Being able to dress like a successful adult male doesn't make you a douche. There is more to dressing than jeans, cargo shorts, and ironic t-shirts, and if you don't want to be one of the average-looking Old-Navy-wearing clones at the bar, maybe you should try varying your wardrobe a little. Sometimes jeans and a t-shirt are appropriate... sometimes it's fun (and productive, in terms of attracting women) to wear something a little nicer.
And, anecdotally, you'll attract more attention if you dress up a little - speaking as an average-looking guy who's 20-35 pounds overweight (depending on the day, and depending on what I ate...), sloppy untucked t-shirts & shorts just tend to look bad. Dress up, tuck your shirt in, and spend 5 minutes throwing some polish on your shoes, and suddenly you'll find that girls think you're a lot better looking.
And the secret of your success is probably in large part *because* you don't get hung up on your appearance. MOST guys are, by definition, "average". If you don't have some horrible disfiguration, and have all digits, limbs, and other normal accoutrements that humans do, and no extras, and don't have some sort of obvious wasting disease, girls will talk to you if you're not completely socially awkward.
The key is self-confidence, and if you can walk up to a girl and say "Hey, how are you? I'm Bob, what's your name?" without coming across like a serial killer or Rain Man, that's 2/3 of the battle right there.
Spend a few minutes making sure you look presentable, and go say hello - you'll develop your social skills and increase your chances next time, if nothing else.
Yes, we've determined it's a toy, Jedidiah has already declared it as such. So why does a toy need to have USB, or any of the other million features he declares would make it "not a toy"? Why does it have to be *anything* but whatever it is? A baseball bat isn't a screwdriver, and a Barbie Dream House isn't a washing machine... why is *this* 'toy,' specifically, attracting so much ire as "not a real machine for getting WORK done"? *Why does it HAVE to be a 'real' machine for getting WORK done*?
And why would you go so crazy over the fact that people are buying it? It's their money, some people play WoW, others take music lessons, still others go to football games... why not let them buy whatever toys and entertainment they choose, and stfu?
Also, you can say the same things you're saying without being a complete and utter dick about it. Just a thought.
You're right, I could. But then you could also go read some of Jedidiah's posts, and ask yourself whether or not he's earned a few blunt questions about why he's so wound up about something he has declared to be nothing but a toy. Just a thought.
Neither of those things answer the question of what you're going to use it for though... the Samsung tablet is the exact same form factor - a tablet, minimal buttons. What can you connect to it with a USB cable that's going to make it suddenly so much more powerful?
The >1 manufacturer argument is irrelevant to the discussion of what you're going to do with it. Pick any tablet - they all appear to be work-alikes and look-alikes of the iPad... so what do you envision them adding that's suddenly going to make this an *awesome* device that's way more powerful than the iPad? I just don't see what you could add to it that would drastically change the capabilities of the device.
What does an Android Tablet offer you that an iPad doesn't, in terms of *functionality*? I understand the "it's free" and open principle. But there's still... a touchscreen. With an on-screen keyboard. How much "real work" will you get done with that model, if the iPad form factor is unsuitable for your needs?
Will the Android tablets be "just the toy" that the iPad is being dubbed here? If not, what extra stuff do you expect to do with an Android tablet that you cannot accomplish with an iPad just as easily?
You *can* load a Linux shell on Android. You *can* write and compile arbitrary software. Does anybody think for a second that they actually will do so? Because for me, the biggest shortcoming in terms of "getting real work done" of the tablet form factor has *nothing* to do with openness, it's simply the lack of a regular keyboard. So why an Android tablet rather than a netbook or laptop, if you dislike the iPad as a device for getting things done?
The thing makes a great toy but falls down for real work or anything that requires manipulating your own data.
Jesus man, lighten the fuck up. Not everything with a computer chip in it has to be a full-fledged Linux server.
You've decided it's a toy, that's great, let's agree it's a toy. Now explain for us why you care what anybody else does with their toys?
Do you get this pissed off when you see a child using a LeapPad? After all, it's a toy. With a computer chip in it.
Did the Speak 'n Spell fill you with incoherent rage when you were a child? Another toy, with a computer chip in it!
