That's a feature that appeared officially in 4.3 and disappeared again in 4.4. Yes, it can be done now, but it means rooting your device. I was comparing default functionality between Android and iOS. Obviously if you root/jailbreak then almost anything is possible.
I'm late to this, so it probably won't be read, but I think towards the end it was possible to sync over a network. Even if there was no official way, there were open source sync tools that understood the data format, so it would've been possible.
The thing is, the Palm Pilots predate ubiquitous data networks - serial/usb tethered sync was pretty much the only viable option. They were just slow to adapt. Their first couple of phone offerings were OK, decent stabs in the pre-iPhone era, but the Palm Pre was awesome - just a little late to market. It was a great OS - to my mind better than the competition, but it sort of ended up the Phillips v2000 to the VHS vs. Betamax of Apple vs. Android.
Or "B logically follows from A. Therefore B is true if I want it to be. Unless I do really but don't want to tell you I do, or I can make a drama out of it not being true."
I'm trying not be misogynistic but sometimes it really is hard to follow the logic. Maybe it's just the one I'm seeing. I sort of assume attacking the logic of a certain action is somehow preferable to simply saying "I don't want to".
True. I cringe if I forget a password and the password recovery actually emails me my password rather than sending me to a link to enter a new one. Not many do that now, but at least one large shared hosting provider does and if anyone should know better...
Why not have a default password and have it force a change at first logon? Ideally before the device can connect to the wider net, so there isn't a window of vulnerability to someone locking out the device as soon as it's switched on. Have a physical factory reset button on the device itself to deal with lost passwords. That doesn't require a sophisticated userbase.
Mind you, these cameras require the user to take steps within their home router config to allow external access anyway - they'll pick up an IP from the router's DHCP, but action is required on the router to allow external connections. If someone is savvy enough to configure that, they ought to be savvy enough to know to change the password.
You joke, but our weather has been getting less predictable. We had a fairly hot summer overall, but August was fairly wet and dull. September, on the other hand, was the driest on record, and October has mostly been warm. It's forecast to reach 20 degrees in London on Friday - if that was one day later, on the 1st of November, it would be challenging the record for the hottest November day recorded in the UK.
Monday and Tuesday were warm enough to sit outside on my lunch break, today it's raining and chilly, tomorrow it's back up to 19 degrees apparently.
I get between two and four days from a Nexus 5, depending on usage. My take on it is that it's a smartphone only when I need it to be. Most of the time I'll use it for no more than email, sms and calls which I agree could be handled by a feature phone (although not as easily for sms and emails - the larger screen and keyboard come into play there).
The difference for me is that it has all the features when I need them - better browsing capability, gps and a good screen for maps, half decent camera (within the limitations of the form factor, obviously) and all the other stuff.
I have considered the alternative of a feature - or even dumb - phone for battery life and then taking a tablet when I need more, but the phone does it all for me at a convenient size. The battery lasts long enough, and I know the trade off when I use the features that make it "smart".
I'm about 80% deaf in one ear, so instead of higher frequencies I get permanent tinnitus, which is basically exactly that - it varies according to things like heart rate. It's like listening to an old modem, or something like a ZX Spectrum loading a game. 24x7. It came on as an adult, so it took a bit of getting used to - some people can't cope and suffer depression or even become suicidal over it.
Yeah, I got one because I didn't want to be on contract or have all the bloatware, and the Nexus 5 is/was great value. Looks like I'll be sticking with it, and maybe even getting a like for like replacement if it breaks, because I don't want a phablet. I have a tablet, what I want in a phone is something I can put in my pocket. The Nexus 5 is pretty much at the limit already.
I'd even buy a more expensive unlocked phone from someone else, but then you've got to put up with the non-standard interfaces.
Doesn't really matter though - the Nexus 5 is still a pretty respectable spec.
Absolutely. I think Kaley Cuoco's reaction has been one of the best. From what I read, at least, she's taken it in her stride with a sense of humour. Credit for that, treat it as no big deal. If everyone did that, it wouldn't be a big deal, as you say.
With Android you have to accept all permissions an app wants or not install it. On iOS apps have no permissions other than internet access and have to ask for permission. The permission can be refused, and the app still works just without the feature being requested - e.g. refuse location access and the app can't offer you location based features, obviously.
Well hopefully it's not too long to wait until L comes out and the first one will be answered. As for the second, it's just irritating that I can't get apps that just connect to their respective services. Not much chance of it, but it'd be great if the likes of Twitter and Facebook released cut down versions that only connected to them and didn't demand access to contacts, SMS etc. It's a refreshing change when an app requires no special permissions, or at least none that aren't obvious for its primary role.
I've seen talk of automatically unlocking when connected to specific bluetooth devices or by location (which looks like it might require GPS?). That's handy, but I haven't seen anything about specific wifi networks. I don't want GPS running all the time because of the battery drain, but would like my phone unlocked on my home wifi. Preferably out of the box without needing a third party app that wants all sorts of permissions.
