retouching in the initial scenes for young Flynn. Obviously Tron: Legacy was trying to show what current technology could do compared to old technology, but outside the grid, use the real world technology to show real life rather than CGI, it would have been better.
I've been to the doctor several times for things I know he won't prescribe for me for anything, but I go there just in case. Until I make the appointment, I feel crappy for an extended period of time, but the moment I do, I start to feel better. As a skeptical person, I know there's know magic to it, no strange force, no "God is looking after me," or whatever. But I do know my emotions and my mental attitude have a direct effect on my physical well being. I know is just all in my head, and my doctor is very helpful, sometimes not charging me and never prescribing me something I do not need (he's definitely old school!)
It's the emotions of dealing with the issue. I when I have any problem in front of me, it always feels best for me to deal with it, or put a plan into motion to deal with it. Putting off a fix or plan makes me feel crappy and annoyed.
Either get someone else to be on call or ask the judge to be dismissed from jury duty because of the undue burden it would put on you and your business. I personally have no idea if asking to be dismissed will work, but it's incredibly stupid to expect court to stop for you while you take a phone call about a tenant complaining about the wailing cat upstairs. In the US, and just about every other country, the court's business is more important than yours. If you can't find someone to help you run you business, you do not belong in that court room.
If you want to play a game designed for the d-pad, then you should play that game on the proper platform. I don't want to try to fit Starcraft 2 onto a Nintendo DS, any more than I want to fit Zelda onto an iPhone. If you want to play those games, the best way is to get that platform and play them. I downloaded Golden Axe on my iPhone and learned quickly that slapping a virtual d-pad on an old style game designed for a joystick is not going to be a fun experience.
It's about is the game fun or not. Games that require a d-pad and are not forgiving are not fun on a touch screen, so people go elsewhere. Newer shooters on phones seem to recognise that you have to balance the game play with the fact that you don't have a d-pad but need similar controls. Nova and Eliminate are very popular on the iPhone and are first person shooters.
At the same time, gamers recognize that they have a choice, carry around two devices or carry one. Cell phones are all but required these days. Gaming platforms, not so much. Many hardcore gamers are going to stay with PSP and Nintendo, and that is their choice. However, not everyone is a hardcore gamer. Before people had a choice for mobile gaming, nintendo or Sony. Casual gamers either ponied up the cash or walked away. Now they have a third choice. The games are cheaper, more casual, but still fun. Angry Birds is not a hard core game, and it's got to be the #1 top dollar grossing app across all mobile platforms (it is on the iPhone).
There have been a ton of attempts to come up with a d-pad add on for iPhones. None of them are popular enough or make any sense. The physical d-pad is slowly becoming the niche rather than the norm, and hard core gamers are just going to have to deal with it.
See there's profiling, and then there's racial/religious/ethnic profiling. The former is based on science and statistics and is effective, the later is based on fear and ignorance and is not effective.
True profiling is based on behavior, regardless of physical appearance. This is an overly simplistic example I'm about to give, but if there is an ethnically middle eastern man on one side of a room, dressed in some traditional outfit, sporting a well grown beard, looking calm reading a book and minding his own business, and there is a white guy in a business suit sitting on one side of the room alone, looking around the room, sweating nervously, looking at his watch and adjusting some object in his pocket every 3 seconds, there's a strong possibility that he's either a pervert or up to something. Yeah, sure, of course there's still a good chance that he's completely innocent. At that point, it all depends on your approach. You don't swarm him and then drag him off for a strip search at that point. There are ways at this point to approach the man and continue to gather information. Even then, there are going to be some false positives and some missed opportunities, but it will be far more effective than random screenings and more cost effective than screening everyone with technology that doesn't work.