I wish you'd make up your mind: either it's a serious threat to "your" freedoms because it's likely to become the dominant model for everybody's computing devices in the future, or it's a toy and it doesn't really fucking matter, because it will always be a toy that less-computer-literate people use for browsing the web and sending a few emails and watching a video or two, while you continue working on your netbooks, laptops, and big servers, secure in the knowledge that you are a hip, happening, with-it guy who knows all about computers.
And while you're dicking around with autoconf, we'll be watching something from Netflix, or maybe getting a blowjob because we weren't sitting at a fucking desk all evening ignoring our family because we had to get "real work" done, and "manipulate our own data."
I didn't say they weren't. You failed to address that Skype was a trial offer.
Did you bother looking at the article I linked? Skype has specifically committed to *not* charging for 3G connections. Period. I'm aware that the original plan was to charge for 3G calls. They've abandoned that:
"In light of that, we no longer have plans to charge a supplement to make calls over 3G. We’re delighted to make it easier for you to talk for even longer and do even more together using Skype."
Closely tied like a Nissan GTR is closely tied to a Viper.
And yet nobody complains about how the Nissan GTR is "a locked down useless piece of junk" simply because it can't perform to exactly the same specifications as a Viper.
There's a lesson to be learned here: Your requirements are exceedingly steep for a phone. Your requirements are also very much unlike the requirements that the vast majority of other people have for a phone. Just like for most people, the GTR works great, and the extra expense and "performance" (which you rarely have the chance to take advantage of) of the Viper are simply not worth it.
Curiouser and curioser still, have you ever noticed that, despite all the claims that iPhone owners are "status conscious sheep," it's the people using the supposedly "open" devices who are the ones who seem to have the most to prove when it comes to these stupid dick-measuring contests of "My phone can do X, Y, and Z and YOURS is a piece of crap because it can't"?
It has Skype, Google Voice and a SIP client right out of the box, and is connection-agnostic. Skype over 3G on the iPhone is free for a trial period, then they start milking you when you make calls over 3G, for no reason.
I'm sorry, wrong again. Google Voice is also available, as are at least 2 SIP VOIP clients I turned up in a less-than-30 second search. All report that they work over WiFi or 3G.
Would you like to try a third time?
Run alternative, different, totally separate browsers, with Flash even!
I'll grant you flash, but that's not even remotely a concern for me - if it was, I wouldn't have bought an iOS device. I run flashblock in my browsers as a matter of course, and when I see that little flash icon, I am far more likely to simply find another source for what I'm looking for than to enable the flash content.
Install any app from anywhere, even compile and run apps right on the phone.
Compile & run apps on the phone is something you and maybe 5 of your friends would care to do. It's a feature, but one so esoteric as to be irrelevant to the average user. So, half a point in your favor. As far as "any app from anywhere," sure, another half a point in your favor, provided there are categories of apps which have *no representation* on the App Store. I'd suggest that you probably can't find too many apps anywhere for Maemo that have no similar functionality in an app on the App store. But still, point in your favor.
Do true multitasking with any app - not just fast app switching
Not sure what your point is. If I start playing Pandora, I can switch to other apps and use them while listening to pandora. If I am on a skype call, I can swap out to other apps and not lose my call. It's a different way of implementing multitasking (GCD's block concept), but that doesn't make it less effective. Tie.
Drop files straight on the device via any method the phone is technically capable of, just like a laptop, no iTunes needed!
I just use Dropbox and or the iDisk app - the specific use here is "copy a file to the phone", and there are ways to do it for both yours and mine, though methods will vary. Tie.
Install offensive, pornographic or politically controversial games, even if not made by a prominent author who can bitch to the media, or the head of the iPhone app store who sells fart apps and says "no more fart apps."
Special case of "install any app from any source." No points awarded.
Install an app even if there are many others like it already available, or some dude at Apple would consider it useless.
Same as the last - special case. And if you think that there's a lack of app duplication for the iPhone, you've never looked at the App Store. There's plenty of apps that do exactly the same thing as a dozen other apps.
Install dictionaries with naughty words in them, make my phone say naughty words with speech synthesis, or even voice-dail contacts using naughty words!
