is spending time in discussing iTunes and Amazon prices?
That's a nice country, indeed!
If you believe/. the only thing Parliament wants to do is steal "mah freedomz(TM)" and "censor teh internetz" (both of which didn't come to pass BTW, I'm a free Australian free with uncensored intertubes). The majority of Parliamentary members are not pushing for this, in fact most of the Labor party rebelled over the idea of internet censorship. Things like price disparity and other issues that matter to the average Australian come up quite often in between petty bickering and snide jibes between Liberal and Labor (which to be honest, takes up 3/4 of parliament sitting time).
With all it's flaws (of which, there are a great many) I'd rather have the parliament of Australia which the very least, is not a corporate sock puppet.
It's not just games that we buy from overseas for cheap. Phones, cameras, computers, car and bike parts. All because local distributors used to have us by the balls with pricing. Games were A$90, Movies and CD's A$30 a piece and considering the AUD has been above 1 USD for the last few years, pricing like this is just taking the piss.
Well no more, I can order just about anything and get it shipped here for less. I order games from the UK for half the price of local games, DVD box sets that retail for A$75 I purchase for 11 pounds (AUD$17), My Canon Ixus 230 came from Hong Kong for A$100 less than here, I bought myself a laptop from the US, US$899 (A$840, a very favourable exch rate at the time) and got it shipped over tax free (personal imports under A$1000 are not subject to GST, note this is now A$900), Asus didn't even sell this model here but the previous model was A$1400. Even retailers are getting in on this very sweet action, JB HiFi and even Harvey Norman are selling "direct import" cameras and games and giving the middle finger to distributors.
You think in this environment the distributors would have learned and instituted fair pricing... Well they haven't and as much as the bang on about it, no one in parliament will lift a finger to protect them. Suffer in your jocks you smarmy, self centred bastards. Now we just need to allow more used cars to be imported, an Australian Nissan 350z costs A$30-40K, an imported Japanese Nissan 350GT costs A$20-30K imported and they are practically the same car (the 350z was down-tuned compared to the 350GT) but you are only allowed to import cars on the SEVS list (Specialist and Enthusiast Vehicles) which were never available for sale in Oz so I couldn't buy a cheap JDM Honda Integra Type R.
This is how I ended up buying Battlefield 3 premium
My sympathies sir, I too bought Battlefield 3 before realising how crap of a game it was.
I actually had the same thought that the pleasure vehicles of the 1890s were cars while it was post WWI that trucking replaced horses. But if you just assume Job's version of history the analogy works.
Well if we have to change history...
But the analogy still doesn't work. Computers are for a lot more than heavy lifting, they are more ergonomic than tablets, more versatile, available in more configurations. So it's still completely incorrect. So again, tablets are one type of car (a kei car for example) whilst PC's encompass all kinds of cars from 1.4L runabouts (netbooks) to 4WD's (number crunchers) to luxury sedans (media set ups) to high performance sports cars (gaming boxen).
I don't agree with your iOS comment. I have a iPad 3, iPhone and the 15" rMBP. They all do what they do quite well.
Camry drivers don't seem to think their car is any different to my Nissan 350GT... The bit they leave out is that they've never driven a 350GT.
BTW, I dont consider a Macbook to be anything remotely comparable to a 350GT, a Macbook is an A-B car, just more expensive than the Camry. A 350 would be my high end gaming box, Macbooks are average laptops that cost more than high end laptops.
Does the Australian Govt have anyone that can actually properly security audit this? I am sure they are not going to want to spend the money to hire someone who can.
Yes, the quality of our politicians is quite low (after all, who joins parliament unless you cant do anything else) but there are quite a few skilled and talented public servants who stay there just for the job security and benefits (8 weeks of holidays, sure Bill).
Also, who is to say the binary blob firmware doesn't have a back door. Its not like the Australians are going to compile it and install it themselves.
Which would be a requirement at this level.
But that's not the issue.
The reason this is an issue at all is that it's for the NBN which is a political hot potato. The opposition party wants to destroy the NBN (mainly because it isn't their policy) and tend to blow everything out of proportion. If NBNco was not making an issue about Huawei being a potential security risk you can bet your bottom dollar Shadow Communications minister, Malcolm Turnbull would be shouting it from every rooftop he can find. But seeing as they have, Mr Turnbull is making a big issue about how NBNco are limiting vendors.
