"Fox set up Futurama to run at 7PM EST / 6PM CST. This was on a Sunday. Fox had football running on Sundays. With the exception of the west coast, most of the country never saw the show. Many times they joined the show already in progress at approx 20 after, so no one could know what was going on. Too many football games went past their time slot."
It wasn't just football. When Episode I came out, Fox showed the original Star Wars at 5pm. It ended at 7pm. If they had just left the schedule where it was, Futurama would have come after Star Wars.... right? NO. They put two episodes of King of the Hill after it! Talk about baffling.
How about a Pocket PC? A Palm? Many of the Palms and Pocket PCs didn't/don't have user replaceable batteries.
How about my logitech cordless mouse here? It doesn't. Lots of devices don't have replaceable batteries for lots of reasons.
Every single cell phone I've owned, from super cheap to super expenssive, for the last 10 years, had a user-replacable battery. Heck, every phone I've even lightly considered owning has had a 'high-capacity' upgrade available for it. It'd be surprising to find a phone that has a soldered-in battery, even if one owned a logitech cordless mouse or a PocketPC.
"The $60,000 claim seems to me to be a mite excessive too. If she was inconvenienced by it, I think a proper compensation would be in the order of a movie ticket."
Heck, I'd think it was fair if she were compensated for an hour or two of her time. $50'ish maybe. Then again, if the point is to make the chain stop doing it, they have to be hit hard in the wallet.
Mmm if it were up to me, I'd suggest in cases like these that the 'winnings' go back to the community. Punitive damages would go towards the local homeless shelter or for fixing potholes or whatever. That way, people wanting to make the case to truely right a wrong would lose the greed motivation for filing. Oh well.
"Why didn't he just return the phone when he got it home and discovered the battery wasn't replaceable? He had 14 days to determine whether or not it met his needs."
The problem is the iPhone is like the only phone in existence right now with a soldered-in battery. Most people aren't going to have it occur to them to check on that until it's a problem. And since that's roughly a year or two away...
" With both phones just sitting there waiting for a call, something the iPhone will probably do more frequently than you think, the iPhone will probably win."
If you're saying that the iPhone has a longer standby life, okay, I can accept that as a possibility. Heck, I can even accept that I may be overestimating how much the other features will be used. Thing is, though, several people where I work have them. Their always out, usually playing MP3s. (Occasionally they're checking email.) It's still easy for me to picture these things getting cycled a lot. I'll concede, though, that it's simply speculation.
"My phone was free and it does everything the iPhone does that doesn't require a touchscreen."
Hey, I'm a Treo owner, that is not an alien concept to me.;)
However, just because it has the features doesn't mean it's being widely used for them.
A shitty phone under typical average use will have consistent battery life for longer than an iPhone under typical average use because over the course of a year or two it'll go through less cycles. The difference is that the iPhone is designed/targeted to be used frequently as a media player/web browser, whereas most cell phones are designed to be phones that sit and wait for a call.
It's an MP3 player. It's going to get more usage. That'll mean more recharges. Simple concept.
"Guess what? A shitty phone will also require frequent recharges if used like an iPhone...."
Guess what? Most cell phones aren't used like an iPhone. How they're used in reality and the extreme of how they could be used are two different things.
"Well, you know what they say about the word "Assume" don't you?"
Heh. I hear ya.
But look, it's not that I'm anti-Apple, here. I just don't care for allowing Apple to do things I know I wouldn't allow Sony or Microsoft to do. The more a company has to say up front about their products, the better it is for consumers. This concept doesn't just magically fly out the window because it's Apple and they've made us happy before. The iPod was neat, but it's no reason to drop your pants and grab your ankles in front of them.
"How hard would it be to ask the salesperson when buying said phone?"
Considering that every single phone on the planet has a user-replaceable battery, your expectation that anybody'd even think to look into it is silly.
"I mean, there are reasons to sue companies, but, lets get real....suing because YOU did do basic research before buying something, to understand how it would work and function...isn't what is supposed to happen."