My dictionary app, installed from the app store, has no problems with giving me definitions for "cunt," "cunt fart," "shit," "fuck," "fuckoff," "fuck around," "motherfucker," and the list goes on. The same dictionary app will pronounce these words for me, as will VoiceOver's speech synthesis. I haven't tried it, but I bet if I named my friend Dan as "Fuck Master" in my address book, and used the Voice Control functionality, it would allow me to dial him by "naughty words," too - "Dial Fuck Master". Tie.
- Install a tethering app or hacking tool.
My phone tethers, the tethering is pretty hard to separa
I can do all that stuff that you use an ipad for on my phone.
I can too. Lucky for us, that wasn't the point.
Not to mention my netbook that was half the price can do all that stuff and more.
And lucky for us, that wasn't the point either, though it's worth pointing out that my list was certainly not "exhaustive" either - there's lots of other "... and more" with an iPad, as well. The GP poster specifically said that the iPad was simply a media box - a dumb terminal that plays music & allows you to watch videos.
My point is that you can do significantly more than that, in fact. But don't let the facts stand in the way of a good anti-apple rant.
And I look forward to watching somebody try to bury *this* post as well!
Even if your iOS device were able to match the functionality of an open OS (which it is far from doing)
Functionality such as...? Please list all the use cases for an Android phone that cannot be matched by an iPhone?
You can't even use an alternate browser or email client
ibisMail, and tne numerous webkit-based browsers available on the itunes store would beg to differ with you.
I don't think you can even use Skype over 3G on the iPhone.
You could think that, but you'd be wrong - hint: read the part where it says "Use Skype everywhere - over 3G or WiFi!" Remind me again how awesome Skype for Android is? Oh wait, it's only available on Verizon, isn't it? Have you rooted yours yet to install a custom ROM?
Yeah, I can see how your mythical "open" device totally kicks the ass of the iPhone.
While I'm sure there are a few geeks like you that can figure out a way to do something constructive with it
Is my 2 year old nephew a geek? My friend's 7 year old daughter? My 69 year old mother, who was a French teacher? My friend's 38 year old wife, who works for a daycare? The appeal of these devices is that they are easy to use - even if you're not a geek.
I know you like to trot out this ridiculous "people only buy it because it's trendy" meme every time Apple comes up, we've had this same discussion in various forms in other articles. Your father is an anecdote, not a data point. Your youtube link, while cute, is not a study into the purchasing habits of Americans. What you are doing is assuming that you know why people would buy these devices, and then searching out people who confirm that hypothesis for you. If your dad and an internet cartoon is the best you can come up with, well... try harder.
The funny thing is, I bet your 67 year old technically backwards dad could figure out how to send or respond to a text message *really quickly* on an iPhone. Your argument reads like this: "Dad, you can't figure out how to text on a shitty device with 9 buttons. How are you going to figure out how to text on a device with a full keyboard and well-designed app for texting?" This is a ludicrous position to take.
Hell even when he puts out a boner like iPhone 4 they sell by the semi load!
A boner like the iPhone 4? What exactly was wrong with it that makes it so terrible a design again? You're referring to the antenna, right? Pray tell, how many people do you know who would buy (and keep) a phone which does not work? I'd put that number at, oh... zero. So this leads me to conclude that the antenna problem is either: very rare, and the people who had the issue have returned the phone and found a phone they like better; or the impact isn't as much as all the purple prose led us to believe here, and on other tech sites.
what you are selling doesn't matter as much as how you sell it
More like, what you are selling matters quite a bit, and Apple has been the best at figuring out what it is that *people are willing to pay for* in recent years. I've raised this point previously, and nobody's ever been able to explain it.
If Apple's business model is - as you've implied - solely based on gulling idiots into purchasing products that don't work, how do you explain: 1) Their *very* high customer satisfaction ratings; 2) The fact that many people continue buying additional devices after they purchase the first;
You can't explain those to facts with the whole "they just hoodwink the sheeple into buying a bunch of crap that doesn't work," argument. Clearly the devices DO work, and clearly people are generally VERY pleased with them. So please, do explain how you reconcile this with your world view?
Which boat is that, exactly? The boat that Microsoft is on with their super-profitable tablet business?