There is more politics than security concerns here (although the concerns raised by the Defence Signals Directorate are quite valid).
As an aside I'm sure you heard about Steve Job's Trucks vs Cars analogy for OSX from iOS... i.e. in the beginning all cars were trucks...
And this is just one of the many things wrong with that comparison.
It's completely incorrect. The first car didn't carry a passenger or a driver, it was a toy built for the Chinese Emporor. The first cars were built to carry a driver and one passenger at most. At this point automobiles were not powerful enough to replace horse drawn carriages. Horse drawn carriages were still in common usage compared to trucks when Ford introduced the Model T because diesel engines with enough torque were still way to expensive.
I think a lot of people believe anything Steve Jobs says without actually fact checking (let alone analysing it rationally).
If IOS is a car, it would be a Toyota Camry. A low end production car, it's slow, handles like a whale, a true A-B car with little regard given to how it drives. My Desktop PC would be less of a truck and more of a Honda NSX, fast, sleek, powerful. It may weight more than a 4 banger Camry but it goes very fast, handles like a dream and is generally a pleasure to drive.
Also good for people who value their time (not having to worry so much about fraud and malware scares, research, etc.) more than their ability to do things with a device that they would never bother doing anyway.
First, FTFY.
Second this hits a huge wall when you want to do something your limited device cant. People have lost huge amounts of hours trying to get the Ipad to do what Apple wont allow it to do. Huge numbers of hours and in the end, they go back to the PC or laptop that does it straight off of the bat.
Limited functionality is nor a productivity feature.
Locked down devices do exactly as much as the seller wants them to, not as much as the user wants them to.
Also, seeing as fraud is a social problem, Apple users are just as vulnerable. In fact I'd say they are more vulnerable to fraud seeing as they believe they are immune to it by the virtue of a technology that cannot stop fraud (the magic tiger repelling rock)
The Palm Pilot and Apple Newton never achieved the success the iPad has or the iPhone.
The popularity of flares in 1978 should mean that straight leg jeans should not exist in 2012.
Popularity is not a measure of long term success. Look at Tamagotchi's or any other fad from the 90's. I'll stand to wager that the Ipad/phone are simply fads of the 10's.
The third problem was network infrastructure. The old devices you needed to sync with a PC. Today they are self updating and work by themselves without the need for the PC.
LoL.
The developing world uses old PC's rather than iWhatevers. US$500 is far to expensive for such a limited device.
We had a bunch of horseless carriages designed before the Model-T too.
The model T was not a new form of car, it was a new form of car production.
Henry Ford didn't change the car at all, he just made the car available to all. The Ipad is not compatible to this at all as PC's were already commonplace by the time it arrived.
And beyond this, did the traditional car makers like Benz disappear?
Apple is dealing from a position of strength. They don't need you.
This is a great excuse, until you realise that Apple's strength is derived from the applications others have written for it.
Apple is not like Google where there is a series of services behind the OS (Gmail, YouTube, Maps) that customers rely on (realistically, without Google integrating Maps and Gmail into Android, it would not be doing half as well as it is now).
That's simple: the walled garden is where the marketing is.
FTFY,
Most developers dont make back the $99/y fee to list their application let alone the cost of buying a Mac.
The only application developers making money are the developers making applications for those foolish enough to pay them, there is no money in selling direct to consumers.
The only mobile development business model that works is consulting, by selling their services as developers not by selling on the app store so in this regard profitability is platform independent (in fact Android is better as it has a longer development time, meaning more hours charged to the client).
The most interesting aspect to me is the 4:3 for the mini version. Personally I prefer 4:3.
I'm the opposite. For some years now all my movies have been in 16:9 seeing as my tablet is primarily a media consumption device this matters a lot. Web browsing gives me either more vertical space for long pages or more horizontal space for wide pages (I.E. with a lot of images, text does not matter so much with Android's text reflow).
Apple is locked into 4:3, which I only use for my legacy PC games as they dont support 16:9/10 resolutions. If I buy a new display I want it in 16:9 or 16:10.
In any case I think Android is mature enough with JB to be used widely. Apple better come up with something REAL different as the hardware differentiation is narrower and narrower. I've even seen some Chinese Android tablet has retina display.
