I can respect that, the problem is it's not just a computer. It's a computer tied to a service. Here's the problem. I personally don't think Apple has a problem with arbitrary code. If it was just up to Apple, things like the C64 emulator and DosBox would probably be ok. They let these run on OS X, so why not the iPhone.
Arbitrary code is a problem for AT&T. They don't want Skype giving customers unlimited talk minutes for $40/month. They don't want streaming data. They don't want high volume data. These restriction have more to do with AT&T than Apple, and that is why I don't get the Apple hate. Oh, and Verizon, T-Moble and Sprint would all be doing the same thing. The wireless infrastructure in this country is holding back the iPhone, not Apple. If the Government would treat cell towers like they did telephone lines, this would not be a problem.
And the iPhone isn't "compatible" with USB Mass Storage support. Could they make it compatible? Sure. Could Microsoft make the XBOX play Playstation games? Sure they could. How when it is "hardware incompatible"? The same freaking way the PS3 does, virtualization. See your saying because it's a simple driver they are obligated to do it. I say companies are free to sell their products as they see fit. The market will judge the decision. In this case you are in the minority. Nothing to see here, move along, move along.
I can't play a DVD without a licensed player. I can't play Playstation games on my XBOX I can't play Wii games on my XBOX I can't use a Wii controller on my XBOX I can't put a Honda water pump on my Ford
When will companies stop "renting" me their hardware and let me use it with whatever I want? There is a fine line and Apple skirts it. I feel they haven't crossed it. You do. Difference of opinion.
It's because Windows caches the password right or wrong. It assumes if it can't connect with the password provided, something else must be wrong, not the password. Accordingly it does not re-prompt for the password. If it's wrong the user has to go in through the Network Connection properties to fix it. Microsoft is attempting to dumb down the process and therefore asks for the password twice so they can verify the two passwords are identical before caching it. The idea is if you type it the same way twice, it must be teh right password. I hate it too, just explaining it. I always type it in Notepad and then paste it in both fields!
I can understand the cost aspect, but the iPhone does not cost me $1000 a year.
First I already had a cell phone voice plan ~$45 for my "line" and $15 for my wife's "line" or more correctly $30 per line. I added a data plan, $30 a month for the other features of the phone. Add in the taxes, my bill is a little over $100 a month for 2 lines. I've added family text messaging for another $30 a month. But, like the voice plan this has nothing to do with the iPhone.
So the iPhone "costs" me $360 a year for the data plan. For reference I was paying $40/month for data on a Windows mobile smart phone before the iPhone existed. So technically, I saw value in those services before the iPhone and it costs me nothing over what I was already paying.
Me I plugged my razor in every night. I'm home, the wall outlet is right there. It's not like there is a benefit to NOT putting it on the charger. What's the point of 5 day standby charge. What is your phone . So the smart phone jump was easy for me. I like the iPhone because it is a good phone. The other items justify the contract. I want a GPS, I could go buy a device, but I know I wouldn't carry it with me every day. I'd take it on trips only. I have an iPod. I don't take that with me every day. I have a laptop. I only take that when I am working. But sometimes I am somewhere and I say, I wish I had my laptop, I wish I could pull up a map, I wish I could listen to some music. For that the iPhone is with me everywhere I go.
They have sold about 11 million of them. The other 29 million are iPod Touches which are the same devices sans cell radio/GPS and "expensive" contract.
Now here's the thing. The iPhone doesn't suck as a phone. It's about as good as any other I've had. It beats my Cingular 8550 that I had. My Razor was "better", but it couldn't do all the things I want/need.
Now here's the last thing. AT&T is as crappy as all the other major wireless providers in the US. Sprint has crappy signal. T-Mobile isn't even available where I live. Verizon is MORE expensive than AT&T. The data plan is the same as ANY other smartphone. The tethering plan will be the same as EVERY other smartphone. The text messaging plan is the same as EVERY other text messaging plan. Apple wanted to sell a cell phone. They looked for a receptive carrier and AT&T was it. Let's stop complaining about non-issues and judge the phone on it's merit. Oh wait that's right, they have "hip" commercials so now matter how "good" the phone is, it's just hype and marketing. Microsoft has crap products and good marketing. We hate them. Novell has great products and crap marketing, we ignore them. Apple has great products and great advertising and we despise them. Why?