The boat with all the Android-based iPad work-alikes? Yeah, it would be great if the iPad worked like an Android clone of the iPad.
ot just a locked-in box that dishes up any trinkets and baubles that Apple cares to sell me.
Man, you'd be soooo pissed to see me learning new guitar chords, reading books, responding to email, watching Netflix movies, talking with family & friends over Skype, taking pictures & video, editing video, uploading it, writing a new version of my resume, and all of that stuff with my iPad and iPhone. I guess I missed the memo that the iOS devices are only suitable for mindlessly purchasing stuff from the Apple "walled garden".
As other posters have stated, one of the many other tablets that are a fraction of the price using Android OS seem like a much better choice.
Such as? Which android tablets, specifically, are a fraction of the price, and seem like a better choice? If there are "many others" you should be able to name a few, right?
They really aren't much chop to use interactively for anything beyond recreational activities.
So if iPads are no good for anything but as an ebook reader, why would you then suggest that an Android tablet is a "much better choice"? They're not going to be fundamentally any different in functionality than an iPad... so why replace one thing you claim is only an expensive ebook reader with another thing that, by definition, is just another expensive ebook reader?
best resolution, best at adding margin notes, and far better for flipping through quickly.
That's great if "flipping through" a book gets you the answer you want. How about full-text search? I'd consider that a pretty good use for an ipad or ebook reader device, and a far better solution than "flipping through" a physical book hoping I find the answer.
The margins on an ebook are virtual, and thus can hold way more margin notes.
The physical book is printed, and cannot be easily updated with errata & new revisions... ebooks can simply be updated in place with the equivalent of a code patch.
There's certainly drawbacks and benefits to both ebooks and printed books, but your commentary here touches on some of the weaker justifications for needing a printed book.
So what do you do when your kids don't put their lunchbox in the kitchen? I'm guessing you remind them, rather than let them go to school with nothing to eat?
Here's a suggestion: Table by the front door, with a charging station, one for each iPad, clearly labeled "Jimmy," "Johnny," and "June." At bedtime, you take a quick look at that table, and say, "Hmm... no ipads. Hey Kids, before bed, why don't you do the RIGHT THING and put your iPad on its charger?!"
Kids say, "Gee dad, that's GREAT! Thanks for reminding me! I luvs ya!"
You go to bed secure in the knowledge that you're a great parent, the kids have a fully charged iPad in the morning. When they're leaving to go catch the bus to school, say "HEY KIDS, Don't forget your iPads!"
In short, taking responsibility for ensuring your kids are prepared for school, as their parent. I know this is may be an outlandish concept, but for primary-school-aged children, you do it already - instead of saying "Do you have your lunch and all your books & homework?" You can say, "Do you have your lunch and your iPad?"
As a book reader, the iPad is rediculously overpriced.
As a place to store a spare tire, cars are ridiculously overpriced. But then, cars do a lot more than store a spare tire in the trunk, don't they? Perhaps that additional functionality justifies the price.
but rather about book readers.
Until you realize that textbooks can benefit (if well-constructed) from the addition of color, sound, video, notetaking and highlighting features, a handy web browser / internet connection for free-form research, etc. etc.
And then you realize that adding even a few of those features eliminates most of the present generation of "book readers" from the competition due to display limitations, or processing power.
Which is why "book readers" are cheaper than general purpose iPads.
I call bullshit. This either never happened, or your girlfriend was simply parroting your commentary on the iPad in an attempt to please you.
Nobody with a corporate-issued device (managed by any IT department worth its salt) has a reasonable expectation of "freedom to do whatever I want with my corporate device." Corporate laptops, cell phones, desktops, servers, and networks are just as locked down as that iPad, for security reasons. Please explain to us what the "freedomz" were that she was complaining about her company "taking away".
Welcoome to the public relations part of your job, then. If you don't make it clear to your boss what value you're providing to his organization, then you're on the shortlist for outsourcing and / or layoffs anyway. Learn to speak the language he uses.
As far as needing the super detailed opdocs, after you leave the company, they are not your problem. If mgmt hires an incompetent, it's not your job to make that work for them. Offer a consulting agreement at a steep rate, and they'll stop calling you very quickly. There's no need to be rude about it, just tell them, "before I help you, let's talk about my hourly rate."
