... a few hundred million people who say "well, this Vista now is the very last MS wagon I'll jump onto, because I have to (bla bla), but the next time, I swear, (mumble, mumble)" etc.
MS doesn't care to have friends, fans or enthusiasts, a huge number of long term "for the last time" customers is just as good to them.
After all, a business model that works, some Jim Louderbacks notwithstanding
"Whenever a thing coming out of our premises has caused a certain degree of skepticism, even mistrust, we'll just call it by another name and be done with it, for some time."
Not so fast, Microsoft. Passport, passport, passport.
Well, for Numbers, it's a "Yes, but...". There's a number of things which don't work.
With OS X set to German (maybe to other languages also), Numbers doesnt know the difference between A10, $A10, and $A$10 in a formula.
When I read about this (a feature, a bug?) the day after Numbers had been presented, I tried to reproduce this habit using my trusty Clarisworks/Appleworks v5 and of course, everything behaved o.k., like a spreadsheet application should.
Mac OS X Version 10.5 Leopard on Intel-based Macintosh computers Environment
So Mac OS X Version 10.5 Leopard on PPC-based Macintosh computers Environment is still _not_ Unix (or should it read "UNIX")?
Did some lazybones at Apple just not want to fill in some more forms to get OS X 10.5 for PPC certified also? Or did some scrooges at Apple just not want to spend some more money to get OS X 10.5 for PPC certified also?
The iPhone isn't a remote control. It's the device you're using, so there's the presumption that you'll be looking at it with some sort of regularity while you use it.
In a way, a telephone (cellphone, cordless or traditional) _is_ like a remote by means of which one may control the communications channel used.
As such, it can be either an intuitive remote (so that it will vanish as a "device" - Arthur C. Clarke? Robert Heinlein?) or a less intuitive one (so that it will push its nasty "being a device" presence into the user's face at every moment of usage.
Of course, I am not referring to the PDA-like uses of smartphones here. But then again, maybe I should.;-)
... that this certainly will work to Apple's advantage most of the time.
Now and then, it might be used by Apple even in the end user's interest.;-)
At $499 or 599$ one-time down _plus_ a mandatory two year contract with AT&T, there will be no iPhone owners out there, just a bunch of iPhone payers-for.
That makes Steve Jobs' recent presentation using a diagram with just I.E. (ca. 75%) and Safari (supposedly ca. 25%) shares shown for some time in the future an even more ridiculous event...:-)
First, the Neo1973 Advanced package includes extras like a developer board, special cables, dev software and other things that are just of interest for developers. The phone included is the same as in the Base version. If you were a consumer, you would neither want nor need the advanced version of the Neo.
Second, one can take the prices for the Neo hardware at face value - the Neos do not come with any compulsory two-year contracts that are at least $60 a month (and thus at least $1440 in total). You put in the SIM card of the carrier of your choice (provided the carrier offers GSM service).
So the prices are _not_ the same. They are not even comparable between Neo1973 and iPhone.
Putting the battery into a case which cannot be opened easily and plug it into a tiny socket on the PCB board (as with the iPods) is one thing.
Putting the battery into a case that cannot be opened easily and, in addition to that, solder it to the PCB board (as with the iPhones) is a completely different kind of thing.
I wonder what the typical timing for some crucial events will look like with the iPhones.
I guess it might be, on average - period of warranty for iPhone hardware ends; then - battery fails, leading to purchases of either batteries or, better yet, replacement iPhones; then - service contract (i.e., with the cellphone provider) ends
If so, that would be a truly innovative aspect of a business model, based on a little soldering.
O2 do not have very good 3G coverage in the UK, it seems almost a no-brainer that Vodafone would've won the contract since their infrastructure is superior. There's no EDGE in the UK, so the UK iPhone either has to be 3G, or work over GPRS...
Not being a U.K. resident, let me speculate too, based on your information regarding the network structures in the U.K.:
Under the assumption that Apple might _not_ expect to have a 3G version of the iPhone ready at the end of 2007 (or even some time into 2008, see the announced timeline for Asia), then they couldn't care less about, like, Vodafone having 3G now (or soon) whereas O2 not having it at all (or later)...
Speaking in a more generalized way: In the U.S., AT&T is not recognized as the cellphone provider with the best technical infrastructure (more to the contrary) and this did obviously not hinder Apple to strike the deal with AT&T.