Oh right. The same laws that make it difficult for companies (like Microsoft) to screw you are suddenly the cause of all the world's problems because they potentially rock Apple's boat. Face it: Apple could have been more up-front about the battery replacement AND that would have been more beneficial to the consumer. Instead you get to pay $29 for the inconvenience. Good thing I love Apple so I can put them on a pedestal for it.
"The customer also doesn't have to be without a phone for several days, and claiming that they do because there is a fee for a loaner is ridiculous."
Riiiight. I have to admit, I'm impressed that you went to such great lengths to support Apple's shafting of their customers. Not as impressed, though, as your post reaching +5.
Welp, here's a few rebuttals. I'll try to keep them short and sweet:
"Additionally, asking any Apple retail store, customer service representative, dealer, authorized service provider, etc., will yield a direct and immediate answer about battery replacement."
Right. I'll ignore the bit about the customer service agents that know their products well. (Tee hee! Funny thought!) Apple probably has the only phone in existence with a soldered in battery. Now that may not literally be true, but be realistic, who's even going to consider that possibility without specifically looking it up? It's as unexpected as buying a car with tires only the factory can replace.
"The iPhone's lithium ion battery is no different."
The iPhone's used differently from a typical phone. Even a shitty phone will go 3 days without a recharge. The iPhone, if used for lots of audio etc, can end up requiring a recharge every night. The battery may not be different per-se, but it's getting a more rigorous workout due to its design. The effect is that same li-ion battery won't last as long as a normal phone.
"Most people will not need, or feel they need, to replace the battery in the lifetime of the phone (i.e., while they own and are using it)."
Funny how 'lifetime' can be shortened by a worn-out battery.
"Also, the battery is covered by the warranty... The customer also doesn't have to be without a phone for several days, and claiming that they do because there is a fee for a loaner is ridiculous. Just pretend that the battery replacement costs $29 more, then."
Wow. Just... wow. With every other phone on the market, you can just run to a store, buy a new battery, and be on your way. With Apple, you can pay $29, use some other phone for who knows how long (and deal with all the re-synching ant shit), and be super happy about it. Hot dog!
"If you choose to not have a phone in the meantime, that's your choice."
Too bad you can't choose to just go to a store and buy a new battery like every other phone on the market.
"This wasn't done for "planned obsolescence".
I might be inclined to agree with that if there wasn't a fee for the loaner phone.
"...and you don't have to buy an iPhone."
The problem is that one could easily buy an iPhone without having any idea that their battery usage is very different from other phones on the market. You could shrug it off and say it's their fault for not checking in on it. That's fine. Let's run with that idea for a moment: Let's say it was okay for a company to behave that way. You could buy a car alarm with the neat little fob that lets you enter your car. One day, pftbtb, the battery dies. Oops, the battery's not replacable. Too bad you didn't read up on that little feature of the alarm, afterall, it was posted on their site. At least you've got some tunes to listen to while you wait for a tow truck.
"They'll have the same slow degradation everyone experiences with lithium ion batteries over time..."
Between the music, videos, and WiFi, this statement is questionable.
"Lets have a Microsoft free week. If Microsoft is bashed or put on a pedestal then kill the story."
Actually that'd be nice. We already know MS is evil and that they shouldn't be trusted. So, instead, the watchful eyes should be on Google. Every day they get more and more personal data on everybody. I know we like them now, but should that publicly traded company change its focus...
It'd be nice to put all this energy into preventing evil from being committed as opposed to bitching about stuff that happened years ago.
"I vaguely remember the car running entirely out of power and being pushed into a driveway where Doc stuffed garbage into the Mr. Fusion, but I also remember gasoline in other scenes...maybe technology change between the 1st and 2nd movie?"
No. You're remembering wrong. There was a scene where the Delorean was pushed behind a billboard after the starter had failed. (It wasn't a gas problem.) That was in 1955. At the end of the movie, back in 1985, the Delorean re-materializes and stops in Marty's drive-way. He then goes to the garbage and takes a few bits and stuffs them into Mr. Fusion. This was NOT, however, after running out of gas. It was to generate the power needed to travel into the future.
The only thing I can think of that would imply that the Delorean didn't run on gas was a brief statement in the first movie where Marty asked if it ran on gas and Doc said "No, this sucker's electrical". It's fairly easy to imagine, though, that he was talking about the 1.21 gigawatt bit.