If you fail to do that, and you keep answering the phone when they call to provide free support, then you're enabling them and the fault is your own for not encouraging them to break themselves of their "dependency" on you.
It's a tally of government requests that they've received - some of those requests were for the removal of data, so I guess that part (the minority, incidentally - 128 requests for data removal, versus ~4300 requests for user information) is censorship, but the vast majority of these requests is for user data, probably largely for police investigations.
Slashdot likes to use big purple conspiracy words to generate a few more clicks on the link. "Google updates Transparency Report with 1H-2010 government request data" just isn't as sexy and provocative a title.
Slashdot Mirror
I like how your outrage over women being stereotyped doesn't prevent you from stereotyping women in your own way.
I C WUT U DID THAR, N ITZ FUNNEEE.
Being able to dress like a successful adult male doesn't make you a douche. There is more to dressing than jeans, cargo shorts, and ironic t-shirts, and if you don't want to be one of the average-looking Old-Navy-wearing clones at the bar, maybe you should try varying your wardrobe a little. Sometimes jeans and a t-shirt are appropriate... sometimes it's fun (and productive, in terms of attracting women) to wear something a little nicer.
And, anecdotally, you'll attract more attention if you dress up a little - speaking as an average-looking guy who's 20-35 pounds overweight (depending on the day, and depending on what I ate...), sloppy untucked t-shirts & shorts just tend to look bad. Dress up, tuck your shirt in, and spend 5 minutes throwing some polish on your shoes, and suddenly you'll find that girls think you're a lot better looking.
Well said, and spot on.
And the secret of your success is probably in large part *because* you don't get hung up on your appearance. MOST guys are, by definition, "average". If you don't have some horrible disfiguration, and have all digits, limbs, and other normal accoutrements that humans do, and no extras, and don't have some sort of obvious wasting disease, girls will talk to you if you're not completely socially awkward.
The key is self-confidence, and if you can walk up to a girl and say "Hey, how are you? I'm Bob, what's your name?" without coming across like a serial killer or Rain Man, that's 2/3 of the battle right there.
Spend a few minutes making sure you look presentable, and go say hello - you'll develop your social skills and increase your chances next time, if nothing else.
Then I encourage you to stop pursuing women and pursue the men you've admitted are more attractive to you, instead.
More girls for the rest of us, thanks.
Yes, we've determined it's a toy, Jedidiah has already declared it as such. So why does a toy need to have USB, or any of the other million features he declares would make it "not a toy"? Why does it have to be *anything* but whatever it is? A baseball bat isn't a screwdriver, and a Barbie Dream House isn't a washing machine... why is *this* 'toy,' specifically, attracting so much ire as "not a real machine for getting WORK done"? *Why does it HAVE to be a 'real' machine for getting WORK done*?
And why would you go so crazy over the fact that people are buying it? It's their money, some people play WoW, others take music lessons, still others go to football games... why not let them buy whatever toys and entertainment they choose, and stfu?
You're right, I could. But then you could also go read some of Jedidiah's posts, and ask yourself whether or not he's earned a few blunt questions about why he's so wound up about something he has declared to be nothing but a toy. Just a thought.
Neither of those things answer the question of what you're going to use it for though... the Samsung tablet is the exact same form factor - a tablet, minimal buttons. What can you connect to it with a USB cable that's going to make it suddenly so much more powerful?
The >1 manufacturer argument is irrelevant to the discussion of what you're going to do with it. Pick any tablet - they all appear to be work-alikes and look-alikes of the iPad... so what do you envision them adding that's suddenly going to make this an *awesome* device that's way more powerful than the iPad? I just don't see what you could add to it that would drastically change the capabilities of the device.
Very serious, honest question here:
What does an Android Tablet offer you that an iPad doesn't, in terms of *functionality*? I understand the "it's free" and open principle. But there's still... a touchscreen. With an on-screen keyboard. How much "real work" will you get done with that model, if the iPad form factor is unsuitable for your needs?
Will the Android tablets be "just the toy" that the iPad is being dubbed here? If not, what extra stuff do you expect to do with an Android tablet that you cannot accomplish with an iPad just as easily?