I think that, for Apple, more important factors are money (like a good share in the partner's monthly revenues), money again (like some other lucrative side agreements) and, eventually, having their design vanities not disturbed by demands for a heavy branding of the iPhones by provider logos etc.
I thought getting an iPhone might be interesting, but to be honest the barrage of media coverage has been *so* excessive I'm already sick of the damn thing and it hasn't even been released!
So, the answer would be no.
When the iPhone will be finally available on this side of the pond (Europe), perhaps I (and other people) will have been using the OpenMoko/Neo1973 for some time:
Have a look at the prices Apple charges for more RAM in the new MacBook Pro series, the 15" model.
To go from 2 GB to 4 GB they want you to spend $750. (Yes, that`s 750 like in "seven hundred and fifty").
Another example, also from the MacBook Pro 15" offering:
A 160 GB HD drive with 5400 rppm is standard, Apple asks $150 for the BTO option of getting an HD drive of the same capacity (160 GB), just with 7200 rpm.
...told them about the implications of GPL to begin with?
So Tivo has been spending lots of money on low-quality legal consultancy for years.
And as to spending money: Tivo should start spending money, real money, today, on a DRM-friendly type of software base for their gear. Tivo should consider something like Windows Embedded and start shelling out tons of money for licences.
From me, just a cordial "harr, harr" for Tivo (and all the others of that ilk).:-)
Well done, Richard Stallman, Eben Moglen, Larry Lessig, and whoever contributed to the GPL, esp. GPL v3. Many thanks to you all.
Some time after the introduction of GPL v3, Novell might end up as the only company in the Linux distribution business that is not permitted to distribute kernel 2.6.xx in any form.
Business adversely affected? You bet.
Nobody (except MS people) has told little Ron and his colleagues to sign this foolish deal with Microsoft.
Next time, Novell, you better look before you leap.
But wait - there won't be a next time for you and your company? Too bad.
The reality is that Hitler didn't even succeed in rallying the Church around him any more or less then the rest of the German population. The earliest documentation of Hitler's anti-semeticism came in the post war years, where the Jews were blamed for the sudden inconceivable loss of World War I. You can speculate on earlier sources
Starting in second half of the 19th century, a new form of anti-semitism, a political one, arose in addition to the traditional anti-semitism of the Roman Catholic institutions (which is sometimes called "anti-judaism", in order to distinguish it from the newer ones) in Austria which was one of the leading powers on the continent these days.
Towards the end of the 19th century, The Alldeutsche Partei (Pan-German Party), a right-wing populistic party lead by Georg von Schoenerer was one of the the major players in the Reichsrat, the parliament of the "Austrian" half of the Austrian-Hungarian empire. This party was mainly based on (german-oriented) nationalism and an already fierce form of anti-semitism, politically as well as racially oriented.
In 1914, before World War I broke out, the Austrian Reichsrat was dominated by the Christlich-Soziale Partei, until 1910 under the leadership of Dr. Karl Lueger who was an outspoken and fierce anti-semite of the christian (Roman Catholic) variant, and so was his whole party.
So in the first decades of the 20th century, in the years of his youth, sadly, Adolf Hitler even had a choice of well-established sources to pick anti-semitic ideas from and later to build on them.
Slashdot Mirror
... a few hundred million people who say "well, this Vista now is the very last MS wagon I'll jump onto, because I have to (bla bla), but the next time, I swear, (mumble, mumble)" etc.
MS doesn't care to have friends, fans or enthusiasts, a huge number of long term "for the last time" customers is just as good to them.
After all, a business model that works, some Jim Louderbacks notwithstanding
Redmond Rule #92
"Whenever a thing coming out of our premises has caused a certain degree of skepticism, even mistrust, we'll just call it by another name and be done with it, for some time."
Not so fast, Microsoft. Passport, passport, passport.
There are people who will remember.
Well, for Numbers, it's a "Yes, but...". There's a number of things which don't work.
With OS X set to German (maybe to other languages also), Numbers doesnt know the difference between A10, $A10, and $A$10 in a formula.
When I read about this (a feature, a bug?) the day after Numbers had been presented, I tried to reproduce this habit using my trusty Clarisworks/Appleworks v5 and of course, everything behaved o.k., like a spreadsheet application should.
Walter.
I'm afraid Apple did not even fix the "networked drive" problems in Leopard (being more focused on the iPhone).
Mac OS X users looking forward to another two years or so of merrily spinning beachballs, I presume.