The TSA is too chicken shit to learn what real profiling is. The cops at the mall of america use real profiling, and they are very effective. Real profiling is constitutional, and the TSA is needs to grow a pair and learn how to do things right. Either that or the TSA is getting kickbacks from equipment manufacturers rather than investing in training people properly. Given the state of training of people who work in airports for the TSA I bet they don't have a culture that cares about proper training. Yet another agency that needs a shake up but politics is in the way.
(to the waiter) "Give me the strongest thing you got." (In walks a body builder) "On second thought I'll have a black russian." (waiter turns to walk away, then turns toward the camera, looks at the audience, and shakes his head.)
There's been a lot of back and forth over how well iPhone would do if it was available on Verizon. Some surveys say it would kick ass, other say not so much. We'll never know until it exists.
Just my idle speculation, but one thing that iPhone still dominates in it's space is usage. The average iPhone user still downloads and uses more content than the average Android user. Sure there are high content Android users, but there have to be plenty of people in the middle and on the low side pulling the average down. I think a huge chunk of them want a smartphone, but they won't get one without Verizon. They aren't really attached to the phone as much as they are the carrier. But many of them will want the status symbol that is the iPhone.
There's also evidence that Apple currently has some supplier and manufacturer issues. They messed up the white iPhone, which there is a subset of people who really had their heart set on it, and the iPad sales are slowing simply because they can't make enough of the blasted things. Can't sell what you don't have.
My concern is that people keep saying "Android is winning because it's the best!" I contend Android is winning because Apple has to put their own house in order and give the customers what they want and execute on it better. But that's just an opinion.
Apple is the dominant music download service. It also has over 90% of the app market in that most paid for apps exist in the iTunes App store. These markets are a little less impactful than say a Monopoly on the desktop OS or telephone service, and I might say that iTunes dominance has been, in comparatively good for users in this one instance because they have driven down music prices, given users more choices to download only single songs, and created a huge diverse market for consumers to download apps for, but there is no denying that Apple does now have some form of monopoly presence, it's just not in hardware.
The article dances around it a bit doesn't get to the hard of the matter... perceived value.
If a game maker sells a game for $60 that feels incomplete to it's fans, and new DLC is available the moment it goes on sale and that DLC is $10... then fans are probably going to feel cheated and scream very loudly.
On the other hand, if the game maker sells a game for $50 that's well thought out and feels complete, and new DLC is available 3 months after it goes on sale for $2 and really enhances the game but is not "required" to enjoy the game, the biggest fans might feel encouraged to buy it.
The truth is most DLC is somewhere in between. The problem with DLC is that it's current incarnation was thought up by a business person trying to make money, not a programmer trying to make a great game. Sure, DLC is a good way to get people to continue to be interested in the game and create a revenue stream so that you can pay programmers to expand the game further. It's also a great way to take advantage of rabid fanboys and girls who download everything without thinking, only to find that most of it is crap or not worth what they spent. Sure, a fool and his money are soon parted, but if the content truly isn't worth it, the gamers will remember and not buy it the second time and your revenue stream dries up fast. Somewhere, some suit is trying to complain and justify that the stuff his company makes should be paid for at what he thinks it should cost, rather than trying to find out what it would be worth to the gamer and find a balance between how much work it takes vs how much the gamer is willing to pay for it. These bad modules are probably the former.
There is a fine line between providing the customer value and ripping them off. Some businesses don't try hard enough to figure out where that line is before they put their products out there. Gaming companies are notorious for this.
That's the problem... you as the gift giver ARE NOT THINKING if that happens!
There are a lot of people out there that think it's more important to give a gift at all than to give the right gift. If you can't think of a good gift for me, I'd rather not see you give me crap I will end up throwing away, because that guilts me into throwing it away. I also don't like to take the effort to go return it or cash in a gift card when you could have given me cash. Then your gift has the opposite effect of annoying me or making me feel bad.
The red cross accepts "gifts" in the form of cash donations. They don't accept 5000 copies of "call of duty." Why do people think that doesn't apply to individuals? It's because of this damn consumer culture which has captivated people in the US. To show you I care, I must buy you something!! Baloney. There are tons of ways to show that you care.
