I have an idea for a phone, how about making it so that the back of the phone, not the screen, is where the mic and speaker are? If not that, how about one of the two long edges?
Back of the phone: Stupid. That's the face that is in contact with your desktop when the phone is out of your pocket, sitting on your desk, and the side that is 50-50 chance of facing your chest with the phone in a shirt pocket.
Long sides: Stupid. Where are you going to hold the phone?
>In Geekbench, the iPhone 6s Plus performed second only to Samsung's newest Galaxy models
So it came in second! Yay!
I'm not sure where you got your figures (since there is no citation, Yay!); but this article claims that the iPhone 6s "Obliterates" the competition. And the GeekBench 3 scores in that article would tend to support that claim.
IIRC, didn't Apple crow about increasing the CPU - RAM bandwidth by a fair bit? That tends to speed up nearly everything. Yeah, they went from LPDDR3 to LPDDR4.
Thanks anyway. I usually let a lot of mine expire, also. I'll carry on in my sometimes-interested fashion. I do, though, make a point of up-modding some of the "down" mods that are clearly based on grudges or some misguided attempt at retribution or whatever it is that those people think they're "accomplishing."
Yeah, that's kinda what I do, too.
Not to be all Holier-Than-Thou; but I can honestly say that, so far, I have been able to resist the temptation to devolve into the "Punish Moderation" Game. But, after watching my Karma go from Excellent to essentially non-existent in one day... TWICE, it has been sorely tempting on more than one occasion!
You are right to a point. When I said "embedded" I was referring to SOCs more than microcontrollers. I see plenty of Linux, or rather ucLinux on IP cameras, SOHO routers digital picture frames etc. But yes, there are a lot of competition, often leaner. Having a familiar system and tools available is a boon though.
Yeah, SoCs really blur the lines between traditional embedded systems and full-blown computers, that's for sure.
I personally haven't worked with a true SoC, although some of the ARM stuff I have worked with gets kinda close. I don't know where the line really is between SoC and microcontroller, but it seems to revolve around having either a GPU subsection, or a pretty evolved networking subsection.
And it seems like it is the networking stuff that seems to drag ucLinux along with it, because who wants to write a network stack from scratch?
My point was that the comment wasn't "Informative". It was merely "Argumentative"...
Aha! You sound like you understand the moderation system. I get mod points all the time (or every three days it seems), but I generally mod things as "Interesting," assuming I find the point or idea interesting, whether I agree with it or not.
But I am very curious. What might be the easiest distinction between "Insightful," and "Informative?" And, where does "Interesting" fit in the scheme of things?
If you have time I'd seriously appreciate guidance, or even better (timewise) a link to guidelines up here, if they exist. Thanks, either way!
I get Mod points every few days, too. most of the time I just let them expire.
Personally, I seriously doubt ther are any "guidelines" for what constitutes "Informative", vs "Insightful", "Flamebait" vs "Troll", etc.
And worse yet, it seems that a fair amount of "Moderation" is abused by people who simply disagree with the poster's choice of Platform, World View, or other ridiculous metric, and so, the Moderation Scores are, at best, a pretty weak indicator of the actual "worth" of the Post.
Sorry I can't help you more; but as the Recipient of many Karmic Attacks by Mods who disagree with my choice of platform (or sometimes, just my Username), I think the Moderation system is mostly a cruel joke, used by immature, small-minded idiots, who use it mostly to express "Disagreement" than anything else.
As far as a published "guide", I have never seen one; and even if it existed, if you used same, I can say with utter certainty that you would be the ONLY one, LOL!
My Nexus 6 may lack an SD slot, but it supports USB host mode, so I can plug in an SD reader (micro, mini, full, whatever), a hard disk, hell I can plug in a keyboard and mouse if I so choose (and yes, Android provides a mouse cursor). I say it's a fair enough trade, as A) it allows the phone to be slimmer and more water resistant and B) it allows a wider range of devices to be used with the phone.
Since Apple now has a Lightning to USB cable, I wouldn't be at ALL surprised if iOS doesn't support USB Host Mode at this point, too. Actually, it DOES support USB Host Mode, but, from what I am seeing, the issue is POWER. It seems like if the device is parsimonious with power, it can work. I don't know enough about the USB protocol to comment on whether interposing a powered USB hub would help, or even if it would work with iOS.
And as far as iPads go, there are several aftermarket "Camera Connection Kit" dongles that have SD card readers and USB ports built in. So, it is possible on an iPad; but not on an iPhone.