Just like Android overtook Apple in the phone space with a mature product (Android 2.2) they are repeating it in the tablet space with Android 4.x.
Both are equally able to be held in one hand, I have never had an issue holding either material.
The issue is not with holding, the issue is with dropping. Aluminium slips out of a hand much easier than rubberised plastic, especially if the hand has sweat, grease or moisture on it. Also aluminium dents easier than rubber or plastic.
obviously means nothing to real buyers
Price and funtionality means everything to real buyers. Not brand or gimmicks. This is why Android is outselling Apple on the phone (and is in the process of being repeated in the tablet space).
You need to admit that this product is entirely a reaction to highly successful 7" Android tablets, which means people are buying them.
the same old Apple Hater
Here's where you lose your last shred of credibility. You've simply pointed out you cant rationally argue with the GGP.
Also, seeing as "hater" is a regular noun, not a proper noun you shouldn't capitalise it.
Well, they announced the iPad-mini starting at $329 for 16GB, wifi-only. At that price, I don't think it is going to be the "Android-killer" they hoped it would be.
Considering I can get a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7" 16 GB for that price in Australia dollars (we all know that a US$330 price translates to an A$440 Australian price). A Nexus 7 is under $300 for a 16GB (under A$250 for the 8 GB which is fine for me). Both of these products are available today.
Nexus 7 16GB in the US is $250.
I've found it slightly cheaper to live there (which I did for about 6 years) than in the US, and heaps of heaps cheaper than in Sweden.
Cheaper than sweden, definitely but...
We are nowhere near cheaper than the US. Average rent is above the A$350 p/w mark. Service is quite expensive (we have a $15 min wage) so eating out at Micky D's costs at least $7, if you want to go to a proper restaurant be prepared to kiss $30 goodbye. Cars are very expensive at the mid to high end. Some BMW's cost 2-3 times what they cost in the US without the LCT (Luxury Car Tax). A BMW 320i costs A$58,000 (just below the LCT) but in the US it costs US$38,000.
I import a lot of stuff from Europe, Asia and the US because it's just too expensive to buy locally. Computers, cameras, books, DVD's, games and whitegoods. It's cheaper for me to buy from the US and ship it across the pacific than to buy from local sources (to be fair, it's the distributors that are ripping us off, not the retailers or at least some of the retainers).
OTOH, quality health care is very cheap here.
Living in Oz is great and we do have wages to match the high prices but it isn't cheap.
Qualcomm, Ericsson, RIM, Intel, Huawei and Nokia are unlikely to join any IP counter offensive against Apple because they don't sell smartphone handsets, license technology to both sides or benefit from suppressing Android (Nokia/RIM).
Qualcomm, Intel, Huawei or Ericsson will not benefit from suppressing Android. In fact they will be harmed by it as they all supply parts to Android manufacturers which makes up several times the volume Apple buys (given how vertically integrated Apple is). Also, Huawei sells Android handsets at the low and high end (and cheaper than Samsung/HTC/Moto) so Huawei are firmly on the side of Android. Qualcomm and Intel wont be a part of any Apple or Android offensive unless pushed but if push does come to shove, they will be firmly on the side of Android.
Apple will have very, very few allies, maybe RIM (who is dying) and Microsoft/Nokia (who are quite capricious and enjoy stabbing partners in the back, it would be ironic if they partnered with Apple).
Jason Chen was also stretching the concept of responsible journalism pretty thin. His methods (extortion and dealing in stolen property) might be defensible for an expose on, e.g., massive government corruption (where the public interest in stopping an ongoing crime vastly outweighs the crime of stealing documents). But let's not forget that the story he was breaking was what the next version of some company's fucking phone was going to look like. I may not agree with Apple's method of retrieving the phone, but let's not get carried away and act like Mr. Chen was some kind of folk hero. There were no angels in the Gawker/Apple saga.
2 wrongs != right.
Chen may have been in the wrong and yes, I dont think much of Gawker's standard of journalism but Apple did something far worse. Apple had every right to have Chen charged but had no right to have the police break down his door and seize his equipment. Isn't there something in the US constitution about "unreasonable search and seizure". Even if what Chen was doing was against the law, does he not still have rights?
