Does owning People Ready Business mean that Microsoft has given up the rights of calling employees stupid dinosaurs that need to buy a new version of Office in order to survive?
If so, maybe I can use that ad campaign idea myself. Hey executives: Buy my crap, or you are a stupid dinosaur! What an effective campaign. Interesting to see Microsoft do a 180 in terms of flattery.
Exactly. And this isn't something new from Microsoft. During the anti-trust trial, it set up a fake grassroots movement to "condemn the government going after a poor criminal corporation just trying to innovate," and was busted by the LA Times. The Zune had a similar astroturf campaign that suggested real interest in the product, when all of the sites were simply parroting off a campaign.
Journalists have been reading ad copy on the radio for as long as there's been radio, but we know its an ad. Journalists with integrity present advertising as advertising, they don't present opinions about a campaign as part of the campaign, and intermingled with their other opinions. That's clearly a difference.
This is the same thing Fox News gets raked over the coals for: reporting a decreed spin on events from a central editorial board rather than facts. The media is too important as an information source to turn it into a commercial and political joke, just because it is financially expedient to do so.
Re:products did not end with a whimper
on
All Things iPhone
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· Score: 1
i guess I'm more concerned with offering accurate information than in sensationalist sound-biting. I don't argue over buzzwords and jingles, I try to present what is.
And yeah whatever -- you know that's my website, you know you are trying to insult me, and you know there was never any Digg thing apart from what you are trying to generate. "Poster farmer"? What a stretch to pull that out your ass. i think you are a big part of what is wrong with the world. A flaccid pile of ignorant crap. I'll simply wipe you off my shoe and keep on going.
Weren't you paying attention when they explained that [everyone you have sex with] * [everyone they have sex with] = everyone you've had sex with?
Oh wait, this is Slashdot. Never mind, and I'll get out of your basement and leave you alone with your game. You mom says keep the shouting down.
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One thing that is interesting: Apple has a web based newsreader up on.Mac designed for the iPhone: http://reader.mac.com/
So yes, there is more integration that you might have imagined going on.
Re:products did not end with a whimper
on
All Things iPhone
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· Score: 1
The Newton wasn't so much a flop as it was a poorly aimed product that Apple didn't really bother to sell. It started out as a do everything tablet, and then Apple executives crippled it into an oversized handheld so as not to compete against the Mac. Apple then never got around to completing its sync software, and did a crappy job of supporting third party accessories.
As one Newton developer explained: "Apple's sales expectations were far too high. The Apple II sold 16,000 units the second year it was out and was considered a huge success. The Mac sold 60,000 units its first year and was considered a modest success. The Newton sold over 100,000 units its first year and was a 'flop.'"
When Newton sales did begin to take off, Apple was in such bad shape that it wasn't really in the position to manage it. By then (1997), the cheap Palm was arriving, although Apple had several licensees lined up, including Motorola, who sold it as the wireless Marco. Jobs killed it perhaps because he thought it was a distraction and based on too much experimental technology to be practical. It had no specific purpose; it tried to do everything, and was only fair at all things.
Compare Windows CE, which took off in 1998, and was a bad joke until at least 2002. Since then, it has been a poor product, struggling for applications. It's still embarrassing after a decade of work. Even Microsoft decided to give up on WinCE for use in the Xbox and then Origami. It was never really good at anything apart from being a Palm Pilot replacement. Unfortunately, the Palm pilot didn't need a replacement because nobody wanted PDAs.
Now look at the iPhone: clear purpose as a phone, an iPod, and a web browser. Lots of cool tech, solid sync system already in place and working for the iPod/Apple TV, media ecosystem behind it, incredible brand and marketing, a hugely successful chain of retail stores waiting to pitch it. This quite obviously isn't a Newton.
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Newton Lessons for Apple's New Platform Apple is building a new platform, and applying lessons it learned from the 90s, when tried to launch the Newton as a new platform. Like the original Macintosh from a decade prior, the Newton started as one product, and intended to branch out into a range of systems. Here's why it failed and the lessons to be learned.
Apple: iPhone Now Costs Less than Ballmer's Lame Motorola Q After earlier blowing apart iPhone battery panic with an announcement of 8 hours of talk time, Apple dropped yet another bombshell upon "business as usual" in the mobile market. In addition to simplified calling plans that start well under what had been predicted, the company also unveiled home activation....With the new plans announced by Apple and AT&T, that has changed. The minimum plan with unlimited data is $59, or $1416 over two years. That makes the iPhone over a hundred dollars less than Verizon's limp Motorola Q.
Using Apple's iPhone in the Enterprise The iPhone is quite obviously targeted at consumers. However, it offers a significant leap forward in key features which make it attractive to business customers, particularly executives who like having the best communications tools available.
ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley Says Apple's iPhone Needs ActiveSync Mary Jo Foley, who describes her ZDNet blog as "an unblinking eye on Microsoft," seems to have been charged with the unpleasant task of producing a somewhat positive sounding iPhone story, and gave it her best shot. Unfortunately, it wasn't very well thought out, and reflects a preoccupation with flattering Microsoft.
Yes, you do get what you pay for. I'd agree that.Mac needs a significant upgrade, but the baseline service is $99, for the same as what MS is offering. What.Mac really needs is a speed upgrade and far higher bandwidth limits, so it makes any sense as a hosting service.
When I had the chance to skewer Steve Jobs about it, it did.
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Answers from Steve Jobs at Apple's Shareholder Meeting At Apple Inc.'s May 10 annual shareholder meeting, a series of proposals were presented for voting after which CEO Steve Jobs answered a series of questions from the audience.
ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley Says Apple's iPhone Needs ActiveSync Mary Jo Foley, who describes her ZDNet blog as "an unblinking eye on Microsoft," seems to have been charged with the unpleasant task of producing a somewhat positive sounding iPhone story, and gave it her best shot. Unfortunately, it wasn't very well thought out, and reflects a preoccupation with flattering Microsoft.
Privacy, security, speed? Even with a hot downlink, you generally get a slow upload. And many people don't have fast internet, particularly here in the backward US.
Relying on service providers is great as long as they work flawlessly. Once they go "offline for maintenance" at random times, or lose your data "sorry, we recommend backups," your perspective changes. Google is also infamous for deciding on a whim to cancel user's accounts, which makes depending on them a bit risky. Is Microsoft going to do better? This company playedforsure its own significant partners, is it going to give a crap about joe schmoes?
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Using Apple's iPhone in the Enterprise The iPhone is quite obviously targeted at consumers. However, it offers a significant leap forward in key features which make it attractive to business customers, particularly executives who like having the best communications tools available.
ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley Says Apple's iPhone Needs ActiveSync Mary Jo Foley, who describes her ZDNet blog as "an unblinking eye on Microsoft," seems to have been charged with the unpleasant task of producing a somewhat positive sounding iPhone story, and gave it her best shot. Unfortunately, it wasn't very well thought out, and reflects a preoccupation with flattering Microsoft.
Certainly Google can stumble, but what did you say about the 360 entering late and doing better than expected? HAHA!
The 360 jumped the gun on the next gen consoles, so it entered the game a year ahead of the Wii and PS3. Even so, Microsoft had to stuff the channel unmercifully just to meet its US goals. It has not done anything in foreign markets, and in the US it satiated the market and has not been doing well.
This spring, Microsoft even dropped their 5 million estimate for the first half of 07 down to 2. The growth is dead, and the Wii is outpacing it rapidly, even with an exclusive year head start for the 360. The market is panning both the 360 and PS3 as more of the same, and sales are very much not doing even as good as expected.
It's one thing to be excited about a product, but don't make up shit that isn't remotely true just because you like playing xbox.
The iPhone already has.Mac integration, because iTunes already syncs it with Safari's bookmarks, email/contacts/calendars, and email settings. ITunes in turn, syncs with.Mac. Users don't have to do anything, and they don't even need to pay for.Mac unless they have various systems they all want to sync together.
Also, bookmarks, contacts, and email can be accessed from.Mac via the web, which the iPhone can do too. I suppose there would be further ways to integrate or expand.Mac, but it works as is already. I don't know what Microsoft offers that is comparable.
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ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley Says Apple's iPhone Needs ActiveSync Mary Jo Foley, who describes her ZDNet blog as "an unblinking eye on Microsoft," seems to have been charged with the unpleasant task of producing a somewhat positive sounding iPhone story, and gave it her best shot. Unfortunately, it wasn't very well thought out, and reflects a preoccupation with flattering Microsoft.
For all that can be complained of.Mac, it has no ads.
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ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley Says Apple's iPhone Needs ActiveSync Mary Jo Foley, who describes her ZDNet blog as "an unblinking eye on Microsoft," seems to have been charged with the unpleasant task of producing a somewhat positive sounding iPhone story, and gave it her best shot. Unfortunately, it wasn't very well thought out, and reflects a preoccupation with flattering Microsoft.
the Apple TV's/iPhone's YouTube support is based on Google's migration to H.264. They do not use Flash for playing videos. Google migrated to get Apple's support, and Apple pushed for H.264 because both the ATV and the iPhone use specialized chips to decode H.264. Without using that, they'd have to decode video using the GPU, which wouldn't be as efficient.
Yes! Here's to hoping that the iPhone helps kill off Flash. Apple's ATV/iPhone deals with Google could eventually even push Flash off the main purpose it now serves: making a codec for crappy web videos.
If the only thing that can compete against Windows is free, and while even being free is making little impact on the desktop, then it's a sign that the market may not be open to competition.