Think about it. You bought an app. You think you own an app. But you just get the parts that Apple thinks you need right now, not the whole app.
It's a brilliant late-capitalist business strategy, really. Keep a wall between your customers and the stuff your customers think they bought. And now you control the gate.
Whoa! I think you need another layer of tinfoil on that hat!!!
So, Apple comes up with a strategy whereby you can avoid the ever-increasing effects of "App Bloat", by on-the-fly delivering only the pieces-parts of the App that you are actually going to USE at that time, and ALL you can think of is how Apple MUST have some nefarious plan to SOMEHOW fuck you out of the "rest of the App" that will do NOTHING for you but WASTE MEMORY?
I never said Apple was putting SD cards in phones. I said that they don't want YOU to put an SD card in their phones because that would compete with their planned obsolescence model.
Citation, please.
It has NOTHING, repeat, NOTHING to do with "planned obsolescence". I would bet that most people never even get CLOSE to maxing out the memory of their phones, if they are at least 32 GB. 16 GB is the only case where I would say that someone might run out of room.
But then, I'm not "everybody" (boy, would THAT be confusing!)...
An SD card isn't an objectively better solution to limited local storage?
That wasn't my point to the Mods. My point was that the comment wasn't "Informative". It was merely "Argumentative" (as it was an OPINION, not a FACT). I suppose it INFORMED us of the poster's OPINION; but I don't think that was what is meant by INFORMATIVE (even the famous "I like to lick butts" is more INFORMATIVE than "SD Cards are more betterer, hur hur").
It's less expensive, faster, works everywhere, and has fewer points of failure.
I am not sure about the "Less Expensive" part. As far as "Works Everywhere", I'm not sure that is true if we're talking about a private data structure such as an iTunes Library. Fewer points of failure? It would take a very serious analysis of both to determine that. "Cloud" certainly has less mechanical points of failure.
Any particular reason you thing cloud storage is better suited for this particular application, or why you wouldn't want an SD card option?
It's not that I wouldn't want an SD card option; but I think that it doesn't make as much sense for a mobile device as you might think, and, IMHO, it is actually more of a 1980's "wallet full of floppies" solution than a "always available" "offsite backup" sort of a 21st Century "near-line storage" solution.
Lose/break/Zap your SD card? Done. No backup? So sorry for you!
Leave your SD card at work? Go back to work (if you can even get in), or wait until the next work day. Sucks if it contains that code you were working on. So sorry for you!
Run out of storage on your SD Card? Hopefully you have another WITH you, or that you have some files you can Delete. If not, Sucks to be you!
And like that...
Why doesn't Apple offer and SD card option? As they're omnibenevolent, how does that omission help their users?
Apple has always been "parsimonious" with their ports. Things have to get to the "60% of users would use this regularly" point (guessing) before they are even CONSIDERED. Apple has obviously decided that Cloud Storage makes more sense for a limited-storage, portable device (and in the case of AppleTV a desktop device) than SD cards. Do I wish my iPhone had a micro SD slot? Yeah, probably; but with 128 GB of internal storage, I would probably never use it. And quite frankly, even with my old 32 GB iPhone, I had a BUNCH of Apps (over a 100), a BUNCH of a BUNCH of Pictures/Videos (about 3 thousand), and enough of my music collection to listen non-stop for several days, and STILL had several GB left (and I didn't use iCloud, either).
So, I'm not sure how many live's worth of data people expect to have at their fingertips; but I guess I just don't get it.
Maybe if I was away from my laptop for a few months, I might pine for some of my other data; but really?
16GB limitation... why not add a card slot to expand memory....to 128gb++ fucking retards.
Because you have to CARRY the fucking cards everywhere you go. And they are notoriously failure-prone.
Even though I hate "Cloud" stuff, Apple's end-end encrypted storage, at $1/mo for 50 GB, is so close to "free", that the convenience it provides, as opposed to the "Damn! I left that SD card on my desk at work!", far outweighs the once-in-a-decade that I wished my iPhone had a slot.
And with aftermarket Lightning-to-USB cables being $3 on Amazon, reading/writing content from/to an SD card is as near as the nearest laptop.
So, I actually think it is a well-thought-out usability decision.
As a work-around, Apple have disabled downloading 'sliced' binaries, so instead you download full (universal) binaries. This means the backups will have the universal binaries which will work on any 'device b'.
Which means that, right now, it's no worse than it was before, and Apple will eventually work out a protocol whereby the Device reports what it is (if it doesn't already), and iCloud delivers the correct "slicing" for that Device. This may actually cause a change in iCloud policy, wherein Apps do not "count" against your iCloud Storage quota (do they now? I don't use iCloud, so I don't really know), and the "slicing" is all done at the iCloud-Delivery-Level.
