Let's talk about BMW, where Linux comes standard with many models.
Like which? They switched iDrive from Windows CE to VxWorks many moons ago, but the only relationship Google can find between BMW and Linux is in business IT deployments and design work.
It's not deja vu, but creepy nonetheless: I'm almost through reading A Canticle for Leibowitz right now. It's my dad's copy from a high school lit class and this is the first time I've seen it mentioned anywhere. It never occurred to me to check Amazon to see if it was still in print.
You're right, fwiw; the synopsis does ring a bell:)
I have to agree with the removable battery though. It would be nice to always have one in the cradle ready for a swap out.
This is a demand that I can't begin to understand. Don't you ever sleep? Can you not make it through a day on a single charge? Every cell phone I've ever had has had a removable battery, and not once have I ever felt the need to have an extra around.
This would be a valid comparison if EDGE were the 3GSM 3G standard. EDGE is roughly comparable to 1xRTT. The 3GSM EVDO-class serivce is HSDPA/HSUPA, which in my experience (on AT&T and Verizon networks) is much nicer. The data service seems a little more sane, and you can do simultaneous voice calls with packet data, unlike any EV-DO phone I've tried.
When I'm tethering my HSDPA phone over bluetooth, the BT 2.0+EDR link is the bottleneck. That's fast enough for me.
That being said, EDGE sucks perfectly well on its own accord. You need not compare it to EV-DO to put it down.
T-Mobile is a 3GSM operator in the US as in Europe. Its North American network is currently EGSM 850/1900Mhz, and they're rolling out UMTS/HSDPA on 1700Mhz.
In an SDV system, not all channels are present on a given segment unless they're being requested. TiVo has announced support for SDV via an external USB dongle for the upstream.
Are they really "triangulating" using cell towers?... Triangulation, technically, is using the angles to a target from two known locations to determine the target's location.
Actually it's trilateration -- using the distances to three points, rather than the directions. The basic effect is the same and most people don't really care about the gorey details.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trilateration
They pay for the WMA licensing with portalplayer AFAIK.
That would be highly unusual. Embedded audio solutions are almost always available on a negotiate-your-own-royalties (ie, codec X is implemented, but you need to pay royalties to owner of codec X if you want to use it) basis, and I'm quite sure Apple buys enough units to negotiate a purchase without licenses they have no intention of using.
Gadgets ship with such "disabled" capabilities all the time. IC suppliers want to have the broadest possible market, but gadget manufacturers won't pay royalties for features that they don't think will affect their sales.
Indeed, this works for any phone or even a tethered laptop. The biggest implication of this announcement is that the data plan tiers are likely to fall away -- the only real difference between the $20 "MEdia Max", the $30 "Smartphone Max", the $40 "PDA Personal Max", and the $60 "DataConnect Unlimited" data plans are the device you tell them you have when you activate the service -- featurephone, smartphone, PDA, or data card.
Any EDGE or HSDPA data device functions quite happily at full rate with the $20 plan. Currently, you can save tons of money by signing up for MEdia Max, taking the free phone, then buying the smartphone or PDA you want independently.
"Old" AT&T Wireless had already stopped selling TDMA phones before being purchased by Cingular. I know plenty of people who had (fewer who have still) pre-Cingular AT&T SIMs and they always cause fits in customer service reps. Apparently their system makes it hard to discriminate between AT&T Wireless ("blue") and AT&T Mobility ("orange") accounts.
I think it wasn't until after the buyout that they started really pushing TDMA customers to replace their phones.
Unless you're now going to tell me that using digital cable/set top boxes/whatever, that one can't block channels. If that's the case, then there is absolutely no way I'll be getting any such service.
That's exactly what I'll tell you. The reason my digital cable box is now plugged into my Myth backend is that it had no provision for deleting unwanted channels or making a channel list like my TV can for analog (and clear-QAM for my new TV) stations. It's amazing that they'd omit such a commonly-used feature so people might be more likely to watch their shopping channels.
If Comcast had just made their STB just -][- this much more user-friendly I wouldn't be using a DVR to skip all their commercials right now.
There's no real techincal reason that we can't have cool, open OSes for our phones. They just want to lock us in so that we have to buy their stupid wallpaper, ring tones, etc.
Where the hell are you getting your phones? I haven't seen a phone in the last three or four years (except the iPhone) that couldn't use any old GIF or JPEG as a "stupid wallpaper" or any supported media file (first iMelody, then MIDI, then MP3, now just about anything) as a ring tone even when it's subsidy locked. And i'm not talking about OMG HAXXORS, I mean "copy jpeg|midi|mp3 to memory card, put card in phone" or "attach jpeg|midi|mp3 to email and send to NUMBER@carrier.com". The most recent example is my locked V3xx from the eeeevil AT&T which has no restrictions on wallpaper or ringtones. Prior to that, I had a locked A630, an unlocked RAZR V3, and unlocked V600. There was no "lock in" on any of them unless you chose to buy DRM'ed files from the carrier, which you'd need to be severely retarded to do.