"How is this possible? Do that many people even have access to a computer?"
I doubt it's a 1:1 correlation. Me personally, I have a desktop, a laptop, and a computer at work. If I wanted to get fanatical about counting machines, I could bring up the render-farm where I work.
"Really, i'm sick of the double standards we humans have. "
So... if your father died, would you just shrug and say "Welp, just another death today?"
I already know what the answer to that is. It's related to the reason why these deaths are important. When you feel personally involved (i.e. people working to further advance our journies into space), you care more. It's not a matter of double-standards. When somebody dies, invariably your thoughts drift towards how that will affect you. It's just the way the mind works.
You could get all Vulcan about it and try to brush it off with rationale like you just used, but sooner or later, somebody will die, and your reaction will violate your rationale. Humans aren't as illogical as you're making them out to be. It's not worth getting 'sick' over.
"What a socially irresponsible attitude! What would you do if your $1000 Akita puppy ran away and never returned? Would you simply steal another one?"
That would be impossible to determine from the example he gave. Afterall, he didn't describe walking into a store or somebody's house and taking their copy.
"And don't complain about the analogy, either. You are arguing in favor of stealing something to replace something you lost."
He has paid for the content and he's looking for a dupe that will cost no more to the company that produced said content. Your definition of 'stealing' makes me think you're channeling the spirit of Jack Valenti.
"(or better yet, you'll simply realize that there are far more important things in life than material possessions)."
So you're saying that if I stole your $1000 Akita puppy, you'd be okay with it because you have your health? And don't complain about the anology, either. You're arguing that a company can 'steal' from you to replace content you've already licensed.
"Unless you'd like to avoid this, of course, in which case I take payment in Visa, Mastercard, or hookers."... In fact, forget the Visa and Mastercard!
Slashdot Mirror
I didn't realize the Cell processor had been around that long.
"Can anyone explain to me what the purpose is behind a HD cartoon?"
Well, Futurama did use a lot of gradients and obscene tatoos...
"Fox set up Futurama to run at 7PM EST / 6PM CST. This was on a Sunday. Fox had football running on Sundays. With the exception of the west coast, most of the country never saw the show. Many times they joined the show already in progress at approx 20 after, so no one could know what was going on. Too many football games went past their time slot."
It wasn't just football. When Episode I came out, Fox showed the original Star Wars at 5pm. It ended at 7pm. If they had just left the schedule where it was, Futurama would have come after Star Wars.... right? NO. They put two episodes of King of the Hill after it! Talk about baffling.
"Maybe he's from the future, send here to warn us of iPhone battery failures and SkyNet?"
Maybe he's trying to get Apple to change a bit so some customers don't get shafted.
Every single cell phone I've owned, from super cheap to super expenssive, for the last 10 years, had a user-replacable battery. Heck, every phone I've even lightly considered owning has had a 'high-capacity' upgrade available for it. It'd be surprising to find a phone that has a soldered-in battery, even if one owned a logitech cordless mouse or a PocketPC.
"The $60,000 claim seems to me to be a mite excessive too. If she was inconvenienced by it, I think a proper compensation would be in the order of a movie ticket."
Heck, I'd think it was fair if she were compensated for an hour or two of her time. $50'ish maybe. Then again, if the point is to make the chain stop doing it, they have to be hit hard in the wallet.
Mmm if it were up to me, I'd suggest in cases like these that the 'winnings' go back to the community. Punitive damages would go towards the local homeless shelter or for fixing potholes or whatever. That way, people wanting to make the case to truely right a wrong would lose the greed motivation for filing. Oh well.
"Why didn't he just return the phone when he got it home and discovered the battery wasn't replaceable? He had 14 days to determine whether or not it met his needs."
The problem is the iPhone is like the only phone in existence right now with a soldered-in battery. Most people aren't going to have it occur to them to check on that until it's a problem. And since that's roughly a year or two away...
" With both phones just sitting there waiting for a call, something the iPhone will probably do more frequently than you think, the iPhone will probably win."