Off topic, but for me the biggest issue with (non-rooted) Android is the permissions model that forces all or nothing acceptance for permissions. I want certain apps, but want to refuse them access to, say, SMS messages. I can't do that. The permissions manager feature appeared briefly in, I think 4.3, but then disappeared. That alone is the thing that has me considering jumping ship to Apple.
Which is the argument for why this doesn't apply to Apple hardware (computers and phones) and to an arguably lesser extent Android (in that case there is a separation - the phone is made by Samsung, HTC etc, the OS by Google, so the argument that they're integrated is weaker).
My point is that the average consumer doesn't care. They want a Windows machine, and probably don't really care if it's HP, Acer or whoever - it's Windows they want.
So while there's a legal argument around bundling, it's not really a consumer protection issue. The number of buyers who would actually want to install an alternative OS (or be able to) is tiny.
Yeah, except it is possible to get OSX running on a PC, or in a VM. Apple just don't allow it. It's a shame, because I'd love a mini tower with at least three drive bays, built in CD burner and card reader and only one mid-range graphics card - a nice neat device with no need for a nest of cables and external devices. But I also want OSX. Turns out I can't have both because Apple's idea of a high end workstation is basically an iMac without a screen in terms of how well it fits my needs.
It's a shame, because the best of both worlds would be OSX with the flexibility of building your own hardware.
The question is where you draw the line. My smart TV clearly has an OS, but I'm not sure there's a clamour for the likes of Panasonic or Samsung to stop "bundling" the OS with the TV. The TV is capable of being a general purpose computer but most people wouldn't see it like that. People want to buy a TV that just works, they don't want to buy a TV and then figure out what OS to install on it to get it to work. Same with phones, for most people.
So why should computers be different? Bundling helps the average consumer more than it hurts - you buy a PC, you get Windows, you buy a Mac you get OSX, all ready to use straight out of the box.
Google Now has gone downhill recently. It used to alert me to traffic problems on my commute at around the time I normally leave the office. Recently it's started alerting me an hour before (when the traffic is always worse), and repeating the notification when I clear it. It's also got inconsistent on other things - sometimes it tells me stuff, sometimes it doesn't. The email integration also only works for plain gmail accounts - not google apps accounts.
So from me it's close, but not that close. And it insists on taking up a home screen.
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That's a feature that appeared officially in 4.3 and disappeared again in 4.4. Yes, it can be done now, but it means rooting your device. I was comparing default functionality between Android and iOS. Obviously if you root/jailbreak then almost anything is possible.
Those limits work both ways. The sandboxing is great for security, but at the expense of flexibility.
On Android I can't have the Facebook app and refuse it access to my SMS messages. On iOS I don't have the option to give it access.
I'm not in a hurry if the look of the new gmail app is a sign of what's coming.
I'm late to this, so it probably won't be read, but I think towards the end it was possible to sync over a network. Even if there was no official way, there were open source sync tools that understood the data format, so it would've been possible.
The thing is, the Palm Pilots predate ubiquitous data networks - serial/usb tethered sync was pretty much the only viable option. They were just slow to adapt. Their first couple of phone offerings were OK, decent stabs in the pre-iPhone era, but the Palm Pre was awesome - just a little late to market. It was a great OS - to my mind better than the competition, but it sort of ended up the Phillips v2000 to the VHS vs. Betamax of Apple vs. Android.
Or "B logically follows from A. Therefore B is true if I want it to be. Unless I do really but don't want to tell you I do, or I can make a drama out of it not being true."
I'm trying not be misogynistic but sometimes it really is hard to follow the logic. Maybe it's just the one I'm seeing. I sort of assume attacking the logic of a certain action is somehow preferable to simply saying "I don't want to".
I should just accept that logic and relationships are non-overlapping magesteria.
Meh. Bad weekend.
True. I cringe if I forget a password and the password recovery actually emails me my password rather than sending me to a link to enter a new one. Not many do that now, but at least one large shared hosting provider does and if anyone should know better...
Why not have a default password and have it force a change at first logon? Ideally before the device can connect to the wider net, so there isn't a window of vulnerability to someone locking out the device as soon as it's switched on. Have a physical factory reset button on the device itself to deal with lost passwords. That doesn't require a sophisticated userbase.
Mind you, these cameras require the user to take steps within their home router config to allow external access anyway - they'll pick up an IP from the router's DHCP, but action is required on the router to allow external connections. If someone is savvy enough to configure that, they ought to be savvy enough to know to change the password.
You joke, but our weather has been getting less predictable. We had a fairly hot summer overall, but August was fairly wet and dull. September, on the other hand, was the driest on record, and October has mostly been warm. It's forecast to reach 20 degrees in London on Friday - if that was one day later, on the 1st of November, it would be challenging the record for the hottest November day recorded in the UK.
Monday and Tuesday were warm enough to sit outside on my lunch break, today it's raining and chilly, tomorrow it's back up to 19 degrees apparently.
And is it "sift"... if so, best typo ever :)
I get between two and four days from a Nexus 5, depending on usage. My take on it is that it's a smartphone only when I need it to be. Most of the time I'll use it for no more than email, sms and calls which I agree could be handled by a feature phone (although not as easily for sms and emails - the larger screen and keyboard come into play there).