Buying "ringtones" and "wallpapers" is a tax on not being able to work a memory card or Bluetooth... or email, or MMS. I mean, really, come on.
You do realize that the Honda, Toyota, and even BMW plants in the US are non-Union shops, right? UAW is still limited to the traditionally domestic manufacturers and have repeatedly failed to make inroads at any of the on-shored plants.
Except it doesn't. I just switched from T-Mo to Cingular solely based on their data plans, so the pros and cons are pretty fresh in my memory. T-Mo is $29.99 monthly for GPRS/EDGE internet *AND* Wi-Fi (they're an inseperable bundle now), where Cingular is $19.99 for GPRS/EDGE/UMTS/HSDPA internet. T-Mo's $5.99 T-MobileWeb or whatever is proxied crap; it doesn't even support HTTPS, so no online finance.
Cingular's cheapo ($19.99) service comes with a Thou Shalt Not Tether clause that T-Mo omits from their $29.99 plan, but it's no worry for feature-phone data service.
Normally Bluetooth headsets use the Headset profile for transmission...
That's not entirely accurate. Headsets can use either the headset profile or handsfree profile, with the latter being more featureful and much more commonly used on all but the most low-tier headsets. Both are routinely supported by cell phones.
While you're correct that A2DP is used for stereo audio, any A2DP headset that has a microphone will also support HFP, as A2DP is output-only. The Motorola HT820, for example, even supports pairing HFP and A2DP with separate devices. The headset will suspent A2DP when there's HFP activity, so your phone will automatically cut off music from your (say) iPod bluetooth adapter when a call comes in or you hit the voice dial key on the headset... so really, you only need A2DP support in your phone when you're actually using your phone as your music player.
If you are using your phone as your music player, A2DP support is spreading quickly through the media-optimized-cell-phone market. The first phones I've used with A2DP are the Motorola v3x, E1070, E770, and their variants, but more are coming to market all the time.
It's only a matter of time until there are combination HFP/A2DP carkits. I'm not sure how it'd work with the headunit, though -- most heads today have a "mute" input that kills the audio so a carkit can run; I've never seen one with a "barge" input to force the headunit to the aux input for automatic selection. You *could* fake something out with an IR transmitter on most aftermarket heads, but that's getting into macro-remote craziness.
[my phone number]@[wireless provider].[net or com]
I hate that... it means that not only do I need to know your phone number, but I need to know your cell carrier as well. It also quashes half the point of number portability -- you can take your number with you, but your email address still changes. To make matters worse, number portability means I can't determine your carrier from your number's exchange anymore. What are the odds that the carriers would get together and make a [phone number]@common-site.com that forwards to the various carrier mail exchangers?
Slashdot Mirror
Are there really any carriers left that don't have an email-to-sms gateway? I routinely e-mail number@carrier.com instead of sending SMS.
Let's talk about BMW, where Linux comes standard with many models.
Like which? They switched iDrive from Windows CE to VxWorks many moons ago, but the only relationship Google can find between BMW and Linux is in business IT deployments and design work.
It's not deja vu, but creepy nonetheless: I'm almost through reading A Canticle for Leibowitz right now. It's my dad's copy from a high school lit class and this is the first time I've seen it mentioned anywhere. It never occurred to me to check Amazon to see if it was still in print. You're right, fwiw; the synopsis does ring a bell :)
Conveniently enough OS X comes with two Apple stickers in the box
This is a demand that I can't begin to understand. Don't you ever sleep? Can you not make it through a day on a single charge? Every cell phone I've ever had has had a removable battery, and not once have I ever felt the need to have an extra around.
This would be a valid comparison if EDGE were the 3GSM 3G standard. EDGE is roughly comparable to 1xRTT. The 3GSM EVDO-class serivce is HSDPA/HSUPA, which in my experience (on AT&T and Verizon networks) is much nicer. The data service seems a little more sane, and you can do simultaneous voice calls with packet data, unlike any EV-DO phone I've tried.
When I'm tethering my HSDPA phone over bluetooth, the BT 2.0+EDR link is the bottleneck. That's fast enough for me.That being said, EDGE sucks perfectly well on its own accord. You need not compare it to EV-DO to put it down.
T-Mobile is a 3GSM operator in the US as in Europe. Its North American network is currently EGSM 850/1900Mhz, and they're rolling out UMTS/HSDPA on 1700Mhz.
The AC had the right idea but the wrong link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switched_digital_video
In an SDV system, not all channels are present on a given segment unless they're being requested. TiVo has announced support for SDV via an external USB dongle for the upstream.
That would be highly unusual. Embedded audio solutions are almost always available on a negotiate-your-own-royalties (ie, codec X is implemented, but you need to pay royalties to owner of codec X if you want to use it) basis, and I'm quite sure Apple buys enough units to negotiate a purchase without licenses they have no intention of using.
Gadgets ship with such "disabled" capabilities all the time. IC suppliers want to have the broadest possible market, but gadget manufacturers won't pay royalties for features that they don't think will affect their sales.