Just because Chen did wrong, does not make what Apple did right in any way. You should have learned in kindergarten that "but Janie hit me first" is no excuse for punching Janie in the head until she's unconscious.
You don't or you can't? Because even when I'm not coding, just in day-to-day computer use, I often write scripts to batch-process or automate various things. I have found this highly beneficial. I don't want to break you down, I just want to know your reasoning. Personally, I can highly recommend learning scripting, be it bash/awk/php (yes, I wrote php scripts)/powershell/whatever, I'm sure you'll benefit from it.
I'll fall firmly into the "don't" category.
I don't consider scripting, SQL or writing out a text based conf file coding at all.
I do far too many practical and useful things to consider myself a coder.
Don't get me wrong, I approve of a lot of Gary Johnson's platform, but the idea of eliminating the IRS, income taxes, corporate income taxes...I'm sorry but I think that's insane. Not even Ireland has 0% corporate income tax, and consumption (sorry, "expenditure") taxes are regressive.
I'd love to support Mr. Johnson but I rather like the civilized society that we live in and I know that taxes are the price we pay for such a society.
Indeed, look at the trouble Ireland is in because of low corporate tax rates. This may be an exaggeration, but one of the many, many Irish immigrating to Australia said out of a 700 Euro pay packet, 500 Euro is taken in tax. Now in Oz, 200 EUR a week is below the poverty line here. 700 EUR a week pre tax is still slightly below average in Australia (things are quite expensive here) which is about A$46,000 p/a pre tax which is taxed at 15-16% after factoring in Medicare levy before deductions (A$6497 payable in tax + 1.5% of taxable income as Medicare levy).
I work for a semiconductor company and we also stopped doing business with Apple... that they constantly break contracts in order to demand lower prices. We were losing money on every part sold to Apple.
With what results? Have you found other customers who will buy comparable amounts (in aggregate) and pay higher prices? Or did your company's product volume simply decrease?
Sigh,
Volume != profit.
There is a saying in business, "revenue is vanity, profit is sanity". It's entirely possible to lose a great deal of volume but actually increase in profit. Say you sell 10,000 widgets to customer S with a $0.11 profit, but you also sell 100,000 widgets to customer A at $0.01 loss. So business logic dictates I drop the customer causing me the 1 cent loss. Even though my sales drop by a factor of 10, this is offset by the fact my profit goes up by a factor of 10 (as do shareholder divs and it's divs that keeps me in my job). With just in time manufacturing, I'm only producing widgets as needed so I simply scale back production at no cost.
Just because you're selling a lot of your product, does not automatically mean your product is making money.
Tis a fool who looks for logic in the chambers of the human heart. Or from Cupertino. And that's not a dig, Apple fans, that's just the truth. Apple will dump Intel when they feel like it, for reasons that they alone decide.
Apple is a bit like the interrogator in 1984. They believe that can levitate off the ground and float around the room should they choose to, and what the outside world thinks makes no difference at all.
This.
It's Intel looking at the big picture. Samsung was one of Apple's biggest suppliers, look at what Apple tried to do to them (although it did backfire horribly for Apple, you cant count on that happening every time). Apple is turning out to be a riskier partner than Microsoft was.
If you measure miles per hour, the horse will win. If you measure miles per hour per calorie, the snail will win. Now, which one would you like to pull your next carriage?
A Nissan 370GT uses 11 L/100KM, a Nissan Micra uses 6.5 L/100KM. Both will do the same job but the Micra wont got 0-100 in 6 seconds. So it depends if I'm racing or saving fuel.
And Michael Dell should apologize for his statements that Apple should "shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders".
Michael Dell didn't sue Apple for not giving money back to its shareholders.
A world of difference there.
Dell was simply expressing his opinion, but Apple attempted to use the courts to get an advantage over their competitor.
If Apple had simply said "Samsung is copying" and did nothing the UK courts would have done nothing (and we'd all think Apple were full of crap). But in reality Apple said to the courts "Samsung is copying X" and could not prove samsung copied X, so the courts have punished Apple for deliberately misleading (and now we know beyond all doubt Apple were full of crap).
Whoever made that typo must have a really weird keyboard; what layout has the I anywhere near the A? My guess is it wasn't a true typo but a bit of dyslexia caused by not paying attention, seeing "aral" but reading "arial".