Which of these is "using your phones data on another device?"
1. Reading a web page
2. Connecting you iPhone to your computer and it syncing music purchased from the phone back to iTunes
3. Tethering
4. Connecting your iPhone to your TV and playing YouTube videos
5. Taking a picture of your phone from a external camera
Answer: ALL OF THEM
If it was just a worry about torrents, block the ports. This is a mobile device. People aren't going to be walking around with a laptop open and cell phone in hand just so a torrent can download. Some might decide to ditch their home Internet and just use the cell. Again though, power users will not do this. Gamers will have too much latency on wireless. Down loaders want their computer downloading when they are out with their phone. I would not pay for tethering, because I would probably only use it 12-24 times a year.
What taxes don't raise? Income tax is a percentage. Sales tax you mention. Car "licenses" are a well documented calamity in California. Unless wages are not keeping pace with inflation, income tax is not at 1978 levels either. Oh, they need a bigger percentage you say? Why? What services do we need now that we didn't have in 1978? Why can't they get voter support for these services? You already said they cut our Police, Fire, Schools, and Road repair. So with all those cuts and the same percentage of income, why can't they handle it?
So where does the money go? Social programs. Yes i said it, I'm a racist and a biggot. We pass laws in California that force us to provide government services to illegal immigrants. These people don't pay income tax, they don't pay license registration fees and they fill up about 25% of the prisions you want to complain about. I know I'm cold, heartless, and think of the children.
It does. But for the last 5 years the budget was "balanced" with loans. California is no longer able to secure credit, and is therefore no longer able to balance their budget. Don't ask me how this fulfills the requirements of the law. Doesn't make sense to me.
Every time a house is sold, the property taxes are made current. The only people paying 1978 tax revenues are people who have been in the same house since 1978. Even then, the tax rate can be raised 2% a year until it reaches 1% of the property value. So, even if you bought your house in 1978, you are not paying 1% of $30,000 in property taxes.
Say you bought a house in 1978 for $30,000. Lets assume a steady 4% increase in the value of your home. That puts the current price around $101,194 which seems reasonable for my area of California (Central Valley.) with a steady 4% increase in property value, and a consistent 2% increase in your property tax, you would be paying the maximum $1,011.94 (1%) in property taxes for you home. Now there are going to be years of less than 4% growth and years of more than 4% growth. 2 years ago that house was selling for $200,000. But on average, Prop 13 is not killing the state's revenue from property tax.
Texas is about the same population as California, has no income tax, higher sales tax, similar property tax, and is much better off. Spending is the problem, not Revenue.
I believe these numbers, but there are some caveats. First urban and rural can be tricky. My school District reports as urban as our schools are physically located in an urban area. However we bus students from rural areas to our schools. Urban doesn't mean smack in the middle of San Fransisco.
Second this is for California, and in California we have this thing called the Williams Act which was part of a settlement of a lawsuit filled against the California Department of Education. Per the Williams Act, our school must ensure each student has access to a book at home, and one at school. This means for every classroom that teaches math, we need the number of periods +1 textbooks for that classroom. How does this work with eTextbooks? Is the student having Internet access at home, access to the book? What if there are three kids in the family and they all need to do homework, thus view their individual textbooks? What if they don't have Internet Access? What if they don't have a computer? Access at school is not good enough under the California law.
E-Rate only pays for a primary connection. E-Rate is a FEDERAL program not a state program. CTF (California Teleconnect Fund) will pay on multiple connection I believe. But if you do not leverage E-Rate discounts, the CTF discount is lowered. Since you can't leverage E-Rate on a second link, you cannotget "full" CTF discounts on your secondary link.
The California State Board has a list of approved books, not just one per subject. The local School Board does have final say on the textbooks used in the local district. Books are normally replaced due to inability to replace damaged books. We probably have 5-10% of the books each year that are lost or damaged. Damaged books get sent off for repairs. When we no longer have enough books for the students, we order replacements. The publisher make minor revisions and publish new editions every few years. When we need replacements and the same edition is not available, we repurchase the new edition so the textbooks are the same for each student.
These are requirements thanks to the William's Act lawsuit on equal access to materials. Every student must have a book to take home and access to a class set in the classroom. These books must be the same or we can be sued for not providing an equal education. What will be interesting is how the Williams Act applies to online textbooks. I can see every district on the hook for Kindles or iPod touches to allow students to take the textbook home.
