f AAC format is encumbered with bias that benefits iPod or Apple over the competitors, then it is no better than the situation where Microsoft controls the market share.
This seems to be one of the key points that the author relies on - that AAC somehow gives the advantage to Apple. I really don't understand how this is the case. This may drive iTunes sales, but Apple is more concerned with iPod sales. Since other players will be able to play music purchased on iTunes (I believe the Zune, god forbid, plays AAC), this could in theory hurt iPod sales (though that seems a bit remote).
So selling DRM-free AAC files will dethrone DRM-free MP3 files as the industry standard?
Exactly. The only thing this might "force" other stores to do is sell DRM-free music (which is a good thing). I don't really think there is much else you can assume about this change, except for an increase of iTunes sales for Apple (though that might not even happen).
So Dell is willing to call such a machine 'Vista-capable', and Microsoft was willing to certify it as such. What the hell do I want with an os that does nothing but boot? Dell and Microsoft conspired to screw us both:
If it says you can't do very much with the lowest end system, how exactly are they screwing you? Also, I doubt that Dell sells many computers that don't at least partially match the medium spec (the only thing I can imagine being off would be maybe 512MB of ram vs 1Gb and the video card). I really don't understand how this is a scam.
Not everyone wants a gamer machine -- if I buy a low-end box that is 'Vista capable', I shouldn't end up feeling like a fraud victim.
Never heard of "you get what you pay for"? In any case, the cheapest box I found from Dell was:
AMD Sempron(TM) Processor 3400+
Genuine Windows Vista(TM) Home Basic
512MB Single Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz - 1DIMM
80GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache(TM)
16x DVD+/-RW Drive
I'm sure this would be manageable in Vista - you might even be able to run an application! Really, only the RAM and lack of video card are real concerns (if you want aero, though I think you'd have to get the better Vista too for that). The website even recommends upgrading those to "Get the most out of Vista" (upselling, but they have a point).
Well in that case, you have no problem. Qt for X11 is available under the QPL [trolltech.com], which permits applications to use a range of free software licenses, including the LGPL and BSD-style.
Just out of curiosity, where does it say you can use other licenses? I only see the following:
4. a) You must include this license document in the distribution.
Your sentence structure is severely lacking. Are you saying that your old Blackberry was ugly and worked well, while your new Windows Mobile phone is much nicer looking but doesn't work as well? If so, why did you get rid of the Blackberry...? And, what was the point of your post (since you seem to have taken style over functionality)?
Yes, that is what I was saying, but I didn't choose the Windows mobile device - both were from work and we "upgraded". If it was my choice I would go back to the blackberry.
NBC creating their own "youtube" will be like a poor kid who has to wear clothes that his mom made for him out of scraps, while all his friends and classmates go to school in brandname. It'll be the K-Mart and Value Village of video sites.
I disagree - it will/could be an actual video site, rather than one filled with "teenage self-indulgent attention whores to whine about how hard life is, shake their asses and lipsynch on video as if the rest of the world cares". If I have to choose between a legitimate outlet for Heroes (hopefully fairly high quality stream) and some moron whining about his parents cutting up his credit card and canceling his cell phone, guess which I'm going to choose?
Nice video. I think it actually looks fairly decent. What I'd really like is this concept with essentially an iPod on one side and that phone on the other (or maybe phone by sony ericsson, nokia, etc). The mp3 side looks a bit clunky, but the concept is really cool.
As for the million button thing...this is literally a phone combined with an mp3 player...do you have problem with using a normal telephone or something?
Some people don't judge things based on appearance. Attractive does not necessarily mean usable and ugly does not necessarily mean unusable. My old blackberry was significantly more easy to use than my current Windows Mobile phone but it doesn't look nearly as nice.
Read the description, that is not really the case. Want to search for a song? You have to flip it over to use the keypad. So really what it ends up being is a media device with a screen on one side and a keypad for controlling it on the other, and software that tells you to fli pthe phone when it needs input. That does not sound at all usable to me, no other device maker has decided to solve the "cannot fit keyboard and screen in same space" problem by putting the keyboard opposite the display.
To me it seems overly expensive for what it is, when for just $200 more you can get, well, an iPhone.
I think you are minimizing the fingerprint issue with the iPhone (there is no stylus, no real buttons - _everything_ is accomplished video touching the screen, i.e. generating fingerprints), but point taken for the interface - that does seem fairly clunky. I like the concept of this, mainly because I'm tired of touchscreens for phones, but it looks like it may not be implemented too well.
Oh, and I smile whenever people talk about the iPhone as if you could buy one now (people have been doing it since the announcement!).
iPhone - Ability to upload your own video content
Upstage - Access to Sprint TV video clips
The storage is via microSD memory cards and it supports up to 2GB sticks. The 64MB is what is included with the phone. As for video, it mentions that you can upload your own music to the phone rather than purchasing it via Sprint, but makes no mention of whether you can do the same with video (I'll assume not until someone says you can).