What keyboard are you using? The E is only one key away from my A.
qwe
-asd
--zxc
But using Occam's razor, they simply used the spool chocker and didn't poof reed.
Slashdot Mirror
is spending time in discussing iTunes and Amazon prices?
That's a nice country, indeed!
If you believe /. the only thing Parliament wants to do is steal "mah freedomz(TM)" and "censor teh internetz" (both of which didn't come to pass BTW, I'm a free Australian free with uncensored intertubes). The majority of Parliamentary members are not pushing for this, in fact most of the Labor party rebelled over the idea of internet censorship. Things like price disparity and other issues that matter to the average Australian come up quite often in between petty bickering and snide jibes between Liberal and Labor (which to be honest, takes up 3/4 of parliament sitting time).
With all it's flaws (of which, there are a great many) I'd rather have the parliament of Australia which the very least, is not a corporate sock puppet.
Well no more, I can order just about anything and get it shipped here for less. I order games from the UK for half the price of local games, DVD box sets that retail for A$75 I purchase for 11 pounds (AUD$17), My Canon Ixus 230 came from Hong Kong for A$100 less than here, I bought myself a laptop from the US, US$899 (A$840, a very favourable exch rate at the time) and got it shipped over tax free (personal imports under A$1000 are not subject to GST, note this is now A$900), Asus didn't even sell this model here but the previous model was A$1400. Even retailers are getting in on this very sweet action, JB HiFi and even Harvey Norman are selling "direct import" cameras and games and giving the middle finger to distributors.
You think in this environment the distributors would have learned and instituted fair pricing... Well they haven't and as much as the bang on about it, no one in parliament will lift a finger to protect them. Suffer in your jocks you smarmy, self centred bastards. Now we just need to allow more used cars to be imported, an Australian Nissan 350z costs A$30-40K, an imported Japanese Nissan 350GT costs A$20-30K imported and they are practically the same car (the 350z was down-tuned compared to the 350GT) but you are only allowed to import cars on the SEVS list (Specialist and Enthusiast Vehicles) which were never available for sale in Oz so I couldn't buy a cheap JDM Honda Integra Type R.
This is how I ended up buying Battlefield 3 premium
My sympathies sir, I too bought Battlefield 3 before realising how crap of a game it was.
I actually had the same thought that the pleasure vehicles of the 1890s were cars while it was post WWI that trucking replaced horses. But if you just assume Job's version of history the analogy works.
Well if we have to change history...
But the analogy still doesn't work. Computers are for a lot more than heavy lifting, they are more ergonomic than tablets, more versatile, available in more configurations. So it's still completely incorrect. So again, tablets are one type of car (a kei car for example) whilst PC's encompass all kinds of cars from 1.4L runabouts (netbooks) to 4WD's (number crunchers) to luxury sedans (media set ups) to high performance sports cars (gaming boxen).
I don't agree with your iOS comment. I have a iPad 3, iPhone and the 15" rMBP. They all do what they do quite well.
Camry drivers don't seem to think their car is any different to my Nissan 350GT... The bit they leave out is that they've never driven a 350GT.
BTW, I dont consider a Macbook to be anything remotely comparable to a 350GT, a Macbook is an A-B car, just more expensive than the Camry. A 350 would be my high end gaming box, Macbooks are average laptops that cost more than high end laptops.
Does the Australian Govt have anyone that can actually properly security audit this? I am sure they are not going to want to spend the money to hire someone who can.
Yes, the quality of our politicians is quite low (after all, who joins parliament unless you cant do anything else) but there are quite a few skilled and talented public servants who stay there just for the job security and benefits (8 weeks of holidays, sure Bill).
Also, who is to say the binary blob firmware doesn't have a back door. Its not like the Australians are going to compile it and install it themselves.
Which would be a requirement at this level.
But that's not the issue.
The reason this is an issue at all is that it's for the NBN which is a political hot potato. The opposition party wants to destroy the NBN (mainly because it isn't their policy) and tend to blow everything out of proportion. If NBNco was not making an issue about Huawei being a potential security risk you can bet your bottom dollar Shadow Communications minister, Malcolm Turnbull would be shouting it from every rooftop he can find. But seeing as they have, Mr Turnbull is making a big issue about how NBNco are limiting vendors.
There is more politics than security concerns here (although the concerns raised by the Defence Signals Directorate are quite valid).