Yes but in the one device for everything category, the iPhone wins. I don't work 24/7. I don't take my laptop to family functions. I don't take my laptop to dinner with my wife. So when we are out, and need to look something up on the internet, there is my iPhone. The perfect size, I carry my phone anyways. This is the market the iPhone wants, and it's a large market as Apple has shown us.
Windows Mobile phones have the same data plan restrictions on AT&T for subsidized phones. Not sure what the big deal is.
Not sure if they "removed" the requirement or not. 4 years ago I bought Motorola Razors off e-bay. Came with European plugs and an adapter. I plugged my SIM in and it worked great. AT&T's site listed my old phone and not my Razor as my device, but I didn't care.
I meant 64 MB, got my small memory ammounts confused. When I bought my Cingular 8550, I couldn't find one with more than 64 MB or ram. I would have loved 128 MB, but really wanted 256 MB minimum. Why? Memory cards are great for photos and files, but not so great for Apps. Especially mission critical apps like e-mail syncing software and battery/program management software.
That was 2 and a half years ago. Phones still typically come with only 64 MB or built in ram. Why? Yes it's cheap to buy a memory card, but that is all the more reason they should build in a descent amount. It would cost them nothing. A 64 MB HTC Advance costs the same as a 16 GB iPhone. I went with the iPhone for more than just the stored memory, but it was one of a long list of features that tipped the scales for Apple.
Yes, the iPhone lacks a memory slot, but 16 GB is plenty, with a 32 GB model coming out in a month for thoes that 16 is not enough for. By the time I upgrade to a new iPhone I will probably be able to get a 64 or 128GB model! Yes the iPhone doesn't "multi-task", but I can only see one program on the screen at a time anyways. I have yet to say to myself, "I wish I could run two programs right now." What the iPhone does have is a consistent user experience. All the programs have been responsive and have adequate speed for a mobile platform. Battery life has been acceptable, although I'd love it to be longer. The iPhone allows me to carry one device, which is what I wanted. I don't want to carry one device and a wallet of memory cards. I don't want to carry one device and two spare batteries.
I can't name another phone that gives you more than 640k WITHOUT buying a memory card after you already paid $500 for a phone, oh wait, I can the 16 GB iPhone. It's all relative. How often do you swap memory cards to get more space?
Depends on what you mean by better off. If you rarely use the web browser because it sucks and I use my iPhones web browser everyday, then you paid less, but did you get better value? What was your price per megabyte versus my price per megabyte on my iPhone? I'm not saying your wrong, just price isn't everything.
I believe it has been standard practice that images taken in a public place are the property of the photographer. They didn't break into a morgue and take the photos. These were taken on a public highway. They are very graphic, but I feel they could serve a great purpose as awareness to teenagers about how they drive. In that context, does the good of these images outweigh the family's "right to privacy" on a public road? I understand the pain these images could cause, but they should be able to avoid seeing them. The people e-mailing these photos to them should get prosecuted though.
More I think about we're missing the boat. It's not so much adverts as classified ads. They probably generated a lot of revenue for the papers. Now, instead of a classified ad, people use e-bay and Craigslist.
The salaries are paid by the AP. The AP doesn't make money on ads, it makes money on selling articles to newspapers. These newspapers make ad revenue and subscription revenue.
Now, I live in a small town, ~50,000. I subscribe to the local paper and quite honestly I find little in it that isn't outdated or on CNN. For local news, the free 100% ad supported community paper has much better content.
Not really fair. ActiveX got it's bad reputation from 8 years ago when the user DIDN'T hit install. Or did you forget your Windows experience pre XP SP2. ActiveX was most definitely a vulnerability.
This is also one of the biggest concerns with bandwidth metering. A customer sells in 8 year old XP machine that shipped with Automatic Updates off. His brand new Vista machine shipped with Automatic Updates on. His bill jumps up and he doesn't know why.
Windows Update, Apple Software Update, Java Update, Adobe Updater, Virus signatures, Spyware signatures, all the badly coded 1024x768 Flash websites that think they are Web 2.0. Suddenly this all costs money, and we haven't even gotten into the malware and viruses that are "surfing" for you when you are not around. The average consumer will not understand how they used so much "bandwidth" when they just check their e-mail.