Why are these being compared? They are not in the same product class or market.
The iPhone is somewhat difficult to peg. It is essentially a PDA (but no unauthorized 3rd party apps?), but is largely marketed as a multimedia device/cell phone (I got the impression it was being sold as iPod video/phone rather than a direct crackberry/windows mobile replacement) so comparing it to other multimedia/phone hybrids seems to be at least somewhat valid.
It has a smaller screen, and what sounds like (to me) a more confusing UI that will really get fingerprints and palm prints on the device since you are always turning it over in your hands...
More fingerprints than, say, a device that relies entirely on touching the screen (iPhone)? I don't think so. Also, based on the information here, the buttons for the media side are touch=sensitive, and not the screen (I'm guessing there is an on/off switch for that side? shrug).
In any case, this seems far less confusing than having everything integrated together. You'll basically have one side dedicated to basic phone functions and the other dedicated to multimedia. Each UI would therefore be optimized for each of it's dedicated functions (i.e. numeric keypad is ideal for a phone, but not for an mp3 player). To me, this is a novel way of basically combining a phone and mp3 player into one device without sacrificing the simplicity of either (of course, I haven't used it, so maybe it's really has nightmare UI - this is just speculation).
Wouldn't a stylus approach, with a touch screen allow for arbitrary button placement? Wouldn't this solve this problem?
This is a solution, but I wouldn't say it's the solution. I currently have a PDA-phone and though the touchscreen is nice for the PDA aspects, having to use it for dialing is a pain. Having to a) look at the screen and b) use two hands to do almost everything (as opposed to dialing single-handed and without looking on a normal handset, for example) is a pain. I'm glad cell phone makers are not all on-board with the touchscreen thing because I still think there keypads make for far superior phones. If I didn't have a phone provided through work (hence the lame PDA-phone), I'd possibly consider one of these things.
You just know we are going to read about these in a couple of months failing because the screens are getting cracked and busted left and right.
I don't understand - why would having screens on two sides of a phone make them more likely to be damaged? I'd be more worried about the screen on the iPhone since it is a) large and b) the only real input method on the phone. Lets say the the multimedia screen breaks on this device - you still have a functioning phone. If it breaks on the iPhone, you have an expensive brick.
Haha, sorry. I guess it's hard to differentiate between parody and actual Apple fanboys nowadays. I don't dislike Apple (I have a MBP) but I try not to drink anyone's coolaid. This AppleTV literally seems like a) marginally useful and b) niche market at best. I'm not sure what all the hype is about. Anyways, cheers:)
People already have their movies and music and pictures on their PCs or Macs. Now they want to easily show them on the TV. AppleTV does that, 360 does not do that.
Do you have a 360? Mine does this quite fine, thank you very much (though not with my Mac, granted, but I haven't really looked into that at all, so there may even be a way to do that). I don't really know where you get your information from, but this is my point - my 360 basically does what the ATV does, so why should I get one?
Sorry, in this case my money is going to Apple, next time Microsoft will listen to its customers, they have to look at the market and realise how their product will fair to superior offerings. Support the FEATURES people want!!! Why is this so hard for the Microsoft nazi's to understand???
In what way is the media functionality of the ATV superior to that of the 360? As far as I can tell, there is no reason to buy an ATV if you have a 360 unless you must have everything that Apple releases.
Ohh, I just noticed your homepage - I understand now:)
Unfortunately, a lot of people don't realize that "salaried" often equivocates to "exploited." It's the last "golden handcuff" whose shine hasn't worn off.
I'm both salaried and get paid overtime - Canada (at least certain parts of it) is nice that way.
Stop googling for "jihad death to american president" if you're worried about getting caught.
When you use language like "caught" you are obviously not referring to Google, but rather some external agency (i.e. the government) rather than by Google. You are changing the parties involved to strengthen your argument.
Such a statement cedes an awful lot of power to a national government.Like the power to secure its own borders? I don't really think this is ceding anything, especially since we are talking about foreign nationals and not citizens of that nation.
This will ultimately lead to even more privacy-violating information sharing as potential employers demand to know about any minor misdemeanor a potential hire has ever committed. They'll have to do this in order to be sure that their new employee doesn't get turned away at the border, but in the process the principle of being able to repay one's debts to society after a transgression will be even further eroded.
Ignoring the whole logical jump here, don't employers essentially do this already when hiring from another country? A friend of mine is being promoted within his organization which is resulting in him moving from the Canadian office to an American office. Despite this being within the same company, the American checks are incredibly thorough (minimum of 3 month process apparently, requires providing a large number of documents including University transcripts, etc).