Mac OS X Version 10.5 Leopard on Intel-based Macintosh computers Environment
So Mac OS X Version 10.5 Leopard on PPC-based Macintosh computers
Environment is still _not_ Unix (or should it read "UNIX")?
Did some lazybones at Apple just not want to fill in some more forms to get OS X 10.5 for PPC certified also?
Or did some scrooges at Apple just not want to spend some more money to get OS X 10.5 for PPC certified also?
Or might there be a completely different reason?
The iPhone isn't a remote control. It's the device you're using, so there's the presumption that you'll be looking at it with some sort of regularity while you use it.
;-)
In a way, a telephone (cellphone, cordless or traditional) _is_ like a remote by means of which one may control the communications channel used.
As such, it can be either an intuitive remote (so that it will vanish as a "device" - Arthur C. Clarke? Robert Heinlein?) or a less intuitive one (so that it will push its nasty "being a device" presence into the user's face at every moment of usage.
Of course, I am not referring to the PDA-like uses of smartphones here. But then again, maybe I should.
Freak button accident when he was seven.
P laid :-)
In other words, Jobs suffering of a severe case of the "cleaning woman" syndrome...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Men_Don't_Wear_
Hmmm... sorry...
this article is referring to iPod, not iPhone...
But still with the same interesting possibilities for the party that is in control of this "brick it now" technology.
... that this certainly will work to Apple's advantage most of the time.
;-)
Now and then, it might be used by Apple even in the end user's interest.
At $499 or 599$ one-time down _plus_ a mandatory two year contract with AT&T, there will be no iPhone owners out there, just a bunch of iPhone payers-for.
"Caveat emptor", again and again.
...like Opera and Safari.
:-)
That makes Steve Jobs' recent presentation using a diagram with just I.E. (ca. 75%) and Safari (supposedly ca. 25%) shares shown for some time in the future an even more ridiculous event...
First, the Neo1973 Advanced package includes extras like a developer board, special cables, dev software and other things that are just of interest for developers. The phone included is the same as in the Base version. If you were a consumer, you would neither want nor need the advanced version of the Neo.
Second, one can take the prices for the Neo hardware at face value - the Neos do not come with any compulsory two-year contracts that are at least $60 a month (and thus at least $1440 in total). You put in the SIM card of the carrier of your choice (provided the carrier offers GSM service).
So the prices are _not_ the same. They are not even comparable between Neo1973 and iPhone.
Putting the battery into a case which cannot be opened easily and plug it into a tiny socket on the PCB board (as with the iPods) is one thing.
Putting the battery into a case that cannot be opened easily and, in addition to that, solder it to the PCB board (as with the iPhones) is a completely different kind of thing.
I wonder what the typical timing for some crucial events will look like with the iPhones.
I guess it might be, on average
- period of warranty for iPhone hardware ends; then
- battery fails, leading to purchases of either batteries or, better yet, replacement iPhones; then
- service contract (i.e., with the cellphone provider) ends
If so, that would be a truly innovative aspect of a business model, based on a little soldering.
O2 do not have very good 3G coverage in the UK, it seems almost a no-brainer that Vodafone would've won the contract since their infrastructure is superior. There's no EDGE in the UK, so the UK iPhone either has to be 3G, or work over GPRS...
Not being a U.K. resident, let me speculate too, based on your information regarding the network structures in the U.K.:
Under the assumption that Apple might _not_ expect to have a 3G version of the iPhone ready at the end of 2007 (or even some time into 2008, see the announced timeline for Asia), then they couldn't care less about, like, Vodafone having 3G now (or soon) whereas O2 not having it at all (or later)...
Speaking in a more generalized way: In the U.S., AT&T is not recognized as the cellphone provider with the best technical infrastructure (more to the contrary) and this did obviously not hinder Apple to strike the deal with AT&T.
I think that, for Apple, more important factors are money (like a good share in the partner's monthly revenues), money again (like some other lucrative side agreements) and, eventually, having their design vanities not disturbed by demands for a heavy branding of the iPhones by provider logos etc.
If and when KHTML moves to (L)GPLv3, Apple will just have to start a GPLv2 fork of it.
So, any future contributions by Apple will go to the GPLv2 fork.
Yes, a proud day for the GPLv3.
Even better, another one of those nice days the KHMTL team already has enjoyed with Apple before.
Walter.
Keep in mind that Apple did approach Verizon first; Verizon turned it down.
I've seen a Verizon executive quoted saying that Apple wanted their share of the monthly revenues which Verizon denied.