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I can respect that, the problem is it's not just a computer. It's a computer tied to a service. Here's the problem. I personally don't think Apple has a problem with arbitrary code. If it was just up to Apple, things like the C64 emulator and DosBox would probably be ok. They let these run on OS X, so why not the iPhone.
Arbitrary code is a problem for AT&T. They don't want Skype giving customers unlimited talk minutes for $40/month. They don't want streaming data. They don't want high volume data. These restriction have more to do with AT&T than Apple, and that is why I don't get the Apple hate. Oh, and Verizon, T-Moble and Sprint would all be doing the same thing. The wireless infrastructure in this country is holding back the iPhone, not Apple. If the Government would treat cell towers like they did telephone lines, this would not be a problem.
And the iPhone isn't "compatible" with USB Mass Storage support. Could they make it compatible? Sure. Could Microsoft make the XBOX play Playstation games? Sure they could. How when it is "hardware incompatible"? The same freaking way the PS3 does, virtualization. See your saying because it's a simple driver they are obligated to do it. I say companies are free to sell their products as they see fit. The market will judge the decision. In this case you are in the minority. Nothing to see here, move along, move along.
I can't play a DVD without a licensed player.
I can't play Playstation games on my XBOX
I can't play Wii games on my XBOX
I can't use a Wii controller on my XBOX
I can't put a Honda water pump on my Ford
When will companies stop "renting" me their hardware and let me use it with whatever I want? There is a fine line and Apple skirts it. I feel they haven't crossed it. You do. Difference of opinion.
It's because Windows caches the password right or wrong. It assumes if it can't connect with the password provided, something else must be wrong, not the password. Accordingly it does not re-prompt for the password. If it's wrong the user has to go in through the Network Connection properties to fix it. Microsoft is attempting to dumb down the process and therefore asks for the password twice so they can verify the two passwords are identical before caching it. The idea is if you type it the same way twice, it must be teh right password. I hate it too, just explaining it. I always type it in Notepad and then paste it in both fields!
I can understand the cost aspect, but the iPhone does not cost me $1000 a year.
First I already had a cell phone voice plan ~$45 for my "line" and $15 for my wife's "line" or more correctly $30 per line.
I added a data plan, $30 a month for the other features of the phone.
Add in the taxes, my bill is a little over $100 a month for 2 lines.
I've added family text messaging for another $30 a month. But, like the voice plan this has nothing to do with the iPhone.
So the iPhone "costs" me $360 a year for the data plan. For reference I was paying $40/month for data on a Windows mobile smart phone before the iPhone existed. So technically, I saw value in those services before the iPhone and it costs me nothing over what I was already paying.
Me I plugged my razor in every night. I'm home, the wall outlet is right there. It's not like there is a benefit to NOT putting it on the charger. What's the point of 5 day standby charge. What is your phone . So the smart phone jump was easy for me. I like the iPhone because it is a good phone. The other items justify the contract. I want a GPS, I could go buy a device, but I know I wouldn't carry it with me every day. I'd take it on trips only. I have an iPod. I don't take that with me every day. I have a laptop. I only take that when I am working. But sometimes I am somewhere and I say, I wish I had my laptop, I wish I could pull up a map, I wish I could listen to some music. For that the iPhone is with me everywhere I go.
Now here's the thing. The iPhone doesn't suck as a phone. It's about as good as any other I've had. It beats my Cingular 8550 that I had. My Razor was "better", but it couldn't do all the things I want/need.
Now here's the last thing. AT&T is as crappy as all the other major wireless providers in the US. Sprint has crappy signal. T-Mobile isn't even available where I live. Verizon is MORE expensive than AT&T. The data plan is the same as ANY other smartphone. The tethering plan will be the same as EVERY other smartphone. The text messaging plan is the same as EVERY other text messaging plan. Apple wanted to sell a cell phone. They looked for a receptive carrier and AT&T was it. Let's stop complaining about non-issues and judge the phone on it's merit. Oh wait that's right, they have "hip" commercials so now matter how "good" the phone is, it's just hype and marketing. Microsoft has crap products and good marketing. We hate them. Novell has great products and crap marketing, we ignore them. Apple has great products and great advertising and we despise them. Why?