I've always prided myself on meaningful and thoughtful gift giving. I was never perfect, but I tried very hard to think about every gift and how it matched that person. At the same time, I've always been someone who's been hard to shop for, because of my particular tastes, and because I disdain gift cards. I can understand people's desires to make gift giving easier, but let's get serious. A gift should be a well thought out and researched thing. Have we created such an incredibly greedy consumer society that a company like Amazon has to create services like "gift interception" to make up for the fact that we buy too much shit?
I mean c'mon. Consumers have this false guilt about giving money because "it's impersonal" so they feel it necessary to give a gift, or give a gift card. Forcing me to deal with your crappy gift, or forcing me to buy something from a store I don't want, is just annoying. So now, in order to deal with the fact that we have this incorrect sense that we must buy shit for each other or force each other to buy shit from a specific store, that we have to create brand spanking new processes just to deal with the fact that we as a people suck at something we shouldn't even be doing in the first place? This is why happy go lucky cheery people who think gifts are doubleplusgood and there couldn't possibly be a downside get pissed off when I point out the very real reasons why sometimes giving a gift is not as nice as you think.
It's a recession, and people are hurting for money. Instead of buying little timmy the latest power ranger or little sally the latest pillow pet, give them each $20 and open a saving account and teach them how to save. Or knit them a sweater. Or something equally unique or helpful. Last year for Christmas, my mother promised to make me about a dozen home cooked meals over the next year that I could take home with me. Best gift EVAR. Let's stop giving Amazon reasons to come up with ways to buy more shit.
Specifically, it's gorilla glass, which is scientifically proven to be harder than regular glass, but let's not get in the way of a good anti-iPhone rant.
Yes you are correct it is not plastic. Just wanted to help you line up all the facts so you didn't have to stop railing annoyingly against the target of your anger.
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Just because you have everything you want, doesn't mean that there won't be some killer app that you never thought of that will come along later. Also it doesn't mean that someone else doesn't want or need apps that don't exist on Android. Sure there is a lot of App store spam for iOS, but there are also tons of gems.
Getting people involved and excited in development is a good thing for developers and consumers. You get more competition with iOS in both perception and reality, and competition within the Android Market. The last thing I want is for Android developers to sit on their laurels and say "oh well App X is the best right now, I don't need to ever make something else." Why? Because it means nothing else will ever be better. Sure you'll get lots of misses, but you'll end up with some great hits too.
Thanks to iOS, Google released Android to compete. Never underestimate the power of true and proper competition.
Lots of comments about how suing is evil and hope this guy loses blah blah blah. Anyone ask why this guy got booted? The guy basically has not been told why he was booted. Despite repeated emails all he was told was "you violated our terms of service" which is a nice generic cop out for "out automated processes found something and we don't feel like treating you like a human being to give you any more specifics." It seems like suing to find out why is his only option since Facebook isn't cooperating.
Sure it's a free service, sure it's quite possible that it's not a big deal since it's only a social networking site and little of value will truly be lost. However, Facebook offered it's service for free, the guy used it, and then got booted without discussion. The guy deserves at least some answers, any human being would. And it looks like the only way to get answers is to make it relevant to Facebook that they should be providing them or risk this and other lawsuits. It sounds less frivolous and more like the guy just wants some respect and I think he deserves it. Otherwise we risk other people being treated like this. I urge this man to go go go.
The scientific and skeptical community finds the anti-vaccination community a bunch of bullshit too, but they yell loudly enough and sometimes even get on Oprah, and this affects what people think. It's important that thinking people look at Microsoft's propaganda and address it appropriately, showing the fallacies and holes, and then provide counter examples.
Bill Gates being more popular than the pope yes is fluff, but that had no bearing on anything, and I believe it was appropriately in the idle section, so it is fluff. MS putting out anti OSS propaganda is not fluff, it's a problem that needs to be addressed and countered.