You *can* load a Linux shell on Android. You *can* write and compile arbitrary software. Does anybody think for a second that they actually will do so? Because for me, the biggest shortcoming in terms of "getting real work done" of the tablet form factor has *nothing* to do with openness, it's simply the lack of a regular keyboard. So why an Android tablet rather than a netbook or laptop, if you dislike the iPad as a device for getting things done?
Jesus man, lighten the fuck up. Not everything with a computer chip in it has to be a full-fledged Linux server.
You've decided it's a toy, that's great, let's agree it's a toy. Now explain for us why you care what anybody else does with their toys?
Do you get this pissed off when you see a child using a LeapPad? After all, it's a toy. With a computer chip in it.
Did the Speak 'n Spell fill you with incoherent rage when you were a child? Another toy, with a computer chip in it!
I wish you'd make up your mind: either it's a serious threat to "your" freedoms because it's likely to become the dominant model for everybody's computing devices in the future, or it's a toy and it doesn't really fucking matter, because it will always be a toy that less-computer-literate people use for browsing the web and sending a few emails and watching a video or two, while you continue working on your netbooks, laptops, and big servers, secure in the knowledge that you are a hip, happening, with-it guy who knows all about computers.
And while you're dicking around with autoconf, we'll be watching something from Netflix, or maybe getting a blowjob because we weren't sitting at a fucking desk all evening ignoring our family because we had to get "real work" done, and "manipulate our own data."
Did you bother looking at the article I linked? Skype has specifically committed to *not* charging for 3G connections. Period. I'm aware that the original plan was to charge for 3G calls. They've abandoned that:
"In light of that, we no longer have plans to charge a supplement to make calls over 3G. We’re delighted to make it easier for you to talk for even longer and do even more together using Skype."
And yet nobody complains about how the Nissan GTR is "a locked down useless piece of junk" simply because it can't perform to exactly the same specifications as a Viper.
There's a lesson to be learned here: Your requirements are exceedingly steep for a phone. Your requirements are also very much unlike the requirements that the vast majority of other people have for a phone. Just like for most people, the GTR works great, and the extra expense and "performance" (which you rarely have the chance to take advantage of) of the Viper are simply not worth it.
Curiouser and curioser still, have you ever noticed that, despite all the claims that iPhone owners are "status conscious sheep," it's the people using the supposedly "open" devices who are the ones who seem to have the most to prove when it comes to these stupid dick-measuring contests of "My phone can do X, Y, and Z and YOURS is a piece of crap because it can't"?
I'm sorry, wrong again. Google Voice is also available, as are at least 2 SIP VOIP clients I turned up in a less-than-30 second search. All report that they work over WiFi or 3G.
Would you like to try a third time?
I'll grant you flash, but that's not even remotely a concern for me - if it was, I wouldn't have bought an iOS device. I run flashblock in my browsers as a matter of course, and when I see that little flash icon, I am far more likely to simply find another source for what I'm looking for than to enable the flash content.
Compile & run apps on the phone is something you and maybe 5 of your friends would care to do. It's a feature, but one so esoteric as to be irrelevant to the average user. So, half a point in your favor. As far as "any app from anywhere," sure, another half a point in your favor, provided there are categories of apps which have *no representation* on the App Store. I'd suggest that you probably can't find too many apps anywhere for Maemo that have no similar functionality in an app on the App store. But still, point in your favor.
Not sure what your point is. If I start playing Pandora, I can switch to other apps and use them while listening to pandora. If I am on a skype call, I can swap out to other apps and not lose my call. It's a different way of implementing multitasking (GCD's block concept), but that doesn't make it less effective. Tie.
I just use Dropbox and or the iDisk app - the specific use here is "copy a file to the phone", and there are ways to do it for both yours and mine, though methods will vary. Tie.
Special case of "install any app from any source." No points awarded.
Same as the last - special case. And if you think that there's a lack of app duplication for the iPhone, you've never looked at the App Store. There's plenty of apps that do exactly the same thing as a dozen other apps.
