I do believe, however, that anybody owning a firearm should also be required to know how to use it.
Great idea! Now we have a bunch of crazy people who are required to know how to kill!
Perhaps we should require training, but then give them incorrect training. "Yeah, the hole at the end there? Make sure you're looking directly at it so you make sure the bullet comes out."
From what I've seen, Apple Maps works very well--as long as you gave it an address to go to.
If you asked, "Direct me to 1313 Mockingbird Lane," no problem. If you said "Direct me to the closest Verizon store," you were likely to end up somewhere else--probably where a Verizon store was about 3 years ago.
if Apple were to reject any Google app during review, we'd hear about it. Heck, they didn't even reject Maps (yet?), and there's already plenty of speculation about that.
I'm not an expert on EULA's, but it wouldn't surprise me to find there is a section that says, "If your app is rejected, you cannot tell the world or we will discontinue all of your apps." Would it be worth it to Google to lose GMail, G+, etc. by publicly complaining about GTalk getting nixed?
Note that Apple hasn't rejected Maps but we haven't heard anything about it...
Also, it's unclear why Apple would let them put in GMail, G+ etc, but not GTalk.
Because it duplicates functionality in iMessage?
Far more likely that it was never submitted.
I tend to agree, don't get me wrong. Occam's Razor and all. But as a fan of conspiracy theories, it doesn't take much of a stretch to see that Apple could easily (a) reject an app and (b) shut down any mention of it.
For appropriately inexpensive Android devices, yes. Yes it is.
There are plenty of people out there who don't want or can't afford a data plan. For those people, their Android phone is a feature-phone. You can take pictures, send texts/pictures, make calls, etc. They don't use mapping or other Internet services--they have a GPS in their car or figure out there directions from an Internet-connected computer.
My roomate's nephew was in a similar boat. When I bought my iPhone 4S, I jailbroke and unlocked my old iPhone 3GS and gave it to him. He was mostly interested in a phone with lots of space for music (32GB) that could send text messages. I flipped every switch on the iPhone I could find to make sure it didn't try to use the cell network for data because his plan on T-Mo would bill him by the byte.
So, yeah, I'd imagine that many of those Android phones are being used as "smart phones."
I have a Samsung Galaxy S smart phone. Its not bad unless you have played with an iPhone of course. The Samsung works but the UI is poorly thought out IMHO. [...] I am not a fanboy, but I am not blind either.
No, but you may be biased.
I have an iPhone and an iPad. Way back when, I was looking at an app on an Android tablet and--Oh My God--the UI was horrible. I couldn't figure out how to do anything with it! It was a complete mess! I mentioned it to one of resident Android fans when I was talking about how sucky Android apps are and how you can't figure out how to do anything with them.
He sighed, picked up the Android tablet, brought up the app and hit the menu button. *Poof* Everything I wanted to do was available. My iPhone and iPad don't have a menu button, so I never thought to press it.
Touché.
This showed that my definition of a "non-intuitive interface" meant "doesn't work like an iOS device."
I've got somewhere between 60 and 70 years left on Earth, max.
So I'm guessing you're somewhere in your 20s--or an optimistic 30-something.
But I'd be on Mars.
I'm sort of reminded of the old Futurama episode where they go to the Moon and there are various stupid tchotkes that end with "...on the Moon!" (The best one was the T-Shirt that said, "I'm with Stupid...On The Moon!") So the whole, "I'd be on Mars!" doesn't make much sense to me. I could grab a scuba tank, tie lead weights to my feet and be dropped off a ship over the Mariana Trench. Then I'd be in the deepest part of the ocean! Not that I could do much down there and I'd probably die on the way down.
Think of what the species would learn from a mission to Mars. That's well worth my life and gladly traded.
I agree with the first part--namely what we could learn by sending people to Mars to study the planet and bring them home safely. But "one way trips"? I don't think we learn nearly as much.
Consider the Apollo missions. We learned a lot from the rocks that were brought back. No return mission means nothing brought back. So you'd better have all the electron microscopes and other things like that with you--otherwise you won't be learning nearly as much as you think.