...and subjected them to the tortures of growing up, socially aclimating, dealing with capricious governments, selfish and ignorant individuals, crime, and random medical maladies. And who knows... YOU yourself could be the cause of pain for those children as well!
On top of that, Altruism is, in fact, not only selfish, because it's been medically shown to release endorphins in the brain as powerful as an orgasm, but that scientists are starting to show examples of altruism in nature and how it can be a survival trait. There really is no true unselfish act.
On the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much - the wheel, New York, wars and so on - whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man - for precisely the same reasons.
But it doesn't matter, dolphins will be leaving the planet soon, right before the hyperspace bypass comes through this area of the galaxy. The last ever Dolphin message will be misinterpreted as surprisingly sophisticated attempt to do a double-backwards-somersalt through a hoop whilst whistling the star spangled banner, but in fact the message will be this: "So long and thanks for all the fish."
...most media groups release the "new digitally remastered" or the "20th anniversary edition with new interviews" and simply do it once. George has demonstrated how to successfully milk a cow even after it's desiccated.
I used to work with one of these brilliant jerks. For years he did a job only he could do for the company, and he knew it. However, he thought he was always right because he was good. I used to be one of these brilliant jerks, too, but I was saved early on by a good manager and I was taught the opposite, to be good, you have to be always right. He was constantly telling people that they weren't doing their job and screwing things up and causing more work for him. However, he made mistakes. But his ego was impenetrable... "of course I'm right!" So how did I deal with him? By always being right. Checking my facts, double checking them, testing, retesting, drilling down, using logic, and presenting my conclusion. And then I'd fire off my email including his manager and mine and simply presented the facts. When I got no response, I knew I had one, because the onus on fixing whatever screwup there was fell properly in his lap. If he was right, I never had to fire off the email because I had already checked my facts and moved on. And yet the guy respected me! He never said he was wrong, but we were on excellent working terms.
That's how I dealt with him. How did management deal with him? Hint... follow the money...
One day several years ago he walked into one junior VPs office and essentially said "I want an X dollar raise or I'm walking." He figured that he could do his job on a consulting basis and make more money personally than working for this company. And he was right. The higher level senior VP at the time wanted to fire him, but the junior VP said "we can't afford it, because he's right, no one else can do that job" So he got his raise. He was good, so he felt he must be right. It worked that time.
A year later the software he was working on was transitioned to a completely new package. It still performed the same function, but it was different code base, different design package, and in general, more people were familiar with it's inner workings. So he suddenly went from "irreplaceable" to "very valuable, but replaceable." I don't think he ever acknowledged this to himself. Well, I don't know all the details, but word is he said the wrong thing in an email that included another VP, and next thing you know his manager is escorting him to the door.
Our company has found a way to do his job without him just fine.
The Zune gave no competition to the iPod. The Kin gave no competition to any phone. The Windows phone isn't giving any real competition. Hell, why are we talking about MS and competition? They didn't even compete with Windows and DOS! They stifled competition rather than compete with it.
Microsoft's corporate culture doesn't know how to compete. In fact it's funny you mention the xbox 360, because Microsoft is so bad with competition that they just created something that will compete with their own product!
Entering a password for the store doesnt get you security (someone can still steal my phone, read my data, etc). It just minimizes billing headaches for Apple and makes absolutely no sense with free purchases.
If someone steals my phone, they don't steal my iTunes account, because they don't have the password. It's security for your iTunes account, not security for your phone. I never said it was security for your phone. And minimizing billing headaches for Apple minimizes headaches for yourself. Losing a $200 phone is bad. Having your account drained when someone purchases $4000 of music and movies is a disaster.
From a UI perspective its terrible. Especially watching these iphone users screw up caps, numbers, etc.