My dictionary app, installed from the app store, has no problems with giving me definitions for "cunt," "cunt fart," "shit," "fuck," "fuckoff," "fuck around," "motherfucker," and the list goes on. The same dictionary app will pronounce these words for me, as will VoiceOver's speech synthesis. I haven't tried it, but I bet if I named my friend Dan as "Fuck Master" in my address book, and used the Voice Control functionality, it would allow me to dial him by "naughty words," too - "Dial Fuck Master". Tie.
My phone tethers, the tethering is pretty hard to separa
I can too. Lucky for us, that wasn't the point.
And lucky for us, that wasn't the point either, though it's worth pointing out that my list was certainly not "exhaustive" either - there's lots of other "... and more" with an iPad, as well. The GP poster specifically said that the iPad was simply a media box - a dumb terminal that plays music & allows you to watch videos.
My point is that you can do significantly more than that, in fact. But don't let the facts stand in the way of a good anti-apple rant.
And I look forward to watching somebody try to bury *this* post as well!
Functionality such as...? Please list all the use cases for an Android phone that cannot be matched by an iPhone?
ibisMail, and tne numerous webkit-based browsers available on the itunes store would beg to differ with you.
You could think that, but you'd be wrong - hint: read the part where it says "Use Skype everywhere - over 3G or WiFi!" Remind me again how awesome Skype for Android is? Oh wait, it's only available on Verizon, isn't it? Have you rooted yours yet to install a custom ROM?
Yeah, I can see how your mythical "open" device totally kicks the ass of the iPhone.
Nope. Rick Astley.
Is my 2 year old nephew a geek? My friend's 7 year old daughter? My 69 year old mother, who was a French teacher? My friend's 38 year old wife, who works for a daycare? The appeal of these devices is that they are easy to use - even if you're not a geek.
I know you like to trot out this ridiculous "people only buy it because it's trendy" meme every time Apple comes up, we've had this same discussion in various forms in other articles. Your father is an anecdote, not a data point. Your youtube link, while cute, is not a study into the purchasing habits of Americans. What you are doing is assuming that you know why people would buy these devices, and then searching out people who confirm that hypothesis for you. If your dad and an internet cartoon is the best you can come up with, well... try harder.
The funny thing is, I bet your 67 year old technically backwards dad could figure out how to send or respond to a text message *really quickly* on an iPhone. Your argument reads like this: "Dad, you can't figure out how to text on a shitty device with 9 buttons. How are you going to figure out how to text on a device with a full keyboard and well-designed app for texting?" This is a ludicrous position to take.
A boner like the iPhone 4? What exactly was wrong with it that makes it so terrible a design again? You're referring to the antenna, right? Pray tell, how many people do you know who would buy (and keep) a phone which does not work? I'd put that number at, oh... zero. So this leads me to conclude that the antenna problem is either: very rare, and the people who had the issue have returned the phone and found a phone they like better; or the impact isn't as much as all the purple prose led us to believe here, and on other tech sites.
More like, what you are selling matters quite a bit, and Apple has been the best at figuring out what it is that *people are willing to pay for* in recent years. I've raised this point previously, and nobody's ever been able to explain it.
If Apple's business model is - as you've implied - solely based on gulling idiots into purchasing products that don't work, how do you explain:
1) Their *very* high customer satisfaction ratings;
2) The fact that many people continue buying additional devices after they purchase the first;
You can't explain those to facts with the whole "they just hoodwink the sheeple into buying a bunch of crap that doesn't work," argument. Clearly the devices DO work, and clearly people are generally VERY pleased with them. So please, do explain how you reconcile this with your world view?
Which boat is that, exactly? The boat that Microsoft is on with their super-profitable tablet business?
The boat with all the Android-based iPad work-alikes? Yeah, it would be great if the iPad worked like an Android clone of the iPad.
Man, you'd be soooo pissed to see me learning new guitar chords, reading books, responding to email, watching Netflix movies, talking with family & friends over Skype, taking pictures & video, editing video, uploading it, writing a new version of my resume, and all of that stuff with my iPad and iPhone. I guess I missed the memo that the iOS devices are only suitable for mindlessly purchasing stuff from the Apple "walled garden".
Such as? Which android tablets, specifically, are a fraction of the price, and seem like a better choice? If there are "many others" you should be able to name a few, right?