Which of these is "using your phones data on another device?" 1. Reading a web page 2. Connecting you iPhone to your computer and it syncing music purchased from the phone back to iTunes 3. Tethering 4. Connecting your iPhone to your TV and playing YouTube videos 5. Taking a picture of your phone from a external camera Answer: ALL OF THEM
If it was just a worry about torrents, block the ports. This is a mobile device. People aren't going to be walking around with a laptop open and cell phone in hand just so a torrent can download. Some might decide to ditch their home Internet and just use the cell. Again though, power users will not do this. Gamers will have too much latency on wireless. Down loaders want their computer downloading when they are out with their phone. I would not pay for tethering, because I would probably only use it 12-24 times a year.
What taxes don't raise? Income tax is a percentage. Sales tax you mention. Car "licenses" are a well documented calamity in California. Unless wages are not keeping pace with inflation, income tax is not at 1978 levels either. Oh, they need a bigger percentage you say? Why? What services do we need now that we didn't have in 1978? Why can't they get voter support for these services? You already said they cut our Police, Fire, Schools, and Road repair. So with all those cuts and the same percentage of income, why can't they handle it?
So where does the money go? Social programs. Yes i said it, I'm a racist and a biggot. We pass laws in California that force us to provide government services to illegal immigrants. These people don't pay income tax, they don't pay license registration fees and they fill up about 25% of the prisions you want to complain about. I know I'm cold, heartless, and think of the children.
It does. But for the last 5 years the budget was "balanced" with loans. California is no longer able to secure credit, and is therefore no longer able to balance their budget. Don't ask me how this fulfills the requirements of the law. Doesn't make sense to me.
Every time a house is sold, the property taxes are made current. The only people paying 1978 tax revenues are people who have been in the same house since 1978. Even then, the tax rate can be raised 2% a year until it reaches 1% of the property value. So, even if you bought your house in 1978, you are not paying 1% of $30,000 in property taxes.
Say you bought a house in 1978 for $30,000. Lets assume a steady 4% increase in the value of your home. That puts the current price around $101,194 which seems reasonable for my area of California (Central Valley.) with a steady 4% increase in property value, and a consistent 2% increase in your property tax, you would be paying the maximum $1,011.94 (1%) in property taxes for you home. Now there are going to be years of less than 4% growth and years of more than 4% growth. 2 years ago that house was selling for $200,000. But on average, Prop 13 is not killing the state's revenue from property tax.
Texas is about the same population as California, has no income tax, higher sales tax, similar property tax, and is much better off. Spending is the problem, not Revenue.
I believe these numbers, but there are some caveats. First urban and rural can be tricky. My school District reports as urban as our schools are physically located in an urban area. However we bus students from rural areas to our schools. Urban doesn't mean smack in the middle of San Fransisco.
Second this is for California, and in California we have this thing called the Williams Act which was part of a settlement of a lawsuit filled against the California Department of Education. Per the Williams Act, our school must ensure each student has access to a book at home, and one at school. This means for every classroom that teaches math, we need the number of periods +1 textbooks for that classroom. How does this work with eTextbooks? Is the student having Internet access at home, access to the book? What if there are three kids in the family and they all need to do homework, thus view their individual textbooks? What if they don't have Internet Access? What if they don't have a computer? Access at school is not good enough under the California law.
E-Rate only pays for a primary connection. E-Rate is a FEDERAL program not a state program. CTF (California Teleconnect Fund) will pay on multiple connection I believe. But if you do not leverage E-Rate discounts, the CTF discount is lowered. Since you can't leverage E-Rate on a second link, you cannotget "full" CTF discounts on your secondary link.
The California State Board has a list of approved books, not just one per subject. The local School Board does have final say on the textbooks used in the local district. Books are normally replaced due to inability to replace damaged books. We probably have 5-10% of the books each year that are lost or damaged. Damaged books get sent off for repairs. When we no longer have enough books for the students, we order replacements. The publisher make minor revisions and publish new editions every few years. When we need replacements and the same edition is not available, we repurchase the new edition so the textbooks are the same for each student. These are requirements thanks to the William's Act lawsuit on equal access to materials. Every student must have a book to take home and access to a class set in the classroom. These books must be the same or we can be sued for not providing an equal education. What will be interesting is how the Williams Act applies to online textbooks. I can see every district on the hook for Kindles or iPod touches to allow students to take the textbook home.