Everyone screws up their password, even on a desktop keyboard, please don't put that on iPhone users only. But if you are talking about free apps only and the password, yes I see your point. There are probably other technical issues when it comes to that, and unfortunately I'm not knowledgeable as to if there any technical or security reasons to enter the password strictly for free apps. However I bet it has to do with "freemium" content that comes up in free apps. As with any security system, you have to sacrifice some convenience for security. I'd be interested in hearing about articles about how Android's app purchasing system works and how it handles security.
My android backs up my contacts wirelessly and without intervetion. That is true for gmail contacts or Activesync contacts. No need to plug it in. What is this? 1995?
Your original statement appeared to be about activation, not contacts. Also, I conceded that you don't force a backup people, but it does encourage it. At the same time, I'm talking about backing up EVERYTHING, not just contacts. Do you commit full backups of all apps and app data over wifi, and sync new music podcast content?
I also contend plugging in a cable is still easier and more reliable than setting up a wifi connection to properly sync. I challenge you to find a half dozen people who have had fewer headaches setting up wifi connections than they have setting up a cabled connection of any kind. It's simply harder to set up wifi than it is to plug in a cable. For you and I, it's easy, not so for everyone. Statistically speaking, wifi at this point simply poses more problems because it's newer and the technology is more of a moving target in terms of specs and features and it adds a layer of complexity to any setup. A cabled connection of any kind is both easier to plug in, and because it powers the phone while it syncs, you don't run into data problems if the phone loses power during a sync, and reliability=ease of use when it comes to total ownership of any device.
And while we are talking about technology and you brought up "1995", why aren't you using a cloud service to "backup" your contacts? Both the iPhone and Android support this with gmail, and do it quite well, and suddenly there is 0 need on either device to sync contacts via wifi. Why waste time with wireless sync of contacts any more? What is this? 2002?
There are android-only apps too. Instead of hashing it out lets just say that you suffer from confirmation bias.
Okay so let me change my point. I was trying to point out how many Apps there are for iPhone vs Android. Most pro-android users rabidly point out that they think most are fart apps, but that's simply not true.
I'm 100% sure there are apps on Android not available for Android, so I concede your point. However, what I should have said, and what I meant, was that there are more apps, and also more significant apps, for iPhone. If you want to show I have confirmation bias, please provide the actual names of these apps and their significance. The two I mentioned are in the top 25 most downloaded and top grossing iPhone apps of all time. Again my point was not to say that Android had no apps, but at the current time, it's easier to get apps and
Android phones and iPhones aren't drastically different in terms of usability or customization. I would say they are 90% the same. But as with lots of things it's that 10% that differentiates them. Both can access Gmail services, but Android's Google voice system is probably slightly better on the Android because you can build an app that's more deeply integrated with the phone. Both have relatively easy interfaces, but Apple's is probably much more consistent because there is only one iOS and one phone, where each android phone choses different input methods. Apple is hyper concerned about UI consistency and ease of use and it's something they built into the first iOS so they didn't have to worry about it later. A smart user will have no problem figuring out either, but it depends on if you want to go for the 10% that have no time to figure out technology and just want something to work.
I agree the plugging in the phone is annoying, as is typing in the password, but there is something very important that this gets you later... security. Plugging in the phone means you have a backup of your phone available. Sure many people probably don't do that later, but if you have a smartphone, you really need to be backing it up. There will still be some people who don't ever back it up again, but still there are some that say "hey maybe this is a good idea to constantly backup my information" and might just learn. As for the password, the last thing you need is an eager 4 year old buying $500 worth of apps using a password you have stored on your phone. You are going to say "but just don't give your phone to your 4 year old!" I 100% agree with you on this, but a large portion of people will be sharing their Phones with their children, and it is incredibly easy to download content on your iPhone aside from that password. I'd personally not want to have to enter in that password in, but I understand the the theory behind the UI and
The iTunes store has more market penetration than all the Android markets combined so far, and while 90% of the important apps are on the Android, there are still some apps not available for Android. The iTunes store makes it very easy to find lots of content and is unified across movies, songs, TV and apps. I hate to say it but it's the walmart of apps and content. It's not perfect but it's incredibly easy to download stuff. And if you don't like games, that's fine, but Android got Angry birds after the iPhone, and it's great you finally have fruit ninja, but there are no plans to bring Infinity Blade or Chaos Rings to the Android.
