I am the same, DVD quality is more than good enough for me, and I'll compress things down well below that so I can fit more on my hard drive at a time.
The only thing that makes is somewhat difficult is international roaming - currently they do not receive the bill when you roam in other countries for sometimes months after you've been there. What they should have is the ability to tell foreign cellular companies that the user is authorized for "up to" $200 in roaming charges for example.
It's also true that some download accelerators and other programs will download in the background and cache all images linked to from a website - so it's possible you have material on your hard drive that you've never even seen.
Wish they would include GPS hardware in the ipod touch, that would be a deal-maker for me. Sure I couldn't use google maps away from wifi networks, but I'd be happy to purchase a garmin style simple map software to store on the flash memory.
The only problem with USB as a standard for power is that the power output is too low for laptop computers to charge and operate at the same time. I feel that USB and mini USB is ideal for thousands of small devices, but we either need to up the power capacity of USB or have one standard for low power devices, and another for mid-range power users like camcorders and laptop computers.
I could see MS giving windows away for free (as in free beer) as a platform to sell other products, but windows will never be free as in freedom... It would be against every fiber of the companies existence.
Even if the TV does need to have some background processing going on, there's no reason it can't have a timer to turn on once a week or whatever is needed.
In an office your size, it would be worthwhile to setup a "conversion station" a PC with all versions of MS office installed, and OpenOffice. Teach a few people in the office how to open the old documents in appropriate version of MS word, and "save as" different file types until you get one that opens in Open Office properly. That way the odd time something doesn't open right in OpenOffice, people can go to the station and have it converted quickly.
I'd love to have one of these for the kitchen to look up recipes, link up to calendar from my other computers, and maybe be able to control music throughout the house as well. I see a lot of uses for it. Screen saver could show pictures making it like a digital picture frame when not being used otherwise.
I wonder if they take into account people downloading music for cds/albums/tapes which they own but are damaged or lost. I have a few friends who have to regularly re-download their music collection each time they get a new computer as they have no idea how to transfer files from one computer to another etc... these same people only seem to download the same 80's music that they already have cassette tapes for, but it's easier to download rather than digitize the music.
I starting writing a very intelligent reply to this twice, but since I'm using Windows ME still at work (no choice), I ended up with a blue screen of death each time before I could hit submit.. not really a surprise, it happens at least a dozen times each day. I have to think there's at least a bit of truth to the mac commercials or they wouldn't be so damn funny.
I believe CDs / players / burners will still be available and common 15 years from now, DVD players burners for at least another 20 years.
In a long, long time we'll see CDs totally replaced by downloadable media, hard drive type storage, and maybe some tiny flash based disposable media.
DVDs will eventually be replaced by the higher quality formats that are coming out, but I think they will never really fully take off the way DVDs have because downloadable video will take their place before that can fully happen.
If you're at all worried about it, when the technology starts to become obsolete and the newer standards come out, prices will drop to next to nothing and you can buy several backup DVD players for next to nothing - the space to store them in will be more expensive than the hardware (if it's not already).
Be sure to keep many copies on good quality DVDs in different physical locations - and check them by watching every few years at least. If quality problems start to show up then make more copies or move to another format at that time.
If you remember to create a wish list ahead of time, and have the movies you want to see sitting there waiting for you ahead of time then it is convenient. For me, it's too expensive, I rent maybe 1 movie a month, and don't want to pay $15 for that 1 movie.
Not to mention people like me who live in Canada have no way to buy the phone locally. Apple computers seem very popular here, I'm sure they could have sold a lot of iPhones had they decided to sell them here.
I for one won't buy a motherboard with a chip that "calls home" - too great a risk of invasion to privacy for my business. If the chip doesn't call home, it will be cracked in hours, not days.
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I am the same, DVD quality is more than good enough for me, and I'll compress things down well below that so I can fit more on my hard drive at a time.
The only thing that makes is somewhat difficult is international roaming - currently they do not receive the bill when you roam in other countries for sometimes months after you've been there. What they should have is the ability to tell foreign cellular companies that the user is authorized for "up to" $200 in roaming charges for example.