It is also difficult to get Linux on name brand PCs. If you have to buy Windows, remove it and install Linux (or BSD or whatever), then it's hardly a competitor, because you've bought Windows. Remember than Microsoft doesn't care if a handful of people use Linux, as long as they also buy the Windows license.
I'm sorry but as a long time Treo user, I'll have to call you on your crap.
The Treo was cool five years ago because it pioneered the idea of having a Palm PDA with a phone. It hasn't kept up, and Palm OS is creaky and needs a bullet in the head. Even Palm abandoned its own product to deliver a Windows Mobile version, which is actually less functional and more problematic.
I hope the iPhone results in Palm closing down. It really deserves the failure it earned by dumping trash on its own customers.
The Egregious Incompetence of Palm Windows Mobile, Palm OS, Linux, and Symbian currently power the world's smartphones. How does each stack up against Apple's OS X in the iPhone? This article presents an overview of Palm. Palm's early products actually followed a trajectory strikingly similar to Apple's original Macintosh. Differences in the choices made at Palm provide an interesting glimpse into "what if" scenarios of a parallel universe.
You can avoid the iPod because it is a free market. You can buy a Zen or even a Zune.
You can't do the same in the PC market. You will grow grey hairs before Dell or HP or any other PC maker will offer you real options in your OS. Sure, a few token free OS offerings to hobbyists, but no commercial competition, and no hope for that situation to change. It's been the same since the early 90s. That's a monopoly.
Avoiding Windows is like trying to avoid roads or money. Sure you can barter and live in a cave, but there is really no option to avoiding Windows. You can easily avoid any products from Apple and find all sorts of competitive alternatives.
Apple: iPhone Now Costs Less than Ballmer's Lame Motorola Q After earlier blowing apart iPhone battery panic with an announcement of 8 hours of talk time, Apple dropped yet another bombshell upon "business as usual" in the mobile market....With the new plans announced by Apple and AT&T, that has changed. The minimum plan with unlimited data is $59, or $1416 over two years. That makes the $500 iPhone well over a hundred dollars less than Verizon's limp Motorola Q, which is $2170 with its required service plan.
I illustrate articles with graphics. They are not emotional, they are comical. If you think otherwise, you need to chill out.
Hypocrisy is too big a word for what you are talking about. Let go of the hyper-judgmental rhetoric and look at things for what they are.
Digg is largely a pile of retards. It is useless for finding tech articles worthy of reading, and the comments are all embarrassing to wade through. I have never been "busted" nor have I ever "gamed" their system, unless you count submitting articles that other voted up as "gaming." The only gaming on Digg that related to me was a bunch of censor trolls that didn't like to hear what I was saying and complained until the system automatically shut off the entire domain. Over 1000 readers wrote Digg to correct this, but they refused to because they didn't want to get hate mail from the trolls. Then Digg sent me an email saying, hey we fixed this, don't say anything about it.
I gave up on Digg but the Digg trolls now bury any article that is posted, sometimes before there are two Diggs on it. I have no interest in trying to promote intelligent ideas to a bunch of borderline retards who are looking for pictures and fan-based trash.
Some of us work in technology, and take issues seriously. I think free markets are a serious matter. I also think open engineering is a serious subject, and I try to draw attention to using open standards and open source. I'm glad Apple uses its marketing muscle to back open ideals, even if its in their own best interests.
I think Microsoft is a serious problem in the tech world, and I'm seriously pleased that the company is screwing up. I seriously hope the company falls into obscurity, because it deserves to.
I welcome criticism, but you don't present any facts or logic you take issue with, and instead just skim looking for phrases you can read meanings into and pull out as soundbites. I think that type of discourse is what is wrong with the world. It's like reading CNN.
Lots of PCs had USB ports on them, but they frequently did not work. Microsoft didn't provide real support for USB until Win 98 "Second Edition" in 1999, making those ports not so useful.
Conversely, the hardware makers who put USB on PCs were also guilty of slowing its adoption by leaving legacy RS-232 and parallel ports on their PCs until around 2006. Apple simply stripped everything old off the iMac and left USB as the only option. It also provided a fair keyboard and a horrible yoyo mouse that forced demand for a third party flood of USB peripherals.
I'm not trying to give Apple some special credit for "inventing USB," I'm just stating that Apple doesn't hold things up for PC users, it only pushes the state of the art. That is a good thing even for people who hate Apple. Apple is also pushing EFI after it pretty much died of a lack of interest in the Itanium and PC worlds. Intel Macs are basically PCs from the future.
Digg never banned by account, it only maintains a system that is easily manipulated by a handful of people such as yourself who organize censorship parties and try to bury anything they can't stand hearing.
All of your crackpot conspiracy theories you post under anonymous names amount to nothing but embittered ranting, and have done nothing to stop me from pointing out what you don't want to hear. How well did Windows Media work out? The Zune? Xbox sales? That 30% failure rate on the 360? Vista? I'm happy to point out the decline of the world's largest enemy of open source, and I'm glad you are getting so upset about it that you have to look foolish organizing attempts to hide the truth.