Indeed, this works for any phone or even a tethered laptop. The biggest implication of this announcement is that the data plan tiers are likely to fall away -- the only real difference between the $20 "MEdia Max", the $30 "Smartphone Max", the $40 "PDA Personal Max", and the $60 "DataConnect Unlimited" data plans are the device you tell them you have when you activate the service -- featurephone, smartphone, PDA, or data card.
Any EDGE or HSDPA data device functions quite happily at full rate with the $20 plan. Currently, you can save tons of money by signing up for MEdia Max, taking the free phone, then buying the smartphone or PDA you want independently.
"Old" AT&T Wireless had already stopped selling TDMA phones before being purchased by Cingular. I know plenty of people who had (fewer who have still) pre-Cingular AT&T SIMs and they always cause fits in customer service reps. Apparently their system makes it hard to discriminate between AT&T Wireless ("blue") and AT&T Mobility ("orange") accounts. I think it wasn't until after the buyout that they started really pushing TDMA customers to replace their phones.
I really got the feeling that this article was just his way of convincing his wife to let him buy a new monitor.
That's exactly what I'll tell you. The reason my digital cable box is now plugged into my Myth backend is that it had no provision for deleting unwanted channels or making a channel list like my TV can for analog (and clear-QAM for my new TV) stations. It's amazing that they'd omit such a commonly-used feature so people might be more likely to watch their shopping channels.
If Comcast had just made their STB just -][- this much more user-friendly I wouldn't be using a DVR to skip all their commercials right now.
Where the hell are you getting your phones? I haven't seen a phone in the last three or four years (except the iPhone) that couldn't use any old GIF or JPEG as a "stupid wallpaper" or any supported media file (first iMelody, then MIDI, then MP3, now just about anything) as a ring tone even when it's subsidy locked. And i'm not talking about OMG HAXXORS, I mean "copy jpeg|midi|mp3 to memory card, put card in phone" or "attach jpeg|midi|mp3 to email and send to NUMBER@carrier.com". The most recent example is my locked V3xx from the eeeevil AT&T which has no restrictions on wallpaper or ringtones. Prior to that, I had a locked A630, an unlocked RAZR V3, and unlocked V600. There was no "lock in" on any of them unless you chose to buy DRM'ed files from the carrier, which you'd need to be severely retarded to do.
Buying "ringtones" and "wallpapers" is a tax on not being able to work a memory card or Bluetooth... or email, or MMS. I mean, really, come on.
You do realize that the Honda, Toyota, and even BMW plants in the US are non-Union shops, right? UAW is still limited to the traditionally domestic manufacturers and have repeatedly failed to make inroads at any of the on-shored plants.
The rest of the world's version of the RAZR V3xx has GPS as well, but not the AT&T version.
Rolls Royce the automotive company is a subsidiary of BMW. Do you mean Rolls Royce the aerospace company, or are you double-counting BMW?
Normally Bluetooth headsets use the Headset profile for transmission...
That's not entirely accurate. Headsets can use either the headset profile or handsfree profile, with the latter being more featureful and much more commonly used on all but the most low-tier headsets. Both are routinely supported by cell phones.
While you're correct that A2DP is used for stereo audio, any A2DP headset that has a microphone will also support HFP, as A2DP is output-only. The Motorola HT820, for example, even supports pairing HFP and A2DP with separate devices. The headset will suspent A2DP when there's HFP activity, so your phone will automatically cut off music from your (say) iPod bluetooth adapter when a call comes in or you hit the voice dial key on the headset... so really, you only need A2DP support in your phone when you're actually using your phone as your music player.
If you are using your phone as your music player, A2DP support is spreading quickly through the media-optimized-cell-phone market. The first phones I've used with A2DP are the Motorola v3x, E1070, E770, and their variants, but more are coming to market all the time.
I'd purchase TAL CDs too.
I have, and they're great. I'm aware of two:This American Life: Lies Sissies & Fiascoes
Crimebusters & Crossed Wires: Stories from This American Life
If only buying one, I'd recommend the latter, but they're both good deals. Great for long car rides.
This echoes a broadcast email sent out by HR yesterday. I can't understand why nobody mentioned it until the day it was supposed to go into effect.
It's only a matter of time until there are combination HFP/A2DP carkits. I'm not sure how it'd work with the headunit, though -- most heads today have a "mute" input that kills the audio so a carkit can run; I've never seen one with a "barge" input to force the headunit to the aux input for automatic selection. You *could* fake something out with an IR transmitter on most aftermarket heads, but that's getting into macro-remote craziness.
[my phone number]@[wireless provider].[net or com]
I hate that... it means that not only do I need to know your phone number, but I need to know your cell carrier as well. It also quashes half the point of number portability -- you can take your number with you, but your email address still changes. To make matters worse, number portability means I can't determine your carrier from your number's exchange anymore. What are the odds that the carriers would get together and make a [phone number]@common-site.com that forwards to the various carrier mail exchangers?