Android does have advantages when it comes to media content, in that DRM is a pain. My son bought an iPod Touch and never synced it to a computer. When I bought him a MacBook, it was a pain getting it synced without losing all the content that he had downloaded direct to the iPod. Fortunately, we spent a little time yesterday making sure everything was synced over properly without losing everything, and I'm betting that would have been a whole lot easier on an android phone with no DRM. The same problem would have existed for iPhone. Note that most of the content is DRM free, aside from apps.
I've experienced annecdotes just like yours, but I've experienced annecdotes which contradict yours. Some of the "conventional wisdom" may be marketing, but some of that is also based on the experience of the masses and statistics. You can't use annedotes to counter conventional wisdom, you need numbers.
Yes but the average delawarian is a little more sane than the average Alaskan or Texan. Delaware is a swing state and the Republicans and Democrats they elect are moderate. Put Christine O'Donnell in Kansas and she might get her ass elected.
Also remember Palin won in Alaska. The US on the whole is more right leaning than Delaware is on the whole. There are enough nutjobs that think that voting for a Democrat amounts to treason and will even vote in an idiot like Palin to avoid that.
Although the movie wasn't a tour de force, I thought the "creepiness" of Clu's facial expressions was actually a plus, because he was supposed to be creepy, he's the bad guy! The theme was the attempt by Flynn at perfection, and you can see that perfection isn't perfect in Clu's face. However, it probably would have been a better idea to use makeup and a little digital retouching in the initial scenes for young Flynn. Obviously Tron: Legacy was trying to show what current technology could do compared to old technology, but outside the grid, use the real world technology to show real life rather than CGI, it would have been better.
I've been to the doctor several times for things I know he won't prescribe for me for anything, but I go there just in case. Until I make the appointment, I feel crappy for an extended period of time, but the moment I do, I start to feel better. As a skeptical person, I know there's know magic to it, no strange force, no "God is looking after me," or whatever. But I do know my emotions and my mental attitude have a direct effect on my physical well being. I know is just all in my head, and my doctor is very helpful, sometimes not charging me and never prescribing me something I do not need (he's definitely old school!)
It's the emotions of dealing with the issue. I when I have any problem in front of me, it always feels best for me to deal with it, or put a plan into motion to deal with it. Putting off a fix or plan makes me feel crappy and annoyed.
Either get someone else to be on call or ask the judge to be dismissed from jury duty because of the undue burden it would put on you and your business. I personally have no idea if asking to be dismissed will work, but it's incredibly stupid to expect court to stop for you while you take a phone call about a tenant complaining about the wailing cat upstairs. In the US, and just about every other country, the court's business is more important than yours. If you can't find someone to help you run you business, you do not belong in that court room.
If you want to play a game designed for the d-pad, then you should play that game on the proper platform. I don't want to try to fit Starcraft 2 onto a Nintendo DS, any more than I want to fit Zelda onto an iPhone. If you want to play those games, the best way is to get that platform and play them. I downloaded Golden Axe on my iPhone and learned quickly that slapping a virtual d-pad on an old style game designed for a joystick is not going to be a fun experience.
It's about is the game fun or not. Games that require a d-pad and are not forgiving are not fun on a touch screen, so people go elsewhere. Newer shooters on phones seem to recognise that you have to balance the game play with the fact that you don't have a d-pad but need similar controls. Nova and Eliminate are very popular on the iPhone and are first person shooters.