The fact that you only EVER post on Slashdot when you feel you need to "discredit" something I've pointed out, without offering anything more than a hyperventilating rant, just lets me know I'm headed in the right direction.
Gov't supplied phones can be carried around in certain areas only if the battery is removed. Personal phones aren't considered secure even if the battery is removed.
These people made the bomb.
Re:A level of bullshit I can barely comprehend...
on
The Perfect Phone Storm?
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· Score: 2, Insightful
Hi Matt,
Here's why your complaints above were undeserving of an insightful moderation:
You said I had the "gall to label some bloggers as 'impassioned.'" The gall?
While I describe a lot of people as impassioned (you're at the front of the line), its not the worst thing a person can be. What I have criticized in some of my articles is bloggers who rant on about a subject with highly emotional rhetoric without really trying to make a point, just using emotionalist language (like gall) to portray a sensationalist position and smear others without using any facts or reasoning. I hope my articles express some passion about what I think, but I also try to back up everything I say with reasonable logic. I do not intend to spread emotionalist fear.
I wrote a half dozen articles about the Zune because the CNET universe was shamelessly gagging on it in anticipation with regurgitated Talking Points. I pulled it apart as a bad product with a poorly conceived strategy at a time when nobody else was saying much of the same. Only after it failed miserably did it become fashionable to point out what a pile of crap it was. It was quite obviously a bad product, I just pointed it out first.
You rag on me for calling a spade a spade, but you didn't present any errors or falsely emotional appeals I made to inflate the iPhone beyond what it really is. I merely tore apart the baboonery that sits in for honest criticism these days. If you're going to post hate mail about my impassioned style, make sure you do it in a way that is at least as factual and logical as I try to be in my articles.
You are sounding a lot like the average Digg user. That is not a complement.
Are you arguing that Gizmodo's absurdist "AT&T boycott" is NPOV? Are you arguing that Gartner's white papers saying the iPhone "doesn't have a firewall" are NPOV? Are you saying Rob Enderle is NPOV?
This article is mainly refuting false information. It expresses opinions that are clearly stated in an open context. The author is not anonymous. It does not claim to be NPOV.
Is even Wikipedia really NPOV when it is written by people with unknown bias and intent? Are the anonymous comments above NPOV? Are there NPOV opinions?
Is NPOV "truth," or does it just claim to aspire to be? How does that make it different?
Is NPOV always two opinions presented equally? Is there a NPOV opinion on the success of the Iraq War? Does it require stating that things are going well, just because people might like it to be? Is pretending to be balanced and unbiased really offering truth if it presents information that is not accurate just to fill in both sides with some sort of faux-equality?
Not to mention that the iPhone can be externally charged from a battery pack, just like the iPod. I got an external battery the size of a deck of cards, and can watch movies and listen to music for 14 hour flights off the internal battery + the battery pack. No need to pop it open and swap batteries. I plan to do the same with the iPhone.
Finding a standard external battery to connect to a specific mobile phone is harder when you don't have a popular phone. When your phone works with iPod accessories, it's easy.
I have a Palm Treo, and I've never considered paying ~$60-80 for a replacement battery, particularly since it can only charge inside the phone, making it not very handy. It also requires you to shut down the phone to swap batteries, rather than just plugging in an external pack and continuing to use it while it recharges.
I'm certainly interested in what you found so reality twisting in the article.
Were you outraged that Gizmodo was called out for its bullshit emotionalist appeal to "boycott the iPhone," equating Cingular with the Bell Labs monopoly of the early 80s because both use the same logo?
Were you disgusted that Gartner got called out for prattling about how the iPhone can't be supported by IT groups due to factors that are not true, or its invented idea that the iPhone "has no firewall"?
Were you incensed to read that the iPhone will boost open web development, and that all iPhone apps will be automatically cross platform and will work on any mobile device with a standards-based browser?
What is it that got you so upset? Oh right, you didn't read it, you just snuck over from Digg to post some hatemail on a something you can't bother to critique, because you have nothing to say beyond a bunch of emotionalist appeals to disregard something that doesn't way what you want to hear. Why make corrections when you can just blow out blanket, unsupported generalizations? Why post when you have nothing to say?
You have posted nothing to Slashdot in the last year that was not "waa RoughlyDrafted hurts my eyes" complaints. You are a complete fraud. I am happy to have you as my detractor! Stand in line! There are a handful of your clones spewing the same garbage, and it only tells me that I'm headed in the right direction.
Slashdot Mirror
Does owning People Ready Business mean that Microsoft has given up the rights of calling employees stupid dinosaurs that need to buy a new version of Office in order to survive?