And this is just one of the many things wrong with that comparison.
It's completely incorrect. The first car didn't carry a passenger or a driver, it was a toy built for the Chinese Emporor. The first cars were built to carry a driver and one passenger at most. At this point automobiles were not powerful enough to replace horse drawn carriages. Horse drawn carriages were still in common usage compared to trucks when Ford introduced the Model T because diesel engines with enough torque were still way to expensive.
I think a lot of people believe anything Steve Jobs says without actually fact checking (let alone analysing it rationally).
If IOS is a car, it would be a Toyota Camry. A low end production car, it's slow, handles like a whale, a true A-B car with little regard given to how it drives. My Desktop PC would be less of a truck and more of a Honda NSX, fast, sleek, powerful. It may weight more than a 4 banger Camry but it goes very fast, handles like a dream and is generally a pleasure to drive.
First, FTFY.
Second this hits a huge wall when you want to do something your limited device cant. People have lost huge amounts of hours trying to get the Ipad to do what Apple wont allow it to do. Huge numbers of hours and in the end, they go back to the PC or laptop that does it straight off of the bat.
Limited functionality is nor a productivity feature.
Locked down devices do exactly as much as the seller wants them to, not as much as the user wants them to.
Also, seeing as fraud is a social problem, Apple users are just as vulnerable. In fact I'd say they are more vulnerable to fraud seeing as they believe they are immune to it by the virtue of a technology that cannot stop fraud (the magic tiger repelling rock)
The popularity of flares in 1978 should mean that straight leg jeans should not exist in 2012.
Popularity is not a measure of long term success. Look at Tamagotchi's or any other fad from the 90's. I'll stand to wager that the Ipad/phone are simply fads of the 10's.
LoL. The developing world uses old PC's rather than iWhatevers. US$500 is far to expensive for such a limited device.
The model T was not a new form of car, it was a new form of car production.
Henry Ford didn't change the car at all, he just made the car available to all. The Ipad is not compatible to this at all as PC's were already commonplace by the time it arrived.
And beyond this, did the traditional car makers like Benz disappear?
Apple is dealing from a position of strength. They don't need you.
This is a great excuse, until you realise that Apple's strength is derived from the applications others have written for it.
Apple is not like Google where there is a series of services behind the OS (Gmail, YouTube, Maps) that customers rely on (realistically, without Google integrating Maps and Gmail into Android, it would not be doing half as well as it is now).
That's simple: the walled garden is where the marketing is.
FTFY,
Most developers dont make back the $99/y fee to list their application let alone the cost of buying a Mac.
The only application developers making money are the developers making applications for those foolish enough to pay them, there is no money in selling direct to consumers.
The only mobile development business model that works is consulting, by selling their services as developers not by selling on the app store so in this regard profitability is platform independent (in fact Android is better as it has a longer development time, meaning more hours charged to the client).
The most interesting aspect to me is the 4:3 for the mini version. Personally I prefer 4:3.
I'm the opposite. For some years now all my movies have been in 16:9 seeing as my tablet is primarily a media consumption device this matters a lot. Web browsing gives me either more vertical space for long pages or more horizontal space for wide pages (I.E. with a lot of images, text does not matter so much with Android's text reflow).
Apple is locked into 4:3, which I only use for my legacy PC games as they dont support 16:9/10 resolutions. If I buy a new display I want it in 16:9 or 16:10.
In any case I think Android is mature enough with JB to be used widely. Apple better come up with something REAL different as the hardware differentiation is narrower and narrower. I've even seen some Chinese Android tablet has retina display.
Just like Android overtook Apple in the phone space with a mature product (Android 2.2) they are repeating it in the tablet space with Android 4.x.
The issue is not with holding, the issue is with dropping. Aluminium slips out of a hand much easier than rubberised plastic, especially if the hand has sweat, grease or moisture on it. Also aluminium dents easier than rubber or plastic.
Price and funtionality means everything to real buyers. Not brand or gimmicks. This is why Android is outselling Apple on the phone (and is in the process of being repeated in the tablet space).
You need to admit that this product is entirely a reaction to highly successful 7" Android tablets, which means people are buying them.
Here's where you lose your last shred of credibility. You've simply pointed out you cant rationally argue with the GGP.