We also run into a "talent" issue. One issue that the geologists had with the Apollo missions were that Astronauts, while having many skills at piloting high-performance aircraft, didn't know one rock from another rock and why one rock might be more interesting. So if you're going there to study the rocks, a guy who knows scuba diving and how to build cool stuff isn't going to be much help.
My iPhone kept asking me whether or not I wanted to upgrade to iOS 6. I didn't want to because I like Google Maps. But it asked me more than once whether I wanted to (both over the air and via iTunes). I finally found the settings to turn it off.
I'm not sure I would use the word "open," either. It's more about "choice."
My roomate's nephew got himself an iPhone 4. But he secretly lusts after the Galaxy S3. He loves the big screen.
Personally, I like the size of the iPhone 4S and iPhone 5--I like that narrowness that I can grab comfortably. The Galaxy S3 feels a little too big and light and I feel like I'd drop it. But, again, that's me.
The example of the parking lot of cars is a good analogy--not so much for openness but for choice. Check out that parking lot--you'll see a bunch of cars which provide the same capability of getting from point A to point B. But some of those cars do it faster. Some of them do it cheaper. Some of them look awesome while doing so. Some of them don't. Some of them cradle you in comfort while doing so. Some of them expose you to the elements. Some are look like other ones. Some have bits that are interestingly designed.
That's the advantage--you have lots of companies looking for a niche with consumers. Some people just want to be able to make phone calls and check directions and send a text or two. Some people want to be able to send tons of text messages and don't care about the phone part. Some people want a great multimedia experience. Some people want a desktop computer in their pocket. And for each of those wants, there's a company that will provide those capabilities.
Then again, I live in California and don't suffer from the bad map issues that other regions have had.
Actually, I live in southern California and I've found various issues.
I've found that Apple Maps seems to work fine if you enter a street address. However, you definitely don't want to let it search for you.
For example, if I'm in my house and I search for "ribs", it will tell me about the Tony Roma's up the street. The one that closed about 5 years ago. That's the only one it shows. It doesn't show BBQ Bistro just down the street, which opened last year.
There's a great article I saw which compares the iOS 6 Maps application with Android and a stock GM GPS. What's interesting in the article is that he was talking about how he'd put in dozens of addresses and it did a wonderful job on all but one of them. However, as soon as he searched for the closest Verizon store because he needed a cable at the last minute, it sent him miles away to a location where there was no Verizon store.
As I pointed out, Apple's data seems to be years out of date. What would have been interesting is if Apple could have used their own maps but used Google to do searching.
Well, first off, I didn't upgrade to iOS 6 for just that reason. And iPhone 5 topped the sales charts in October, but not by much and that was the initial release. Personally, I don't expect that to hold on in November and December.
Furthermore, it causes people to not trust Apple. Lots of people upgrade their machines because they trust Apple. iOS 5 is better than iOS 4 which was better than 3 and so on and so on. But when things start disappearing--where's the YouTube app?--you start to wonder what will happen when you update. You start thinking about not updating.
Look at Microsoft. How many people trust a.0 release from Microsoft? How many people trust a.1 or.2 release from Microsoft. So the question isn't necessarily about how many have upgraded to iOS 6, it's how many will upgrade to iOS 7 after being burned by iOS 6?
As I understand it, one issue is the size of the chamber. If it is too small--even if it is enclosed--you end up getting motion sickness. So you end up needing a pretty big space to sleep in.
So I have a phone which has a "business" partition and a "personal" partition. That's great. But if I have to restart the phone to switch between the two, it's not all that useful because--no matter what--I will be in the wrong partition.
Suppose the office calls with some random emergency while I'm at home. Okay, I was home, and my phone was on the "personal" partition. Now I have to restart the phone to get to the "business" partition. So I'll hang up and call you back.
I'm at work on my way to visit some customer and the wife calls about something. My phone is on the "business" partition. "Hang on, Hon--I'll call you back once I reboot my phone."
I got kicked off an airplane for bringing my own food. My argument was that the food prices on the airplane were outrageous. Besides, I haven't had deep fried turkey in years.
Don't make a stupid mistake, and get busted because you THINK that pot is legal.
I would agree with you, but you have to define "Stupid Mistake."