It's also true that some download accelerators and other programs will download in the background and cache all images linked to from a website - so it's possible you have material on your hard drive that you've never even seen.
If you think that's bad you should try Vista...
Wish they would include GPS hardware in the ipod touch, that would be a deal-maker for me. Sure I couldn't use google maps away from wifi networks, but I'd be happy to purchase a garmin style simple map software to store on the flash memory.
The only problem with USB as a standard for power is that the power output is too low for laptop computers to charge and operate at the same time. I feel that USB and mini USB is ideal for thousands of small devices, but we either need to up the power capacity of USB or have one standard for low power devices, and another for mid-range power users like camcorders and laptop computers.
I could see MS giving windows away for free (as in free beer) as a platform to sell other products, but windows will never be free as in freedom... It would be against every fiber of the companies existence.
Why download infected version of iWork when Apple gives it away free on their site?
Wifi, suspend, standby? Sounds like Ubuntu is ready for the desktop, just not the laptop :)
Even if the TV does need to have some background processing going on, there's no reason it can't have a timer to turn on once a week or whatever is needed.
Tell whiners they are welcome to use the latest version of MS office but the cost will be deducted from their paycheck.
In an office your size, it would be worthwhile to setup a "conversion station" a PC with all versions of MS office installed, and OpenOffice. Teach a few people in the office how to open the old documents in appropriate version of MS word, and "save as" different file types until you get one that opens in Open Office properly. That way the odd time something doesn't open right in OpenOffice, people can go to the station and have it converted quickly.
I'd love to have one of these for the kitchen to look up recipes, link up to calendar from my other computers, and maybe be able to control music throughout the house as well. I see a lot of uses for it. Screen saver could show pictures making it like a digital picture frame when not being used otherwise.
I wonder if they take into account people downloading music for cds/albums/tapes which they own but are damaged or lost. I have a few friends who have to regularly re-download their music collection each time they get a new computer as they have no idea how to transfer files from one computer to another etc... these same people only seem to download the same 80's music that they already have cassette tapes for, but it's easier to download rather than digitize the music.
I starting writing a very intelligent reply to this twice, but since I'm using Windows ME still at work (no choice), I ended up with a blue screen of death each time before I could hit submit.. not really a surprise, it happens at least a dozen times each day. I have to think there's at least a bit of truth to the mac commercials or they wouldn't be so damn funny.
I believe CDs / players / burners will still be available and common 15 years from now, DVD players burners for at least another 20 years. In a long, long time we'll see CDs totally replaced by downloadable media, hard drive type storage, and maybe some tiny flash based disposable media. DVDs will eventually be replaced by the higher quality formats that are coming out, but I think they will never really fully take off the way DVDs have because downloadable video will take their place before that can fully happen. If you're at all worried about it, when the technology starts to become obsolete and the newer standards come out, prices will drop to next to nothing and you can buy several backup DVD players for next to nothing - the space to store them in will be more expensive than the hardware (if it's not already). Be sure to keep many copies on good quality DVDs in different physical locations - and check them by watching every few years at least. If quality problems start to show up then make more copies or move to another format at that time.
How about giving them some free copies of Vista? That should cause enough havoc to put an end to this.
If you remember to create a wish list ahead of time, and have the movies you want to see sitting there waiting for you ahead of time then it is convenient. For me, it's too expensive, I rent maybe 1 movie a month, and don't want to pay $15 for that 1 movie.
Not to mention people like me who live in Canada have no way to buy the phone locally. Apple computers seem very popular here, I'm sure they could have sold a lot of iPhones had they decided to sell them here.
So what do the consumers get out of this deal?
I for one won't buy a motherboard with a chip that "calls home" - too great a risk of invasion to privacy for my business. If the chip doesn't call home, it will be cracked in hours, not days.
300 watt halogen floor lamps are somewhat common, otherwise most bulbs are 40-60-100 watts
2010 will be in Vancouver
Only the people running Windows OS.
Maybe something alone the lines of "digg" for indy music would fill this need.