Also, seeing as "hater" is a regular noun, not a proper noun you shouldn't capitalise it.
Well, they announced the iPad-mini starting at $329 for 16GB, wifi-only. At that price, I don't think it is going to be the "Android-killer" they hoped it would be.
Considering I can get a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7" 16 GB for that price in Australia dollars (we all know that a US$330 price translates to an A$440 Australian price). A Nexus 7 is under $300 for a 16GB (under A$250 for the 8 GB which is fine for me). Both of these products are available today. Nexus 7 16GB in the US is $250.
Australia is expensive?
I've found it slightly cheaper to live there (which I did for about 6 years) than in the US, and heaps of heaps cheaper than in Sweden.
Cheaper than sweden, definitely but...
We are nowhere near cheaper than the US. Average rent is above the A$350 p/w mark. Service is quite expensive (we have a $15 min wage) so eating out at Micky D's costs at least $7, if you want to go to a proper restaurant be prepared to kiss $30 goodbye. Cars are very expensive at the mid to high end. Some BMW's cost 2-3 times what they cost in the US without the LCT (Luxury Car Tax). A BMW 320i costs A$58,000 (just below the LCT) but in the US it costs US$38,000.
I import a lot of stuff from Europe, Asia and the US because it's just too expensive to buy locally. Computers, cameras, books, DVD's, games and whitegoods. It's cheaper for me to buy from the US and ship it across the pacific than to buy from local sources (to be fair, it's the distributors that are ripping us off, not the retailers or at least some of the retainers).
OTOH, quality health care is very cheap here.
Living in Oz is great and we do have wages to match the high prices but it isn't cheap.
Qualcomm, Ericsson, RIM, Intel, Huawei and Nokia are unlikely to join any IP counter offensive against Apple because they don't sell smartphone handsets, license technology to both sides or benefit from suppressing Android (Nokia/RIM).
Qualcomm, Intel, Huawei or Ericsson will not benefit from suppressing Android. In fact they will be harmed by it as they all supply parts to Android manufacturers which makes up several times the volume Apple buys (given how vertically integrated Apple is). Also, Huawei sells Android handsets at the low and high end (and cheaper than Samsung/HTC/Moto) so Huawei are firmly on the side of Android. Qualcomm and Intel wont be a part of any Apple or Android offensive unless pushed but if push does come to shove, they will be firmly on the side of Android.
Apple will have very, very few allies, maybe RIM (who is dying) and Microsoft/Nokia (who are quite capricious and enjoy stabbing partners in the back, it would be ironic if they partnered with Apple).
Jason Chen was also stretching the concept of responsible journalism pretty thin. His methods (extortion and dealing in stolen property) might be defensible for an expose on, e.g., massive government corruption (where the public interest in stopping an ongoing crime vastly outweighs the crime of stealing documents). But let's not forget that the story he was breaking was what the next version of some company's fucking phone was going to look like. I may not agree with Apple's method of retrieving the phone, but let's not get carried away and act like Mr. Chen was some kind of folk hero. There were no angels in the Gawker/Apple saga.
2 wrongs != right.
Chen may have been in the wrong and yes, I dont think much of Gawker's standard of journalism but Apple did something far worse. Apple had every right to have Chen charged but had no right to have the police break down his door and seize his equipment. Isn't there something in the US constitution about "unreasonable search and seizure". Even if what Chen was doing was against the law, does he not still have rights?
Just because Chen did wrong, does not make what Apple did right in any way. You should have learned in kindergarten that "but Janie hit me first" is no excuse for punching Janie in the head until she's unconscious.
You don't or you can't? Because even when I'm not coding, just in day-to-day computer use, I often write scripts to batch-process or automate various things. I have found this highly beneficial. I don't want to break you down, I just want to know your reasoning. Personally, I can highly recommend learning scripting, be it bash/awk/php (yes, I wrote php scripts)/powershell/whatever, I'm sure you'll benefit from it.
I'll fall firmly into the "don't" category.
I don't consider scripting, SQL or writing out a text based conf file coding at all. I do far too many practical and useful things to consider myself a coder.
Don't get me wrong, I approve of a lot of Gary Johnson's platform, but the idea of eliminating the IRS, income taxes, corporate income taxes...I'm sorry but I think that's insane. Not even Ireland has 0% corporate income tax, and consumption (sorry, "expenditure") taxes are regressive.