It's not just architecture, it's screen size and resolution. Imagine a game with assets for high-pixel-density screens like Retina, low density screens, big tablet screens, tiny phone screens, etc. That's a lot of space. It sounds like Apple has made it possible for devs to release one game package to the App Store, and in turn the App Store shoves across to the consumer only what assets from that package are needed for the specific device on which it's downloaded.
Exactly.
As the owner of a 32 GB iPad 2 with a metric buttload of Apps, I can tell you that, when the "Retina" App-Updates came out, I stopped updating a BUNCH of my Apps, simply because the bigger resources would do absolutely NOTHING for me but eat up a non-insignificant amount of my rapidly dwindling free Flash memory.
Now, with App Slicing, if I want to update my iPad 2 to iOS 9 (which is possible; suck it, Android!), I can Update those Apps and STILL keep the majority of my free Flash memory.
And don't talk to me about SD Card support in Android; because I hear (in fact, in this very thread) it is (or already has been) deprecated.
And not just mainframes. Back in the day, I saw a business that ran on a PDP-8 minicomputer about the size of an IMSAI 8800 (as seen the movie War Games) with 4 KB of RAM supporting (IIRC) 10 concurrent users, and the business' custom-built COBOL-based ERP/Accounting software.
You have to weigh the cost of developing and supporting these features and the extra sales that would be gained by bumping up to a 32GB base model, against the cost of the extra flash memory and the number of people who would pay for the overpriced upgrade.
I guess Apple must have decided that the latter is slightly more that the former, and screw giving the customers a better device.
Or possibly, maybe, JUST maybe, they figured that they could improve two systems at once (iPhone and AppleTV) by giving their Customers what amounts to Cloud-based Virtual Memory; so instead of 70% of Customers having to pay a couple of hundred dollars more for a 32GB phone "Just in case 16 GB isn't enough" (which, incidentally, but importantly, could cause unknown numbers of those Customers to choose a cheaper Android phone instead), instead they made it so you could essentially have more-or-less infinite (near-line) Storage (in iCloud), available and expandable as need be.
I agree that App Slicing is interesting, but I don't really agree with their premise on the 16GB phones. A 16GB phone is still crippled these days. Do customers want an iPhone that has so little storage for music and photos, and isn't upgradable?
Sure, Apple will say "but you can store all your photos and music in iCloud". But that's hardly an option as wireless carriers continue to try to drive down data usage with data caps, throttling, and exorbitant overage charges.
I like the Apple platform and I will stick with it, but it's a bad business decision to herd people into 16GB phones they are going to be less than happy with.
Nobody is "herding" anyone into a 16 GB phone, as there are memory options up to 128 GB. But for a LOT of (non-Slashdot) readers, 16 GB really IS ok, and this lets Apple keep a low-end model that will appeal to a lot more people than you would imagine.
I am sure that Apple "ran the numbers", and figured that, even without App Slicing (which only affects a much-smaller group of "Those who want a cheaper phone; but still want some Apps"), that a 16 GB model was attractive.
Conversely, they also saw that, for the "power users", 32 GB wasn't enough, and so they dropped that option, probably because it wasn't selling so good...
It sounds like a pretty interesting feature, actually, once you get past the "Haha, iOS 9 is a failure!" tone of the summary.
Back in around 1980, I created a system for "Slicing" Applesoft BASIC programs for the Apple ][, to work-around another developer creating a program that was so large, that Applesoft spent pretty much its entire time doing Garbage Collection, because there was so little free memory left. Since it was WAAAAY too late in the Project to completely re-factor and re-write the code, I created a "Segment Loader" for Applesoft.
The idea was that you could take any Applesoft program, and pretty much just divide it up willy-nilly into smaller "loadable segments". And as long as you didn't do something completely stupid, like split the program in the middle of a tight looping structure, it worked a TREAT. It could load about 8 kB/sec off of floppy (which meant that most of the time, the segment-loading delay was only around a second), and with a Corvus hard disk, the User couldn't even tell it had loaded another segment. And, unlike the typical method of "at a Menu, RUN a separate Program for each Menu Item", the Applesoft Variables were RETAINED (and even moved in memory if the segment-being-loaded was larger than the one being "vacated").