So if iPads are no good for anything but as an ebook reader, why would you then suggest that an Android tablet is a "much better choice"? They're not going to be fundamentally any different in functionality than an iPad... so why replace one thing you claim is only an expensive ebook reader with another thing that, by definition, is just another expensive ebook reader?
You forgot the obligatory "Now pull your pants up, for christ's sake, and stay the fuck off my lawn!"
That's great if "flipping through" a book gets you the answer you want. How about full-text search? I'd consider that a pretty good use for an ipad or ebook reader device, and a far better solution than "flipping through" a physical book hoping I find the answer.
The margins on an ebook are virtual, and thus can hold way more margin notes.
The physical book is printed, and cannot be easily updated with errata & new revisions... ebooks can simply be updated in place with the equivalent of a code patch.
There's certainly drawbacks and benefits to both ebooks and printed books, but your commentary here touches on some of the weaker justifications for needing a printed book.
So what do you do when your kids don't put their lunchbox in the kitchen? I'm guessing you remind them, rather than let them go to school with nothing to eat?
Here's a suggestion: Table by the front door, with a charging station, one for each iPad, clearly labeled "Jimmy," "Johnny," and "June." At bedtime, you take a quick look at that table, and say, "Hmm... no ipads. Hey Kids, before bed, why don't you do the RIGHT THING and put your iPad on its charger?!"
Kids say, "Gee dad, that's GREAT! Thanks for reminding me! I luvs ya!"
You go to bed secure in the knowledge that you're a great parent, the kids have a fully charged iPad in the morning. When they're leaving to go catch the bus to school, say "HEY KIDS, Don't forget your iPads!"
In short, taking responsibility for ensuring your kids are prepared for school, as their parent. I know this is may be an outlandish concept, but for primary-school-aged children, you do it already - instead of saying "Do you have your lunch and all your books & homework?" You can say, "Do you have your lunch and your iPad?"
Pop quiz, Hotshot. There's a bomb on a bus. Once the bus goes 50 miles an hour, the bomb is armed. If it drops below 50, it blows up. What do you do?
WHAT DO YOU DO?
How's your iPad going to help you in that scenario, huh? Huh?!
As a place to store a spare tire, cars are ridiculously overpriced. But then, cars do a lot more than store a spare tire in the trunk, don't they? Perhaps that additional functionality justifies the price.
Until you realize that textbooks can benefit (if well-constructed) from the addition of color, sound, video, notetaking and highlighting features, a handy web browser / internet connection for free-form research, etc. etc.
And then you realize that adding even a few of those features eliminates most of the present generation of "book readers" from the competition due to display limitations, or processing power.
Which is why "book readers" are cheaper than general purpose iPads.
I call bullshit. This either never happened, or your girlfriend was simply parroting your commentary on the iPad in an attempt to please you.
Nobody with a corporate-issued device (managed by any IT department worth its salt) has a reasonable expectation of "freedom to do whatever I want with my corporate device." Corporate laptops, cell phones, desktops, servers, and networks are just as locked down as that iPad, for security reasons. Please explain to us what the "freedomz" were that she was complaining about her company "taking away".
Welcoome to the public relations part of your job, then. If you don't make it clear to your boss what value you're providing to his organization, then you're on the shortlist for outsourcing and / or layoffs anyway. Learn to speak the language he uses.
As far as needing the super detailed opdocs, after you leave the company, they are not your problem. If mgmt hires an incompetent, it's not your job to make that work for them. Offer a consulting agreement at a steep rate, and they'll stop calling you very quickly. There's no need to be rude about it, just tell them, "before I help you, let's talk about my hourly rate."
If you fail to do that, and you keep answering the phone when they call to provide free support, then you're enabling them and the fault is your own for not encouraging them to break themselves of their "dependency" on you.
It's a tally of government requests that they've received - some of those requests were for the removal of data, so I guess that part (the minority, incidentally - 128 requests for data removal, versus ~4300 requests for user information) is censorship, but the vast majority of these requests is for user data, probably largely for police investigations.
Slashdot likes to use big purple conspiracy words to generate a few more clicks on the link. "Google updates Transparency Report with 1H-2010 government request data" just isn't as sexy and provocative a title.