I'd love to support Mr. Johnson but I rather like the civilized society that we live in and I know that taxes are the price we pay for such a society.
Indeed, look at the trouble Ireland is in because of low corporate tax rates. This may be an exaggeration, but one of the many, many Irish immigrating to Australia said out of a 700 Euro pay packet, 500 Euro is taken in tax. Now in Oz, 200 EUR a week is below the poverty line here. 700 EUR a week pre tax is still slightly below average in Australia (things are quite expensive here) which is about A$46,000 p/a pre tax which is taxed at 15-16% after factoring in Medicare levy before deductions (A$6497 payable in tax + 1.5% of taxable income as Medicare levy).
With what results? Have you found other customers who will buy comparable amounts (in aggregate) and pay higher prices? Or did your company's product volume simply decrease?
Sigh,
Volume != profit.
There is a saying in business, "revenue is vanity, profit is sanity". It's entirely possible to lose a great deal of volume but actually increase in profit. Say you sell 10,000 widgets to customer S with a $0.11 profit, but you also sell 100,000 widgets to customer A at $0.01 loss. So business logic dictates I drop the customer causing me the 1 cent loss. Even though my sales drop by a factor of 10, this is offset by the fact my profit goes up by a factor of 10 (as do shareholder divs and it's divs that keeps me in my job). With just in time manufacturing, I'm only producing widgets as needed so I simply scale back production at no cost.
Just because you're selling a lot of your product, does not automatically mean your product is making money.
On the other hand, apple cares about the US consumers, and passes along the savings of the cheaper screens to the consumer.
Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
/wipes tear from eye.
Oh wait, you're serious.
Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
Tis a fool who looks for logic in the chambers of the human heart. Or from Cupertino. And that's not a dig, Apple fans, that's just the truth. Apple will dump Intel when they feel like it, for reasons that they alone decide.
Apple is a bit like the interrogator in 1984. They believe that can levitate off the ground and float around the room should they choose to, and what the outside world thinks makes no difference at all.
This.
It's Intel looking at the big picture. Samsung was one of Apple's biggest suppliers, look at what Apple tried to do to them (although it did backfire horribly for Apple, you cant count on that happening every time). Apple is turning out to be a riskier partner than Microsoft was.
If you measure miles per hour, the horse will win. If you measure miles per hour per calorie, the snail will win. Now, which one would you like to pull your next carriage?
A Nissan 370GT uses 11 L/100KM, a Nissan Micra uses 6.5 L/100KM. Both will do the same job but the Micra wont got 0-100 in 6 seconds. So it depends if I'm racing or saving fuel.
You mean using the judges words for their apology?
That might get awkward.
Except that the judge explicitly said, and I quote
"Apple to post notice on their website and in several publications explicitly stating that Samsung did not copy their designs."
So deviating from this will bring the wrath of the UK court down upon them.
Apple will definitely go down this road.
The judge gave clear language on how to display the apology, but not on what the apology should entail.
Something like:
"We apologize for implying that any Samsung product was as sleek or as easy to use as the (link to ipad page)Apple iPad.(\link)"
And then be held in contempt of court. The courts in the UK take a very dim view of this kind of thing.
I actually want to see Apple try something like this, whenever they get smacked down in court I get a warm fuzzy feeling.
And Michael Dell should apologize for his statements that Apple should "shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders".
Michael Dell didn't sue Apple for not giving money back to its shareholders.
A world of difference there.
Dell was simply expressing his opinion, but Apple attempted to use the courts to get an advantage over their competitor.
If Apple had simply said "Samsung is copying" and did nothing the UK courts would have done nothing (and we'd all think Apple were full of crap). But in reality Apple said to the courts "Samsung is copying X" and could not prove samsung copied X, so the courts have punished Apple for deliberately misleading (and now we know beyond all doubt Apple were full of crap).
Whoever made that typo must have a really weird keyboard; what layout has the I anywhere near the A? My guess is it wasn't a true typo but a bit of dyslexia caused by not paying attention, seeing "aral" but reading "arial".
What keyboard are you using? The E is only one key away from my A.
qwe
-asd
--zxc
But using Occam's razor, they simply used the spool chocker and didn't poof reed.