Fifty years ago these incidents went into dusty file boxes in the back closet of city hall; now they're in every border agent's database and are impeding people's movement. Should our societies consider mitigating these previously-impossible long term effects by shortening prison terms and lowering fines? Politically, how can one argue that without being seen as soft on crime?
So are you against criminal records going back so far for trivial things or against border security's access to criminal records in the first place? Either way, I'm not sure what changing prison sentences has to do with any of it.
In any case, I think this is reasonable for the most part - giving border security access to information is good. Also, this isn't anything new - I know someone who worked for border security and it was common practice to contact the local police department from the place where a suspicious person was from in order to determine if they had a criminal record or not. If anything, his should seriously speed things up (though, as it is a government agency, I seriously doubt that will happen).
For some reason, vocal minorities are often confused with silent majorities.
Especially on websites that don't require any kind of registration in order to cast your vote. I can easily imagine these numbers have been inflated by being linked to from sites like Slashdot. Also, to give more meaning to this survey, it seems that 1 anonymous vote counted for 3 points (at least they did for me), so divide the totals by 3 to get the actual number of (anonymous) votes for each option.
Slashdot Mirror
This seems to be one of the key points that the author relies on - that AAC somehow gives the advantage to Apple. I really don't understand how this is the case. This may drive iTunes sales, but Apple is more concerned with iPod sales. Since other players will be able to play music purchased on iTunes (I believe the Zune, god forbid, plays AAC), this could in theory hurt iPod sales (though that seems a bit remote).
Exactly. The only thing this might "force" other stores to do is sell DRM-free music (which is a good thing). I don't really think there is much else you can assume about this change, except for an increase of iTunes sales for Apple (though that might not even happen).
If it says you can't do very much with the lowest end system, how exactly are they screwing you? Also, I doubt that Dell sells many computers that don't at least partially match the medium spec (the only thing I can imagine being off would be maybe 512MB of ram vs 1Gb and the video card). I really don't understand how this is a scam.
Never heard of "you get what you pay for"? In any case, the cheapest box I found from Dell was:
AMD Sempron(TM) Processor 3400+
Genuine Windows Vista(TM) Home Basic
512MB Single Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz - 1DIMM
80GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache(TM)
16x DVD+/-RW Drive
I'm sure this would be manageable in Vista - you might even be able to run an application! Really, only the RAM and lack of video card are real concerns (if you want aero, though I think you'd have to get the better Vista too for that). The website even recommends upgrading those to "Get the most out of Vista" (upselling, but they have a point).
Heh, "save a series"? You forget, sir, this is the internet - people can do whatever they want. Case in point.
No, but not understanding it's a joke does make you stupid. Sorry.
I know, something untrue on the internet - frankly, I'm shocked.
Just out of curiosity, where does it say you can use other licenses? I only see the following:
Yes, that is what I was saying, but I didn't choose the Windows mobile device - both were from work and we "upgraded". If it was my choice I would go back to the blackberry.
I disagree - it will/could be an actual video site, rather than one filled with "teenage self-indulgent attention whores to whine about how hard life is, shake their asses and lipsynch on video as if the rest of the world cares". If I have to choose between a legitimate outlet for Heroes (hopefully fairly high quality stream) and some moron whining about his parents cutting up his credit card and canceling his cell phone, guess which I'm going to choose?
Nice video. I think it actually looks fairly decent. What I'd really like is this concept with essentially an iPod on one side and that phone on the other (or maybe phone by sony ericsson, nokia, etc). The mp3 side looks a bit clunky, but the concept is really cool.
As for the million button thing...this is literally a phone combined with an mp3 player...do you have problem with using a normal telephone or something?
Some people don't judge things based on appearance. Attractive does not necessarily mean usable and ugly does not necessarily mean unusable. My old blackberry was significantly more easy to use than my current Windows Mobile phone but it doesn't look nearly as nice.
I think you are minimizing the fingerprint issue with the iPhone (there is no stylus, no real buttons - _everything_ is accomplished video touching the screen, i.e. generating fingerprints), but point taken for the interface - that does seem fairly clunky. I like the concept of this, mainly because I'm tired of touchscreens for phones, but it looks like it may not be implemented too well.
Oh, and I smile whenever people talk about the iPhone as if you could buy one now (people have been doing it since the announcement!).
The storage is via microSD memory cards and it supports up to 2GB sticks. The 64MB is what is included with the phone. As for video, it mentions that you can upload your own music to the phone rather than purchasing it via Sprint, but makes no mention of whether you can do the same with video (I'll assume not until someone says you can).
The iPhone is somewhat difficult to peg. It is essentially a PDA (but no unauthorized 3rd party apps?), but is largely marketed as a multimedia device/cell phone (I got the impression it was being sold as iPod video/phone rather than a direct crackberry/windows mobile replacement) so comparing it to other multimedia/phone hybrids seems to be at least somewhat valid.