So one may speculate whether AT&T/Cingular have been more "co-operative" in their negotiations with Apple or not...
Walter.
I'm just hoping that once this damn thing is released Apple will remember that it makes computers too.
Don't bet more than just a few cents on this.
Remember, in January Apple removed the "Computer" part from their company name altogether.
I thought getting an iPhone might be interesting, but to be honest the barrage of media coverage has been *so* excessive I'm already sick of the damn thing and it hasn't even been released!
So, the answer would be no.
When the iPhone will be finally available on this side of the pond (Europe), perhaps I (and other people) will have been using the OpenMoko/Neo1973 for some time:
http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Main_Page
http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Neo1973
Walter.
---
Linux on a PowerBook - great thing.
Barking to the tune of his master's voice.
Surprise? Not really.
"$75 to go from 512mb to 1gb is way too much."
That's nothing.
Have a look at the prices Apple charges for more RAM in the new MacBook Pro series, the 15" model.
To go from 2 GB to 4 GB they want you to spend $750. (Yes, that`s 750 like in "seven hundred and fifty").
Another example, also from the MacBook Pro 15" offering:
A 160 GB HD drive with 5400 rppm is standard, Apple asks $150 for the BTO option of getting an HD drive of the same capacity (160 GB), just with 7200 rpm.
It was Usher in 1530 or so that reasoned through the book of Numbers and guessed at the 5,000 year total.
Make this 120 years later, like 1650:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Ussher
And yes, Usher (Ussher) was wrong, and so are the creationists of our days.
To Usher's excuse, he didn't have a lot of scientific information at hand that is easily avaliable today.
...told them about the implications of GPL to begin with?
:-)
So Tivo has been spending lots of money on low-quality legal consultancy for years.
And as to spending money:
Tivo should start spending money, real money, today, on a DRM-friendly type of software base for their gear.
Tivo should consider something like Windows Embedded and start shelling out tons of money for licences.
From me, just a cordial "harr, harr" for Tivo (and all the others of that ilk).
Well done, Richard Stallman, Eben Moglen, Larry Lessig, and whoever contributed to the GPL, esp. GPL v3.
Many thanks to you all.
Walter.
When the iPhone eventually hits the major Asian markets, some other manufacturers like this one
s e-stand-up-25709.php
;-)
http://www.myiphone.com/will-the-real-iphone-plea
will have their third or fourth generations out
I will probably be going for the Neo1673 and OpenMoko platform:
http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Main_Page
Some time after the introduction of GPL v3, Novell might end up as the only company in the Linux distribution business that is not permitted to distribute kernel 2.6.xx in any form.
Business adversely affected? You bet.
Nobody (except MS people) has told little Ron and his colleagues to sign this foolish deal with Microsoft.
Next time, Novell, you better look before you leap.
But wait - there won't be a next time for you and your company? Too bad.
The reality is that Hitler didn't even succeed in rallying the Church around him any more or less then the rest of the German population. The earliest documentation of Hitler's anti-semeticism came in the post war years, where the Jews were blamed for the sudden inconceivable loss of World War I. You can speculate on earlier sources
% C3%B6nerer
/ Schubert58.php
Starting in second half of the 19th century, a new form of anti-semitism, a political one, arose in addition to the traditional anti-semitism of the Roman Catholic institutions (which is sometimes called "anti-judaism", in order to distinguish it from the newer ones) in Austria which was one of the leading powers on the continent these days.
Towards the end of the 19th century, The Alldeutsche Partei (Pan-German Party), a right-wing populistic party lead by Georg von Schoenerer was one of the the major players in the Reichsrat, the parliament of the "Austrian" half of the Austrian-Hungarian empire. This party was mainly based on (german-oriented) nationalism and an already fierce form of anti-semitism, politically as well as racially oriented.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg_Ritter_von_Sch
In 1914, before World War I broke out, the Austrian Reichsrat was dominated by the Christlich-Soziale Partei, until 1910 under the leadership of Dr. Karl Lueger who was an outspoken and fierce anti-semite of the christian (Roman Catholic) variant, and so was his whole party.
http://bob.swe.uni-linz.ac.at/Ebensee/Betrifft/58
So in the first decades of the 20th century, in the years of his youth, sadly, Adolf Hitler even had a choice of well-established sources to pick anti-semitic ideas from and later to build on them.
...why the Apple silhouette shakes so much.
:-)
Because of having realized how un-exciting life is, compared to the life of an Ann Summers silhouette?