I'm not sure if this has ever been fought, but if I grow and use marijuana for recreational purposes, the Federal Government doesn't get involved. It's a state thing and the state has said that they won't get involved. Thus, I am free to grow and use marijuana for recreational purposes.
The next angle, though, is distribution. In theory, if I am in Colorado or Washington State, I can grow and sell marijuana and as long as it is being consumed within the state, there is no issue. However, once it crosses a state line, I am now in Federal trouble--even if I had no idea that it would travel outside state lines. Furthermore, one of the Federal Government's theories--and I don't know if it's ever been fought--is that the act of growing marijuana for distribution is illegal because it could go across state lines. It's part of the rationale that gets the FBI involved in bank robberies and kidnappings--the culprits may have crossed a state line.
So using marijuana is not illegal. But distributing marijuana carries lots of risks to the distributor because the distributor is liable if that product crosses the state line. So distributing marijuana carries enough risk that it isn't really a viable business, which keeps the amounts small.
I could see this for bands like Pink Floyd too... [...] I like AC/DC, but I don't think of their music in the same album singularity of work thing.
Fair enough. Frankly, I agree with you.
The question is "who gets to decide?" I submit that it's the artist's choice, not yours, regarding how they choose to represent their work and it's something that we should respect.
Now a smart businessperson knows to sell the people what they want. If I create an album and everybody only likes one song, I may be disappointed that people don't see the beauty of the work as a whole and are just focused on this one little piece. But if they want that one song? Hell, yeah, I'll sell it to them. And I'll be disappointed all the way to the bank.
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I do believe, however, that anybody owning a firearm should also be required to know how to use it.
Great idea! Now we have a bunch of crazy people who are required to know how to kill!
Perhaps we should require training, but then give them incorrect training. "Yeah, the hole at the end there? Make sure you're looking directly at it so you make sure the bullet comes out."
"Non-existant being?" What are you implying?
From what I've seen, Apple Maps works very well--as long as you gave it an address to go to.
If you asked, "Direct me to 1313 Mockingbird Lane," no problem. If you said "Direct me to the closest Verizon store," you were likely to end up somewhere else--probably where a Verizon store was about 3 years ago.
if Apple were to reject any Google app during review, we'd hear about it. Heck, they didn't even reject Maps (yet?), and there's already plenty of speculation about that.
I'm not an expert on EULA's, but it wouldn't surprise me to find there is a section that says, "If your app is rejected, you cannot tell the world or we will discontinue all of your apps." Would it be worth it to Google to lose GMail, G+, etc. by publicly complaining about GTalk getting nixed?
Note that Apple hasn't rejected Maps but we haven't heard anything about it...
Also, it's unclear why Apple would let them put in GMail, G+ etc, but not GTalk.
Because it duplicates functionality in iMessage?
Far more likely that it was never submitted.
I tend to agree, don't get me wrong. Occam's Razor and all. But as a fan of conspiracy theories, it doesn't take much of a stretch to see that Apple could easily (a) reject an app and (b) shut down any mention of it.
Followed by: "Sometimes we're allowed to do that. Sometimes we're not."
So why is there no Google Talk client for iOS? Maybe Apple won't let them.
is Android the new "featurephone"?
For appropriately inexpensive Android devices, yes. Yes it is.
There are plenty of people out there who don't want or can't afford a data plan. For those people, their Android phone is a feature-phone. You can take pictures, send texts/pictures, make calls, etc. They don't use mapping or other Internet services--they have a GPS in their car or figure out there directions from an Internet-connected computer.
My roomate's nephew was in a similar boat. When I bought my iPhone 4S, I jailbroke and unlocked my old iPhone 3GS and gave it to him. He was mostly interested in a phone with lots of space for music (32GB) that could send text messages. I flipped every switch on the iPhone I could find to make sure it didn't try to use the cell network for data because his plan on T-Mo would bill him by the byte.
So, yeah, I'd imagine that many of those Android phones are being used as "smart phones."
I have a Samsung Galaxy S smart phone. Its not bad unless you have played with an iPhone of course. The Samsung works but the UI is poorly thought out IMHO. [...] I am not a fanboy, but I am not blind either.
No, but you may be biased.