If so, maybe I can use that ad campaign idea myself. Hey executives: Buy my crap, or you are a stupid dinosaur! What an effective campaign. Interesting to see Microsoft do a 180 in terms of flattery.
Exactly. And this isn't something new from Microsoft. During the anti-trust trial, it set up a fake grassroots movement to "condemn the government going after a poor criminal corporation just trying to innovate," and was busted by the LA Times. The Zune had a similar astroturf campaign that suggested real interest in the product, when all of the sites were simply parroting off a campaign.
Journalists have been reading ad copy on the radio for as long as there's been radio, but we know its an ad. Journalists with integrity present advertising as advertising, they don't present opinions about a campaign as part of the campaign, and intermingled with their other opinions. That's clearly a difference.
This is the same thing Fox News gets raked over the coals for: reporting a decreed spin on events from a central editorial board rather than facts. The media is too important as an information source to turn it into a commercial and political joke, just because it is financially expedient to do so.
Pod vs Zune: Microsoft's Slippery Astroturf
i guess I'm more concerned with offering accurate information than in sensationalist sound-biting. I don't argue over buzzwords and jingles, I try to present what is.
And yeah whatever -- you know that's my website, you know you are trying to insult me, and you know there was never any Digg thing apart from what you are trying to generate. "Poster farmer"? What a stretch to pull that out your ass. i think you are a big part of what is wrong with the world. A flaccid pile of ignorant crap. I'll simply wipe you off my shoe and keep on going.
Weren't you paying attention when they explained that [everyone you have sex with] * [everyone they have sex with] = everyone you've had sex with?
.Mac designed for the iPhone: http://reader.mac.com/
Oh wait, this is Slashdot. Never mind, and I'll get out of your basement and leave you alone with your game. You mom says keep the shouting down.
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One thing that is interesting: Apple has a web based newsreader up on
So yes, there is more integration that you might have imagined going on.
The Newton wasn't so much a flop as it was a poorly aimed product that Apple didn't really bother to sell. It started out as a do everything tablet, and then Apple executives crippled it into an oversized handheld so as not to compete against the Mac. Apple then never got around to completing its sync software, and did a crappy job of supporting third party accessories.
...With the new plans announced by Apple and AT&T, that has changed. The minimum plan with unlimited data is $59, or $1416 over two years. That makes the iPhone over a hundred dollars less than Verizon's limp Motorola Q.
As one Newton developer explained:
"Apple's sales expectations were far too high. The Apple II sold 16,000 units the second year it was out and was considered a huge success. The Mac sold 60,000 units its first year and was considered a modest success. The Newton sold over 100,000 units its first year and was a 'flop.'"
When Newton sales did begin to take off, Apple was in such bad shape that it wasn't really in the position to manage it. By then (1997), the cheap Palm was arriving, although Apple had several licensees lined up, including Motorola, who sold it as the wireless Marco. Jobs killed it perhaps because he thought it was a distraction and based on too much experimental technology to be practical. It had no specific purpose; it tried to do everything, and was only fair at all things.
Compare Windows CE, which took off in 1998, and was a bad joke until at least 2002. Since then, it has been a poor product, struggling for applications. It's still embarrassing after a decade of work. Even Microsoft decided to give up on WinCE for use in the Xbox and then Origami. It was never really good at anything apart from being a Palm Pilot replacement. Unfortunately, the Palm pilot didn't need a replacement because nobody wanted PDAs.
Now look at the iPhone: clear purpose as a phone, an iPod, and a web browser. Lots of cool tech, solid sync system already in place and working for the iPod/Apple TV, media ecosystem behind it, incredible brand and marketing, a hugely successful chain of retail stores waiting to pitch it. This quite obviously isn't a Newton.
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Newton Lessons for Apple's New Platform
Apple is building a new platform, and applying lessons it learned from the 90s, when tried to launch the Newton as a new platform. Like the original Macintosh from a decade prior, the Newton started as one product, and intended to branch out into a range of systems. Here's why it failed and the lessons to be learned.
Apple: iPhone Now Costs Less than Ballmer's Lame Motorola Q
After earlier blowing apart iPhone battery panic with an announcement of 8 hours of talk time, Apple dropped yet another bombshell upon "business as usual" in the mobile market. In addition to simplified calling plans that start well under what had been predicted, the company also unveiled home activation.
Using Apple's iPhone in the Enterprise
The iPhone is quite obviously targeted at consumers. However, it offers a significant leap forward in key features which make it attractive to business customers, particularly executives who like having the best communications tools available.
ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley Says Apple's iPhone Needs ActiveSync
Mary Jo Foley, who describes her ZDNet blog as "an unblinking eye on Microsoft," seems to have been charged with the unpleasant task of producing a somewhat positive sounding iPhone story, and gave it her best shot. Unfortunately, it wasn't very well thought out, and reflects a preoccupation with flattering Microsoft.