Yes but in the one device for everything category, the iPhone wins. I don't work 24/7. I don't take my laptop to family functions. I don't take my laptop to dinner with my wife. So when we are out, and need to look something up on the internet, there is my iPhone. The perfect size, I carry my phone anyways. This is the market the iPhone wants, and it's a large market as Apple has shown us. Windows Mobile phones have the same data plan restrictions on AT&T for subsidized phones. Not sure what the big deal is.
Not sure if they "removed" the requirement or not. 4 years ago I bought Motorola Razors off e-bay. Came with European plugs and an adapter. I plugged my SIM in and it worked great. AT&T's site listed my old phone and not my Razor as my device, but I didn't care.
I meant 64 MB, got my small memory ammounts confused. When I bought my Cingular 8550, I couldn't find one with more than 64 MB or ram. I would have loved 128 MB, but really wanted 256 MB minimum. Why? Memory cards are great for photos and files, but not so great for Apps. Especially mission critical apps like e-mail syncing software and battery/program management software.
That was 2 and a half years ago. Phones still typically come with only 64 MB or built in ram. Why? Yes it's cheap to buy a memory card, but that is all the more reason they should build in a descent amount. It would cost them nothing. A 64 MB HTC Advance costs the same as a 16 GB iPhone. I went with the iPhone for more than just the stored memory, but it was one of a long list of features that tipped the scales for Apple.
Yes, the iPhone lacks a memory slot, but 16 GB is plenty, with a 32 GB model coming out in a month for thoes that 16 is not enough for. By the time I upgrade to a new iPhone I will probably be able to get a 64 or 128GB model! Yes the iPhone doesn't "multi-task", but I can only see one program on the screen at a time anyways. I have yet to say to myself, "I wish I could run two programs right now." What the iPhone does have is a consistent user experience. All the programs have been responsive and have adequate speed for a mobile platform. Battery life has been acceptable, although I'd love it to be longer. The iPhone allows me to carry one device, which is what I wanted. I don't want to carry one device and a wallet of memory cards. I don't want to carry one device and two spare batteries.
I can't name another phone that gives you more than 640k WITHOUT buying a memory card after you already paid $500 for a phone, oh wait, I can the 16 GB iPhone. It's all relative. How often do you swap memory cards to get more space?
Depends on what you mean by better off. If you rarely use the web browser because it sucks and I use my iPhones web browser everyday, then you paid less, but did you get better value? What was your price per megabyte versus my price per megabyte on my iPhone? I'm not saying your wrong, just price isn't everything.
I believe it has been standard practice that images taken in a public place are the property of the photographer. They didn't break into a morgue and take the photos. These were taken on a public highway. They are very graphic, but I feel they could serve a great purpose as awareness to teenagers about how they drive. In that context, does the good of these images outweigh the family's "right to privacy" on a public road? I understand the pain these images could cause, but they should be able to avoid seeing them. The people e-mailing these photos to them should get prosecuted though.
More I think about we're missing the boat. It's not so much adverts as classified ads. They probably generated a lot of revenue for the papers. Now, instead of a classified ad, people use e-bay and Craigslist.
The salaries are paid by the AP. The AP doesn't make money on ads, it makes money on selling articles to newspapers. These newspapers make ad revenue and subscription revenue.
Now, I live in a small town, ~50,000. I subscribe to the local paper and quite honestly I find little in it that isn't outdated or on CNN. For local news, the free 100% ad supported community paper has much better content.
Not really fair. ActiveX got it's bad reputation from 8 years ago when the user DIDN'T hit install. Or did you forget your Windows experience pre XP SP2. ActiveX was most definitely a vulnerability.
This is also one of the biggest concerns with bandwidth metering. A customer sells in 8 year old XP machine that shipped with Automatic Updates off. His brand new Vista machine shipped with Automatic Updates on. His bill jumps up and he doesn't know why.
Windows Update, Apple Software Update, Java Update, Adobe Updater, Virus signatures, Spyware signatures, all the badly coded 1024x768 Flash websites that think they are Web 2.0. Suddenly this all costs money, and we haven't even gotten into the malware and viruses that are "surfing" for you when you are not around. The average consumer will not understand how they used so much "bandwidth" when they just check their e-mail.