I have an iPhone and an iPad. Way back when, I was looking at an app on an Android tablet and--Oh My God--the UI was horrible. I couldn't figure out how to do anything with it! It was a complete mess! I mentioned it to one of resident Android fans when I was talking about how sucky Android apps are and how you can't figure out how to do anything with them.
He sighed, picked up the Android tablet, brought up the app and hit the menu button. *Poof* Everything I wanted to do was available. My iPhone and iPad don't have a menu button, so I never thought to press it.
Touché.
This showed that my definition of a "non-intuitive interface" meant "doesn't work like an iOS device."
I've got somewhere between 60 and 70 years left on Earth, max.
So I'm guessing you're somewhere in your 20s--or an optimistic 30-something.
But I'd be on Mars.
I'm sort of reminded of the old Futurama episode where they go to the Moon and there are various stupid tchotkes that end with "...on the Moon!" (The best one was the T-Shirt that said, "I'm with Stupid...On The Moon!") So the whole, "I'd be on Mars!" doesn't make much sense to me. I could grab a scuba tank, tie lead weights to my feet and be dropped off a ship over the Mariana Trench. Then I'd be in the deepest part of the ocean! Not that I could do much down there and I'd probably die on the way down.
Think of what the species would learn from a mission to Mars. That's well worth my life and gladly traded.
I agree with the first part--namely what we could learn by sending people to Mars to study the planet and bring them home safely. But "one way trips"? I don't think we learn nearly as much.
Consider the Apollo missions. We learned a lot from the rocks that were brought back. No return mission means nothing brought back. So you'd better have all the electron microscopes and other things like that with you--otherwise you won't be learning nearly as much as you think.
We also run into a "talent" issue. One issue that the geologists had with the Apollo missions were that Astronauts, while having many skills at piloting high-performance aircraft, didn't know one rock from another rock and why one rock might be more interesting. So if you're going there to study the rocks, a guy who knows scuba diving and how to build cool stuff isn't going to be much help.
Sorry, hon. Nice try.
My iPhone kept asking me whether or not I wanted to upgrade to iOS 6. I didn't want to because I like Google Maps. But it asked me more than once whether I wanted to (both over the air and via iTunes). I finally found the settings to turn it off.
They upgrade because Apple pesters you until you do [...]
FTFY.
I'm not sure I would use the word "open," either. It's more about "choice."
My roomate's nephew got himself an iPhone 4. But he secretly lusts after the Galaxy S3. He loves the big screen.
Personally, I like the size of the iPhone 4S and iPhone 5--I like that narrowness that I can grab comfortably. The Galaxy S3 feels a little too big and light and I feel like I'd drop it. But, again, that's me.
The example of the parking lot of cars is a good analogy--not so much for openness but for choice. Check out that parking lot--you'll see a bunch of cars which provide the same capability of getting from point A to point B. But some of those cars do it faster. Some of them do it cheaper. Some of them look awesome while doing so. Some of them don't. Some of them cradle you in comfort while doing so. Some of them expose you to the elements. Some are look like other ones. Some have bits that are interestingly designed.
That's the advantage--you have lots of companies looking for a niche with consumers. Some people just want to be able to make phone calls and check directions and send a text or two. Some people want to be able to send tons of text messages and don't care about the phone part. Some people want a great multimedia experience. Some people want a desktop computer in their pocket. And for each of those wants, there's a company that will provide those capabilities.
Uh, I'm not sure about that. I assume these lawyers are Samsung employees.
Note that the iPod didn't really take off until Apple replaced the Firewire port and ported iTunes to Windows. Before that, it was pretty accurate.
Yeah.
Then again, I live in California and don't suffer from the bad map issues that other regions have had.
Actually, I live in southern California and I've found various issues.
I've found that Apple Maps seems to work fine if you enter a street address. However, you definitely don't want to let it search for you.
For example, if I'm in my house and I search for "ribs", it will tell me about the Tony Roma's up the street. The one that closed about 5 years ago. That's the only one it shows. It doesn't show BBQ Bistro just down the street, which opened last year.