Yes, you do get what you pay for. I'd agree that .Mac needs a significant upgrade, but the baseline service is $99, for the same as what MS is offering. What .Mac really needs is a speed upgrade and far higher bandwidth limits, so it makes any sense as a hosting service.
When I had the chance to skewer Steve Jobs about it, it did.
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Answers from Steve Jobs at Apple's Shareholder Meeting
At Apple Inc.'s May 10 annual shareholder meeting, a series of proposals were presented for voting after which CEO Steve Jobs answered a series of questions from the audience.
ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley Says Apple's iPhone Needs ActiveSync
Mary Jo Foley, who describes her ZDNet blog as "an unblinking eye on Microsoft," seems to have been charged with the unpleasant task of producing a somewhat positive sounding iPhone story, and gave it her best shot. Unfortunately, it wasn't very well thought out, and reflects a preoccupation with flattering Microsoft.
Privacy, security, speed? Even with a hot downlink, you generally get a slow upload. And many people don't have fast internet, particularly here in the backward US.
Relying on service providers is great as long as they work flawlessly. Once they go "offline for maintenance" at random times, or lose your data "sorry, we recommend backups," your perspective changes. Google is also infamous for deciding on a whim to cancel user's accounts, which makes depending on them a bit risky. Is Microsoft going to do better? This company playedforsure its own significant partners, is it going to give a crap about joe schmoes?
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Using Apple's iPhone in the Enterprise
The iPhone is quite obviously targeted at consumers. However, it offers a significant leap forward in key features which make it attractive to business customers, particularly executives who like having the best communications tools available.
ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley Says Apple's iPhone Needs ActiveSync
Mary Jo Foley, who describes her ZDNet blog as "an unblinking eye on Microsoft," seems to have been charged with the unpleasant task of producing a somewhat positive sounding iPhone story, and gave it her best shot. Unfortunately, it wasn't very well thought out, and reflects a preoccupation with flattering Microsoft.
Certainly Google can stumble, but what did you say about the 360 entering late and doing better than expected? HAHA!
The 360 jumped the gun on the next gen consoles, so it entered the game a year ahead of the Wii and PS3. Even so, Microsoft had to stuff the channel unmercifully just to meet its US goals. It has not done anything in foreign markets, and in the US it satiated the market and has not been doing well.
This spring, Microsoft even dropped their 5 million estimate for the first half of 07 down to 2. The growth is dead, and the Wii is outpacing it rapidly, even with an exclusive year head start for the 360. The market is panning both the 360 and PS3 as more of the same, and sales are very much not doing even as good as expected.
It's one thing to be excited about a product, but don't make up shit that isn't remotely true just because you like playing xbox.
Myth 7:The Xbox Success Myth
Ten Myths of the Apple TV: Xbox and Hardware
The iPhone already has .Mac integration, because iTunes already syncs it with Safari's bookmarks, email/contacts/calendars, and email settings. ITunes in turn, syncs with .Mac. Users don't have to do anything, and they don't even need to pay for .Mac unless they have various systems they all want to sync together.
.Mac via the web, which the iPhone can do too. I suppose there would be further ways to integrate or expand .Mac, but it works as is already. I don't know what Microsoft offers that is comparable.
Also, bookmarks, contacts, and email can be accessed from
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ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley Says Apple's iPhone Needs ActiveSync
Mary Jo Foley, who describes her ZDNet blog as "an unblinking eye on Microsoft," seems to have been charged with the unpleasant task of producing a somewhat positive sounding iPhone story, and gave it her best shot. Unfortunately, it wasn't very well thought out, and reflects a preoccupation with flattering Microsoft.
For all that can be complained of .Mac, it has no ads.
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ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley Says Apple's iPhone Needs ActiveSync
Mary Jo Foley, who describes her ZDNet blog as "an unblinking eye on Microsoft," seems to have been charged with the unpleasant task of producing a somewhat positive sounding iPhone story, and gave it her best shot. Unfortunately, it wasn't very well thought out, and reflects a preoccupation with flattering Microsoft.
the Apple TV's/iPhone's YouTube support is based on Google's migration to H.264. They do not use Flash for playing videos. Google migrated to get Apple's support, and Apple pushed for H.264 because both the ATV and the iPhone use specialized chips to decode H.264. Without using that, they'd have to decode video using the GPU, which wouldn't be as efficient.
Yes! Here's to hoping that the iPhone helps kill off Flash. Apple's ATV/iPhone deals with Google could eventually even push Flash off the main purpose it now serves: making a codec for crappy web videos.
I think you are referring to the billion dollar "bottled water" industry.
Yes, silly people drinking spring water from France when they could just lap out of a puddle for free. They probably also have iPods.
Linux is free to obtain.
If the only thing that can compete against Windows is free, and while even being free is making little impact on the desktop, then it's a sign that the market may not be open to competition.