The difference for me is that it has all the features when I need them - better browsing capability, gps and a good screen for maps, half decent camera (within the limitations of the form factor, obviously) and all the other stuff.
I have considered the alternative of a feature - or even dumb - phone for battery life and then taking a tablet when I need more, but the phone does it all for me at a convenient size. The battery lasts long enough, and I know the trade off when I use the features that make it "smart".
I'm about 80% deaf in one ear, so instead of higher frequencies I get permanent tinnitus, which is basically exactly that - it varies according to things like heart rate. It's like listening to an old modem, or something like a ZX Spectrum loading a game. 24x7. It came on as an adult, so it took a bit of getting used to - some people can't cope and suffer depression or even become suicidal over it.
Sounds like a job for Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged
.
I just misread the title as "Microsoft's JavaScript Engine Gets Two-Tired Compilation.
I think you've pretty much described the Nexus 5.
Yeah, I got one because I didn't want to be on contract or have all the bloatware, and the Nexus 5 is/was great value. Looks like I'll be sticking with it, and maybe even getting a like for like replacement if it breaks, because I don't want a phablet. I have a tablet, what I want in a phone is something I can put in my pocket. The Nexus 5 is pretty much at the limit already.
I'd even buy a more expensive unlocked phone from someone else, but then you've got to put up with the non-standard interfaces.
Doesn't really matter though - the Nexus 5 is still a pretty respectable spec.
Absolutely. I think Kaley Cuoco's reaction has been one of the best. From what I read, at least, she's taken it in her stride with a sense of humour. Credit for that, treat it as no big deal. If everyone did that, it wouldn't be a big deal, as you say.
our state religion verges on institutional agnosticism.
Indeed. The Archbishop of Canterbury has only recently admitted to doubts about god. Can you imagine that from any other major religious leader?
With Android you have to accept all permissions an app wants or not install it. On iOS apps have no permissions other than internet access and have to ask for permission. The permission can be refused, and the app still works just without the feature being requested - e.g. refuse location access and the app can't offer you location based features, obviously.
This granularity is not available with Android.
Well hopefully it's not too long to wait until L comes out and the first one will be answered. As for the second, it's just irritating that I can't get apps that just connect to their respective services. Not much chance of it, but it'd be great if the likes of Twitter and Facebook released cut down versions that only connected to them and didn't demand access to contacts, SMS etc. It's a refreshing change when an app requires no special permissions, or at least none that aren't obvious for its primary role.
I've seen talk of automatically unlocking when connected to specific bluetooth devices or by location (which looks like it might require GPS?). That's handy, but I haven't seen anything about specific wifi networks. I don't want GPS running all the time because of the battery drain, but would like my phone unlocked on my home wifi. Preferably out of the box without needing a third party app that wants all sorts of permissions.
Off topic, but for me the biggest issue with (non-rooted) Android is the permissions model that forces all or nothing acceptance for permissions. I want certain apps, but want to refuse them access to, say, SMS messages. I can't do that. The permissions manager feature appeared briefly in, I think 4.3, but then disappeared. That alone is the thing that has me considering jumping ship to Apple.
What people? A handful of geeks who've heard of Linux?
Which is the argument for why this doesn't apply to Apple hardware (computers and phones) and to an arguably lesser extent Android (in that case there is a separation - the phone is made by Samsung, HTC etc, the OS by Google, so the argument that they're integrated is weaker).
My point is that the average consumer doesn't care. They want a Windows machine, and probably don't really care if it's HP, Acer or whoever - it's Windows they want.
So while there's a legal argument around bundling, it's not really a consumer protection issue. The number of buyers who would actually want to install an alternative OS (or be able to) is tiny.
Yeah, except it is possible to get OSX running on a PC, or in a VM. Apple just don't allow it. It's a shame, because I'd love a mini tower with at least three drive bays, built in CD burner and card reader and only one mid-range graphics card - a nice neat device with no need for a nest of cables and external devices. But I also want OSX. Turns out I can't have both because Apple's idea of a high end workstation is basically an iMac without a screen in terms of how well it fits my needs.
It's a shame, because the best of both worlds would be OSX with the flexibility of building your own hardware.
The question is where you draw the line. My smart TV clearly has an OS, but I'm not sure there's a clamour for the likes of Panasonic or Samsung to stop "bundling" the OS with the TV. The TV is capable of being a general purpose computer but most people wouldn't see it like that. People want to buy a TV that just works, they don't want to buy a TV and then figure out what OS to install on it to get it to work. Same with phones, for most people.
So why should computers be different? Bundling helps the average consumer more than it hurts - you buy a PC, you get Windows, you buy a Mac you get OSX, all ready to use straight out of the box.
Google Now has gone downhill recently. It used to alert me to traffic problems on my commute at around the time I normally leave the office. Recently it's started alerting me an hour before (when the traffic is always worse), and repeating the notification when I clear it. It's also got inconsistent on other things - sometimes it tells me stuff, sometimes it doesn't. The email integration also only works for plain gmail accounts - not google apps accounts.
So from me it's close, but not that close. And it insists on taking up a home screen.