At the same time, gamers recognize that they have a choice, carry around two devices or carry one. Cell phones are all but required these days. Gaming platforms, not so much. Many hardcore gamers are going to stay with PSP and Nintendo, and that is their choice. However, not everyone is a hardcore gamer. Before people had a choice for mobile gaming, nintendo or Sony. Casual gamers either ponied up the cash or walked away. Now they have a third choice. The games are cheaper, more casual, but still fun. Angry Birds is not a hard core game, and it's got to be the #1 top dollar grossing app across all mobile platforms (it is on the iPhone).
There have been a ton of attempts to come up with a d-pad add on for iPhones. None of them are popular enough or make any sense. The physical d-pad is slowly becoming the niche rather than the norm, and hard core gamers are just going to have to deal with it.
See there's profiling, and then there's racial/religious/ethnic profiling. The former is based on science and statistics and is effective, the later is based on fear and ignorance and is not effective.
True profiling is based on behavior, regardless of physical appearance. This is an overly simplistic example I'm about to give, but if there is an ethnically middle eastern man on one side of a room, dressed in some traditional outfit, sporting a well grown beard, looking calm reading a book and minding his own business, and there is a white guy in a business suit sitting on one side of the room alone, looking around the room, sweating nervously, looking at his watch and adjusting some object in his pocket every 3 seconds, there's a strong possibility that he's either a pervert or up to something. Yeah, sure, of course there's still a good chance that he's completely innocent. At that point, it all depends on your approach. You don't swarm him and then drag him off for a strip search at that point. There are ways at this point to approach the man and continue to gather information. Even then, there are going to be some false positives and some missed opportunities, but it will be far more effective than random screenings and more cost effective than screening everyone with technology that doesn't work.
The TSA is too chicken shit to learn what real profiling is. The cops at the mall of america use real profiling, and they are very effective. Real profiling is constitutional, and the TSA is needs to grow a pair and learn how to do things right. Either that or the TSA is getting kickbacks from equipment manufacturers rather than investing in training people properly. Given the state of training of people who work in airports for the TSA I bet they don't have a culture that cares about proper training. Yet another agency that needs a shake up but politics is in the way.
Leslie Nielsen walks into a bar...
(to the waiter) "Give me the strongest thing you got."
(In walks a body builder)
"On second thought I'll have a black russian."
(waiter turns to walk away, then turns toward the camera, looks at the audience, and shakes his head.)
You want to fix car accidents, invest in trains, nuff said.
There's been a lot of back and forth over how well iPhone would do if it was available on Verizon. Some surveys say it would kick ass, other say not so much. We'll never know until it exists.
Just my idle speculation, but one thing that iPhone still dominates in it's space is usage. The average iPhone user still downloads and uses more content than the average Android user. Sure there are high content Android users, but there have to be plenty of people in the middle and on the low side pulling the average down. I think a huge chunk of them want a smartphone, but they won't get one without Verizon. They aren't really attached to the phone as much as they are the carrier. But many of them will want the status symbol that is the iPhone.
There's also evidence that Apple currently has some supplier and manufacturer issues. They messed up the white iPhone, which there is a subset of people who really had their heart set on it, and the iPad sales are slowing simply because they can't make enough of the blasted things. Can't sell what you don't have.
My concern is that people keep saying "Android is winning because it's the best!" I contend Android is winning because Apple has to put their own house in order and give the customers what they want and execute on it better. But that's just an opinion.
Apple is the dominant music download service. It also has over 90% of the app market in that most paid for apps exist in the iTunes App store. These markets are a little less impactful than say a Monopoly on the desktop OS or telephone service, and I might say that iTunes dominance has been, in comparatively good for users in this one instance because they have driven down music prices, given users more choices to download only single songs, and created a huge diverse market for consumers to download apps for, but there is no denying that Apple does now have some form of monopoly presence, it's just not in hardware.
The article dances around it a bit doesn't get to the hard of the matter... perceived value.