;)
If you're saying that the iPhone has a longer standby life, okay, I can accept that as a possibility. Heck, I can even accept that I may be overestimating how much the other features will be used. Thing is, though, several people where I work have them. Their always out, usually playing MP3s. (Occasionally they're checking email.) It's still easy for me to picture these things getting cycled a lot. I'll concede, though, that it's simply speculation.
"My phone was free and it does everything the iPhone does that doesn't require a touchscreen."
Hey, I'm a Treo owner, that is not an alien concept to me.
However, just because it has the features doesn't mean it's being widely used for them.
"That's not even what you were talking about! "
Um, yes it is. My point hasn't changed at all.
"That isn't a valid comparison. Do you understand why?"
I get what you're thinking. Sad thing is, you are sooOOOoooo close to understanding what I'm saying... Oh well.
"How is that valid in any way?"
A shitty phone under typical average use will have consistent battery life for longer than an iPhone under typical average use because over the course of a year or two it'll go through less cycles. The difference is that the iPhone is designed/targeted to be used frequently as a media player/web browser, whereas most cell phones are designed to be phones that sit and wait for a call.
It's an MP3 player. It's going to get more usage. That'll mean more recharges. Simple concept.
"Guess what? A shitty phone will also require frequent recharges if used like an iPhone...."
Guess what? Most cell phones aren't used like an iPhone. How they're used in reality and the extreme of how they could be used are two different things.
"Well, you know what they say about the word "Assume" don't you?"
Heh. I hear ya.
But look, it's not that I'm anti-Apple, here. I just don't care for allowing Apple to do things I know I wouldn't allow Sony or Microsoft to do. The more a company has to say up front about their products, the better it is for consumers. This concept doesn't just magically fly out the window because it's Apple and they've made us happy before. The iPod was neat, but it's no reason to drop your pants and grab your ankles in front of them.
"How hard would it be to ask the salesperson when buying said phone?"
Considering that every single phone on the planet has a user-replaceable battery, your expectation that anybody'd even think to look into it is silly.
"I mean, there are reasons to sue companies, but, lets get real....suing because YOU did do basic research before buying something, to understand how it would work and function...isn't what is supposed to happen."
Oh right. The same laws that make it difficult for companies (like Microsoft) to screw you are suddenly the cause of all the world's problems because they potentially rock Apple's boat. Face it: Apple could have been more up-front about the battery replacement AND that would have been more beneficial to the consumer. Instead you get to pay $29 for the inconvenience. Good thing I love Apple so I can put them on a pedestal for it.
Riiiight. I have to admit, I'm impressed that you went to such great lengths to support Apple's shafting of their customers. Not as impressed, though, as your post reaching +5.
Welp, here's a few rebuttals. I'll try to keep them short and sweet:
Right. I'll ignore the bit about the customer service agents that know their products well. (Tee hee! Funny thought!) Apple probably has the only phone in existence with a soldered in battery. Now that may not literally be true, but be realistic, who's even going to consider that possibility without specifically looking it up? It's as unexpected as buying a car with tires only the factory can replace.
The iPhone's used differently from a typical phone. Even a shitty phone will go 3 days without a recharge. The iPhone, if used for lots of audio etc, can end up requiring a recharge every night. The battery may not be different per-se, but it's getting a more rigorous workout due to its design. The effect is that same li-ion battery won't last as long as a normal phone.
Funny how 'lifetime' can be shortened by a worn-out battery.
Wow. Just... wow. With every other phone on the market, you can just run to a store, buy a new battery, and be on your way. With Apple, you can pay $29, use some other phone for who knows how long (and deal with all the re-synching ant shit), and be super happy about it. Hot dog!
Too bad you can't choose to just go to a store and buy a new battery like every other phone on the market.
I might be inclined to agree with that if there wasn't a fee for the loaner phone.
The problem is that one could easily buy an iPhone without having any idea that their battery usage is very different from other phones on the market. You could shrug it off and say it's their fault for not checking in on it. That's fine. Let's run with that idea for a moment: Let's say it was okay for a company to behave that way. You could buy a car alarm with the neat little fob that lets you enter your car. One day, pftbtb, the battery dies. Oops, the battery's not replacable. Too bad you didn't read up on that little feature of the alarm, afterall, it was posted on their site. At least you've got some tunes to listen to while you wait for a tow truck.