It is also difficult to get Linux on name brand PCs. If you have to buy Windows, remove it and install Linux (or BSD or whatever), then it's hardly a competitor, because you've bought Windows. Remember than Microsoft doesn't care if a handful of people use Linux, as long as they also buy the Windows license.
I'm sorry but as a long time Treo user, I'll have to call you on your crap.
The Treo was cool five years ago because it pioneered the idea of having a Palm PDA with a phone. It hasn't kept up, and Palm OS is creaky and needs a bullet in the head. Even Palm abandoned its own product to deliver a Windows Mobile version, which is actually less functional and more problematic.
I hope the iPhone results in Palm closing down. It really deserves the failure it earned by dumping trash on its own customers.
The Egregious Incompetence of Palm
Windows Mobile, Palm OS, Linux, and Symbian currently power the world's smartphones. How does each stack up against Apple's OS X in the iPhone? This article presents an overview of Palm. Palm's early products actually followed a trajectory strikingly similar to Apple's original Macintosh. Differences in the choices made at Palm provide an interesting glimpse into "what if" scenarios of a parallel universe.
You can avoid the iPod because it is a free market. You can buy a Zen or even a Zune.
...With the new plans announced by Apple and AT&T, that has changed. The minimum plan with unlimited data is $59, or $1416 over two years. That makes the $500 iPhone well over a hundred dollars less than Verizon's limp Motorola Q, which is $2170 with its required service plan.
You can't do the same in the PC market. You will grow grey hairs before Dell or HP or any other PC maker will offer you real options in your OS. Sure, a few token free OS offerings to hobbyists, but no commercial competition, and no hope for that situation to change. It's been the same since the early 90s. That's a monopoly.
Avoiding Windows is like trying to avoid roads or money. Sure you can barter and live in a cave, but there is really no option to avoiding Windows. You can easily avoid any products from Apple and find all sorts of competitive alternatives.
Apple: iPhone Now Costs Less than Ballmer's Lame Motorola Q
After earlier blowing apart iPhone battery panic with an announcement of 8 hours of talk time, Apple dropped yet another bombshell upon "business as usual" in the mobile market.
I illustrate articles with graphics. They are not emotional, they are comical. If you think otherwise, you need to chill out.
Hypocrisy is too big a word for what you are talking about. Let go of the hyper-judgmental rhetoric and look at things for what they are.
Digg is largely a pile of retards. It is useless for finding tech articles worthy of reading, and the comments are all embarrassing to wade through. I have never been "busted" nor have I ever "gamed" their system, unless you count submitting articles that other voted up as "gaming." The only gaming on Digg that related to me was a bunch of censor trolls that didn't like to hear what I was saying and complained until the system automatically shut off the entire domain. Over 1000 readers wrote Digg to correct this, but they refused to because they didn't want to get hate mail from the trolls. Then Digg sent me an email saying, hey we fixed this, don't say anything about it.
I gave up on Digg but the Digg trolls now bury any article that is posted, sometimes before there are two Diggs on it. I have no interest in trying to promote intelligent ideas to a bunch of borderline retards who are looking for pictures and fan-based trash.
Some of us work in technology, and take issues seriously. I think free markets are a serious matter. I also think open engineering is a serious subject, and I try to draw attention to using open standards and open source. I'm glad Apple uses its marketing muscle to back open ideals, even if its in their own best interests.
I think Microsoft is a serious problem in the tech world, and I'm seriously pleased that the company is screwing up. I seriously hope the company falls into obscurity, because it deserves to.
I welcome criticism, but you don't present any facts or logic you take issue with, and instead just skim looking for phrases you can read meanings into and pull out as soundbites. I think that type of discourse is what is wrong with the world. It's like reading CNN.
Lots of PCs had USB ports on them, but they frequently did not work. Microsoft didn't provide real support for USB until Win 98 "Second Edition" in 1999, making those ports not so useful.
Conversely, the hardware makers who put USB on PCs were also guilty of slowing its adoption by leaving legacy RS-232 and parallel ports on their PCs until around 2006. Apple simply stripped everything old off the iMac and left USB as the only option. It also provided a fair keyboard and a horrible yoyo mouse that forced demand for a third party flood of USB peripherals.
I'm not trying to give Apple some special credit for "inventing USB," I'm just stating that Apple doesn't hold things up for PC users, it only pushes the state of the art. That is a good thing even for people who hate Apple. Apple is also pushing EFI after it pretty much died of a lack of interest in the Itanium and PC worlds. Intel Macs are basically PCs from the future.
How Apple's Firmware Leapfrogs BIOS PCs
The Tentacles of Legacy
Digg never banned by account, it only maintains a system that is easily manipulated by a handful of people such as yourself who organize censorship parties and try to bury anything they can't stand hearing.