If a game maker sells a game for $60 that feels incomplete to it's fans, and new DLC is available the moment it goes on sale and that DLC is $10... then fans are probably going to feel cheated and scream very loudly.
On the other hand, if the game maker sells a game for $50 that's well thought out and feels complete, and new DLC is available 3 months after it goes on sale for $2 and really enhances the game but is not "required" to enjoy the game, the biggest fans might feel encouraged to buy it.
The truth is most DLC is somewhere in between. The problem with DLC is that it's current incarnation was thought up by a business person trying to make money, not a programmer trying to make a great game. Sure, DLC is a good way to get people to continue to be interested in the game and create a revenue stream so that you can pay programmers to expand the game further. It's also a great way to take advantage of rabid fanboys and girls who download everything without thinking, only to find that most of it is crap or not worth what they spent. Sure, a fool and his money are soon parted, but if the content truly isn't worth it, the gamers will remember and not buy it the second time and your revenue stream dries up fast. Somewhere, some suit is trying to complain and justify that the stuff his company makes should be paid for at what he thinks it should cost, rather than trying to find out what it would be worth to the gamer and find a balance between how much work it takes vs how much the gamer is willing to pay for it. These bad modules are probably the former.
There is a fine line between providing the customer value and ripping them off. Some businesses don't try hard enough to figure out where that line is before they put their products out there. Gaming companies are notorious for this.
"If a woman shares with me her breasts, I tend to leap at them. RAWR! Because they might go away..."
-- Lewis Black
That's the problem... you as the gift giver ARE NOT THINKING if that happens!
There are a lot of people out there that think it's more important to give a gift at all than to give the right gift. If you can't think of a good gift for me, I'd rather not see you give me crap I will end up throwing away, because that guilts me into throwing it away. I also don't like to take the effort to go return it or cash in a gift card when you could have given me cash. Then your gift has the opposite effect of annoying me or making me feel bad.
The red cross accepts "gifts" in the form of cash donations. They don't accept 5000 copies of "call of duty." Why do people think that doesn't apply to individuals? It's because of this damn consumer culture which has captivated people in the US. To show you I care, I must buy you something!! Baloney. There are tons of ways to show that you care.
I've always prided myself on meaningful and thoughtful gift giving. I was never perfect, but I tried very hard to think about every gift and how it matched that person. At the same time, I've always been someone who's been hard to shop for, because of my particular tastes, and because I disdain gift cards. I can understand people's desires to make gift giving easier, but let's get serious. A gift should be a well thought out and researched thing. Have we created such an incredibly greedy consumer society that a company like Amazon has to create services like "gift interception" to make up for the fact that we buy too much shit?
I mean c'mon. Consumers have this false guilt about giving money because "it's impersonal" so they feel it necessary to give a gift, or give a gift card. Forcing me to deal with your crappy gift, or forcing me to buy something from a store I don't want, is just annoying. So now, in order to deal with the fact that we have this incorrect sense that we must buy shit for each other or force each other to buy shit from a specific store, that we have to create brand spanking new processes just to deal with the fact that we as a people suck at something we shouldn't even be doing in the first place? This is why happy go lucky cheery people who think gifts are doubleplusgood and there couldn't possibly be a downside get pissed off when I point out the very real reasons why sometimes giving a gift is not as nice as you think.
It's a recession, and people are hurting for money. Instead of buying little timmy the latest power ranger or little sally the latest pillow pet, give them each $20 and open a saving account and teach them how to save. Or knit them a sweater. Or something equally unique or helpful. Last year for Christmas, my mother promised to make me about a dozen home cooked meals over the next year that I could take home with me. Best gift EVAR. Let's stop giving Amazon reasons to come up with ways to buy more shit.
Specifically, it's gorilla glass, which is scientifically proven to be harder than regular glass, but let's not get in the way of a good anti-iPhone rant.
Yes you are correct it is not plastic. Just wanted to help you line up all the facts so you didn't have to stop railing annoyingly against the target of your anger.