Between the music, videos, and WiFi, this statement is questionable.
"Lets have a Microsoft free week. If Microsoft is bashed or put on a pedestal then kill the story."
Actually that'd be nice. We already know MS is evil and that they shouldn't be trusted. So, instead, the watchful eyes should be on Google. Every day they get more and more personal data on everybody. I know we like them now, but should that publicly traded company change its focus...
It'd be nice to put all this energy into preventing evil from being committed as opposed to bitching about stuff that happened years ago.
"I vaguely remember the car running entirely out of power and being pushed into a driveway where Doc stuffed garbage into the Mr. Fusion, but I also remember gasoline in other scenes...maybe technology change between the 1st and 2nd movie?"
No. You're remembering wrong. There was a scene where the Delorean was pushed behind a billboard after the starter had failed. (It wasn't a gas problem.) That was in 1955. At the end of the movie, back in 1985, the Delorean re-materializes and stops in Marty's drive-way. He then goes to the garbage and takes a few bits and stuffs them into Mr. Fusion. This was NOT, however, after running out of gas. It was to generate the power needed to travel into the future.
The only thing I can think of that would imply that the Delorean didn't run on gas was a brief statement in the first movie where Marty asked if it ran on gas and Doc said "No, this sucker's electrical". It's fairly easy to imagine, though, that he was talking about the 1.21 gigawatt bit.
"I just saw one last week. Tho it had been painted ( one of the bad things about using bare stanless panels, you cant really repair them )
He was quoting a Biff line in Back to the Future II. It's hard to spot because he missed the word 'flying'.
"How is this possible? Do that many people even have access to a computer?"
I doubt it's a 1:1 correlation. Me personally, I have a desktop, a laptop, and a computer at work. If I wanted to get fanatical about counting machines, I could bring up the render-farm where I work.
"Really, i'm sick of the double standards we humans have. "
So... if your father died, would you just shrug and say "Welp, just another death today?"
I already know what the answer to that is. It's related to the reason why these deaths are important. When you feel personally involved (i.e. people working to further advance our journies into space), you care more. It's not a matter of double-standards. When somebody dies, invariably your thoughts drift towards how that will affect you. It's just the way the mind works.
You could get all Vulcan about it and try to brush it off with rationale like you just used, but sooner or later, somebody will die, and your reaction will violate your rationale. Humans aren't as illogical as you're making them out to be. It's not worth getting 'sick' over.
"Worst. Film. Ever. The friggin series was bad enough."
If Matrix Reloaded, Episode II/III, and Third Space hadn't come out since, I'd agree with you.
*Scene of a rocket blasting into space*
Tom: "Hey Joel? Look familiar? In the not too distant future.... Ow"
"What a socially irresponsible attitude! What would you do if your $1000 Akita puppy ran away and never returned? Would you simply steal another one?"
That would be impossible to determine from the example he gave. Afterall, he didn't describe walking into a store or somebody's house and taking their copy.
"And don't complain about the analogy, either. You are arguing in favor of stealing something to replace something you lost."
He has paid for the content and he's looking for a dupe that will cost no more to the company that produced said content. Your definition of 'stealing' makes me think you're channeling the spirit of Jack Valenti.
"(or better yet, you'll simply realize that there are far more important things in life than material possessions)."
So you're saying that if I stole your $1000 Akita puppy, you'd be okay with it because you have your health? And don't complain about the anology, either. You're arguing that a company can 'steal' from you to replace content you've already licensed.
"When 'effect' is used as a verb, it means 'to create.' The article writeup has the same primary-school error. It's not that hard, people."
Ah, so that's why Windows is vulnerable to this problem. I tell ya, we've got moderators shooting only the best stuff up to +5.
"Unless you'd like to avoid this, of course, in which case I take payment in Visa, Mastercard, or hookers." ... In fact, forget the Visa and Mastercard!
"Could somebody please explain to me why the Official Slashdot Groupthink(tm) hates the PS3 and loves the Wii?"
They kept at least half an eye open over the past year.