More fingerprints than, say, a device that relies entirely on touching the screen (iPhone)? I don't think so. Also, based on the information here, the buttons for the media side are touch=sensitive, and not the screen (I'm guessing there is an on/off switch for that side? shrug).
In any case, this seems far less confusing than having everything integrated together. You'll basically have one side dedicated to basic phone functions and the other dedicated to multimedia. Each UI would therefore be optimized for each of it's dedicated functions (i.e. numeric keypad is ideal for a phone, but not for an mp3 player). To me, this is a novel way of basically combining a phone and mp3 player into one device without sacrificing the simplicity of either (of course, I haven't used it, so maybe it's really has nightmare UI - this is just speculation).
This is a solution, but I wouldn't say it's the solution. I currently have a PDA-phone and though the touchscreen is nice for the PDA aspects, having to use it for dialing is a pain. Having to a) look at the screen and b) use two hands to do almost everything (as opposed to dialing single-handed and without looking on a normal handset, for example) is a pain. I'm glad cell phone makers are not all on-board with the touchscreen thing because I still think there keypads make for far superior phones. If I didn't have a phone provided through work (hence the lame PDA-phone), I'd possibly consider one of these things.
I don't understand - why would having screens on two sides of a phone make them more likely to be damaged? I'd be more worried about the screen on the iPhone since it is a) large and b) the only real input method on the phone. Lets say the the multimedia screen breaks on this device - you still have a functioning phone. If it breaks on the iPhone, you have an expensive brick.
Haha, sorry. I guess it's hard to differentiate between parody and actual Apple fanboys nowadays. I don't dislike Apple (I have a MBP) but I try not to drink anyone's coolaid. This AppleTV literally seems like a) marginally useful and b) niche market at best. I'm not sure what all the hype is about. Anyways, cheers :)
Do you have a 360? Mine does this quite fine, thank you very much (though not with my Mac, granted, but I haven't really looked into that at all, so there may even be a way to do that). I don't really know where you get your information from, but this is my point - my 360 basically does what the ATV does, so why should I get one?
In what way is the media functionality of the ATV superior to that of the 360? As far as I can tell, there is no reason to buy an ATV if you have a 360 unless you must have everything that Apple releases.
Ohh, I just noticed your homepage - I understand now :)
I'm both salaried and get paid overtime - Canada (at least certain parts of it) is nice that way.
When you use language like "caught" you are obviously not referring to Google, but rather some external agency (i.e. the government) rather than by Google. You are changing the parties involved to strengthen your argument.
Wait, so you're willing to pay more than $CostOfWindowsPC - $CostOfWindows? That does not appear to be the vibe on other threads here that I've read.
Such a statement cedes an awful lot of power to a national government.Like the power to secure its own borders? I don't really think this is ceding anything, especially since we are talking about foreign nationals and not citizens of that nation.
This will ultimately lead to even more privacy-violating information sharing as potential employers demand to know about any minor misdemeanor a potential hire has ever committed. They'll have to do this in order to be sure that their new employee doesn't get turned away at the border, but in the process the principle of being able to repay one's debts to society after a transgression will be even further eroded.
Ignoring the whole logical jump here, don't employers essentially do this already when hiring from another country? A friend of mine is being promoted within his organization which is resulting in him moving from the Canadian office to an American office. Despite this being within the same company, the American checks are incredibly thorough (minimum of 3 month process apparently, requires providing a large number of documents including University transcripts, etc).
Fifty years ago these incidents went into dusty file boxes in the back closet of city hall; now they're in every border agent's database and are impeding people's movement. Should our societies consider mitigating these previously-impossible long term effects by shortening prison terms and lowering fines? Politically, how can one argue that without being seen as soft on crime?
So are you against criminal records going back so far for trivial things or against border security's access to criminal records in the first place? Either way, I'm not sure what changing prison sentences has to do with any of it.
In any case, I think this is reasonable for the most part - giving border security access to information is good. Also, this isn't anything new - I know someone who worked for border security and it was common practice to contact the local police department from the place where a suspicious person was from in order to determine if they had a criminal record or not. If anything, his should seriously speed things up (though, as it is a government agency, I seriously doubt that will happen).
Especially on websites that don't require any kind of registration in order to cast your vote. I can easily imagine these numbers have been inflated by being linked to from sites like Slashdot. Also, to give more meaning to this survey, it seems that 1 anonymous vote counted for 3 points (at least they did for me), so divide the totals by 3 to get the actual number of (anonymous) votes for each option.
Yes, I'm sure the loss of the Cuban goverment will badly damage Microsoft's bottom line.
I believe the RIAA cases are civil (?) and this one was a criminal case - big difference.