All of your crackpot conspiracy theories you post under anonymous names amount to nothing but embittered ranting, and have done nothing to stop me from pointing out what you don't want to hear. How well did Windows Media work out? The Zune? Xbox sales? That 30% failure rate on the 360? Vista? I'm happy to point out the decline of the world's largest enemy of open source, and I'm glad you are getting so upset about it that you have to look foolish organizing attempts to hide the truth.
The fact that you only EVER post on Slashdot when you feel you need to "discredit" something I've pointed out, without offering anything more than a hyperventilating rant, just lets me know I'm headed in the right direction.
Yes, that was the joke.
Gov't supplied phones can be carried around in certain areas only if the battery is removed. Personal phones aren't considered secure even if the battery is removed.
These people made the bomb.
Hi Matt,
Here's why your complaints above were undeserving of an insightful moderation:
You said I had the "gall to label some bloggers as 'impassioned.'" The gall?
While I describe a lot of people as impassioned (you're at the front of the line), its not the worst thing a person can be. What I have criticized in some of my articles is bloggers who rant on about a subject with highly emotional rhetoric without really trying to make a point, just using emotionalist language (like gall) to portray a sensationalist position and smear others without using any facts or reasoning. I hope my articles express some passion about what I think, but I also try to back up everything I say with reasonable logic. I do not intend to spread emotionalist fear.
I wrote a half dozen articles about the Zune because the CNET universe was shamelessly gagging on it in anticipation with regurgitated Talking Points. I pulled it apart as a bad product with a poorly conceived strategy at a time when nobody else was saying much of the same. Only after it failed miserably did it become fashionable to point out what a pile of crap it was. It was quite obviously a bad product, I just pointed it out first.
You rag on me for calling a spade a spade, but you didn't present any errors or falsely emotional appeals I made to inflate the iPhone beyond what it really is. I merely tore apart the baboonery that sits in for honest criticism these days. If you're going to post hate mail about my impassioned style, make sure you do it in a way that is at least as factual and logical as I try to be in my articles.
You are sounding a lot like the average Digg user. That is not a complement.
Zune vs. iPhone: Five Phases of Media Coverage
Are you arguing that Gizmodo's absurdist "AT&T boycott" is NPOV?
Are you arguing that Gartner's white papers saying the iPhone "doesn't have a firewall" are NPOV?
Are you saying Rob Enderle is NPOV?
This article is mainly refuting false information. It expresses opinions that are clearly stated in an open context. The author is not anonymous. It does not claim to be NPOV.
Is even Wikipedia really NPOV when it is written by people with unknown bias and intent? Are the anonymous comments above NPOV? Are there NPOV opinions?
Is NPOV "truth," or does it just claim to aspire to be? How does that make it different?
Is NPOV always two opinions presented equally? Is there a NPOV opinion on the success of the Iraq War? Does it require stating that things are going well, just because people might like it to be? Is pretending to be balanced and unbiased really offering truth if it presents information that is not accurate just to fill in both sides with some sort of faux-equality?
Not to mention that the iPhone can be externally charged from a battery pack, just like the iPod. I got an external battery the size of a deck of cards, and can watch movies and listen to music for 14 hour flights off the internal battery + the battery pack. No need to pop it open and swap batteries. I plan to do the same with the iPhone.
Finding a standard external battery to connect to a specific mobile phone is harder when you don't have a popular phone. When your phone works with iPod accessories, it's easy.
I have a Palm Treo, and I've never considered paying ~$60-80 for a replacement battery, particularly since it can only charge inside the phone, making it not very handy. It also requires you to shut down the phone to swap batteries, rather than just plugging in an external pack and continuing to use it while it recharges.
The article isn't about the iPhone, it's about the factors that are being misrepresented in the media, and why.
I'm certainly interested in what you found so reality twisting in the article.
Were you outraged that Gizmodo was called out for its bullshit emotionalist appeal to "boycott the iPhone," equating Cingular with the Bell Labs monopoly of the early 80s because both use the same logo?
Were you disgusted that Gartner got called out for prattling about how the iPhone can't be supported by IT groups due to factors that are not true, or its invented idea that the iPhone "has no firewall"?
Were you incensed to read that the iPhone will boost open web development, and that all iPhone apps will be automatically cross platform and will work on any mobile device with a standards-based browser?
What is it that got you so upset? Oh right, you didn't read it, you just snuck over from Digg to post some hatemail on a something you can't bother to critique, because you have nothing to say beyond a bunch of emotionalist appeals to disregard something that doesn't way what you want to hear. Why make corrections when you can just blow out blanket, unsupported generalizations? Why post when you have nothing to say?
You have posted nothing to Slashdot in the last year that was not "waa RoughlyDrafted hurts my eyes" complaints. You are a complete fraud. I am happy to have you as my detractor! Stand in line! There are a handful of your clones spewing the same garbage, and it only tells me that I'm headed in the right direction.