There's a great article I saw which compares the iOS 6 Maps application with Android and a stock GM GPS. What's interesting in the article is that he was talking about how he'd put in dozens of addresses and it did a wonderful job on all but one of them. However, as soon as he searched for the closest Verizon store because he needed a cable at the last minute, it sent him miles away to a location where there was no Verizon store.
As I pointed out, Apple's data seems to be years out of date. What would have been interesting is if Apple could have used their own maps but used Google to do searching.
Well, first off, I didn't upgrade to iOS 6 for just that reason. And iPhone 5 topped the sales charts in October, but not by much and that was the initial release. Personally, I don't expect that to hold on in November and December.
Furthermore, it causes people to not trust Apple. Lots of people upgrade their machines because they trust Apple. iOS 5 is better than iOS 4 which was better than 3 and so on and so on. But when things start disappearing--where's the YouTube app?--you start to wonder what will happen when you update. You start thinking about not updating.
Look at Microsoft. How many people trust a .0 release from Microsoft? How many people trust a .1 or .2 release from Microsoft. So the question isn't necessarily about how many have upgraded to iOS 6, it's how many will upgrade to iOS 7 after being burned by iOS 6?
As I understand it, one issue is the size of the chamber. If it is too small--even if it is enclosed--you end up getting motion sickness. So you end up needing a pretty big space to sleep in.
That said, there were plans to research such things on ISS. Unfortunately, the money dropped out and so it becomes a tourist attraction.
This is one thing I was curious about.
So I have a phone which has a "business" partition and a "personal" partition. That's great. But if I have to restart the phone to switch between the two, it's not all that useful because--no matter what--I will be in the wrong partition.
Suppose the office calls with some random emergency while I'm at home. Okay, I was home, and my phone was on the "personal" partition. Now I have to restart the phone to get to the "business" partition. So I'll hang up and call you back.
I'm at work on my way to visit some customer and the wife calls about something. My phone is on the "business" partition. "Hang on, Hon--I'll call you back once I reboot my phone."
No thanks. I'd rather have two phones.
I got kicked off an airplane for bringing my own food. My argument was that the food prices on the airplane were outrageous. Besides, I haven't had deep fried turkey in years.
With Apologies to Steven Wright.
Don't make a stupid mistake, and get busted because you THINK that pot is legal.
I would agree with you, but you have to define "Stupid Mistake."
I'm not sure if this has ever been fought, but if I grow and use marijuana for recreational purposes, the Federal Government doesn't get involved. It's a state thing and the state has said that they won't get involved. Thus, I am free to grow and use marijuana for recreational purposes.
The next angle, though, is distribution. In theory, if I am in Colorado or Washington State, I can grow and sell marijuana and as long as it is being consumed within the state, there is no issue. However, once it crosses a state line, I am now in Federal trouble--even if I had no idea that it would travel outside state lines. Furthermore, one of the Federal Government's theories--and I don't know if it's ever been fought--is that the act of growing marijuana for distribution is illegal because it could go across state lines. It's part of the rationale that gets the FBI involved in bank robberies and kidnappings--the culprits may have crossed a state line.
So using marijuana is not illegal. But distributing marijuana carries lots of risks to the distributor because the distributor is liable if that product crosses the state line. So distributing marijuana carries enough risk that it isn't really a viable business, which keeps the amounts small.
Oh, but he'd be fine with the Gandalf's Gobble Melt or Frodo's Pot Roast Skillet?
I could see this for bands like Pink Floyd too... [...] I like AC/DC, but I don't think of their music in the same album singularity of work thing.
Fair enough. Frankly, I agree with you.
The question is "who gets to decide?" I submit that it's the artist's choice, not yours, regarding how they choose to represent their work and it's something that we should respect.
Now a smart businessperson knows to sell the people what they want. If I create an album and everybody only likes one song, I may be disappointed that people don't see the beauty of the work as a whole and are just focused on this one little piece. But if they want that one song? Hell, yeah, I'll sell it to them. And I'll be disappointed all the way to the bank.
But only once a millennium.
I was thinking of A figurehead from an 18th century sailing ship. Or maybe they found some 5 airplanes.
FTFY.
Bands don't necessarily have any say in how their music is distributed if they want a record deal. Sad but true.