The system, which I called "Overlayer", worked through Applesoft's wonderful "&" Hook through the ONERRGOTO vector, and when my code was called, it would analyze what the error was, and if it was a "Line Not Found"-type Error, it would look back to see what line it was, then consult a Table of which line-range was in which "Segment", and then load that segment of code, readjust the memory fences, then "rewind" the execution pointer to the beginning of the statement causing the error, then RESUMEd. Applesoft then executed the (now) good statement, and went on its merry way.
Without seing that part of last week's Keynote, or any of the Developer docs for the iOS feature, I would bet that this (sort of) works the same way (although probably much more formalized than using a simple ONERRGOTO hook).
There is a reason embedded development has converged to Linux
Actually, as an embedded Dev. of nearly 40 years' experience, I would say that, by and large, with the exception of networking equipment, embedded Development projects use NO formal Operating System whatsoever, or at most, use a lightweight RTOS.
Dude, stop trying to argue with a guy who is basically agreeing with you. Jesus.
I was not arguing against his position that Macs require little to no "Support"; but rather his snarky attitude towards his family members ("Sorry, I can't help you; because I don't know nuthin' about them there Mac-things).
Re-read his post, and think about how you would feel if you were non-technical, but had a Geek brother/son, etc, that OBVIOUSLY had the wherewithal to figure-out a (likely simple) tech problem on an otherwise unfamiliar platform (much like almost EVERY computer geek has had to do a ZILLION times), but who DISMISSIVELY REFUSED to even TRY to help, with the LAME excuse of "I don't know anything about [x]".
Which is why, if you're ever pulled over or believe you're about to be taken into custody, you power off your phone. At least an iPhone requires the pass code be used the first time before it allows your fingerprint to be used.
I have thought the EXACT same thing, especially in light of that Virginia Court Ruling about a year ago.
Slashdot Mirror
I have an idea for a phone, how about making it so that the back of the phone, not the screen, is where the mic and speaker are? If not that, how about one of the two long edges?
Back of the phone: Stupid. That's the face that is in contact with your desktop when the phone is out of your pocket, sitting on your desk, and the side that is 50-50 chance of facing your chest with the phone in a shirt pocket.
Long sides: Stupid. Where are you going to hold the phone?
>In Geekbench, the iPhone 6s Plus performed second only to Samsung's newest Galaxy models
So it came in second! Yay!
I'm not sure where you got your figures (since there is no citation, Yay!); but this article claims that the iPhone 6s "Obliterates" the competition. And the GeekBench 3 scores in that article would tend to support that claim.
IIRC, didn't Apple crow about increasing the CPU - RAM bandwidth by a fair bit? That tends to speed up nearly everything. Yeah, they went from LPDDR3 to LPDDR4.
First Post.
Sorry I can't help you more; but
Thanks anyway. I usually let a lot of mine expire, also. I'll carry on in my sometimes-interested fashion. I do, though, make a point of up-modding some of the "down" mods that are clearly based on grudges or some misguided attempt at retribution or whatever it is that those people think they're "accomplishing."
Yeah, that's kinda what I do, too.
Not to be all Holier-Than-Thou; but I can honestly say that, so far, I have been able to resist the temptation to devolve into the "Punish Moderation" Game. But, after watching my Karma go from Excellent to essentially non-existent in one day... TWICE, it has been sorely tempting on more than one occasion!
You are right to a point. When I said "embedded" I was referring to SOCs more than microcontrollers. I see plenty of Linux, or rather ucLinux on IP cameras, SOHO routers digital picture frames etc. But yes, there are a lot of competition, often leaner. Having a familiar system and tools available is a boon though.
Yeah, SoCs really blur the lines between traditional embedded systems and full-blown computers, that's for sure.
I personally haven't worked with a true SoC, although some of the ARM stuff I have worked with gets kinda close. I don't know where the line really is between SoC and microcontroller, but it seems to revolve around having either a GPU subsection, or a pretty evolved networking subsection.
And it seems like it is the networking stuff that seems to drag ucLinux along with it, because who wants to write a network stack from scratch?
My point was that the comment wasn't "Informative". It was merely "Argumentative" ...
Aha! You sound like you understand the moderation system. I get mod points all the time (or every three days it seems), but I generally mod things as "Interesting," assuming I find the point or idea interesting, whether I agree with it or not.
But I am very curious. What might be the easiest distinction between "Insightful," and "Informative?" And, where does "Interesting" fit in the scheme of things?
If you have time I'd seriously appreciate guidance, or even better (timewise) a link to guidelines up here, if they exist. Thanks, either way!
I get Mod points every few days, too. most of the time I just let them expire.
Personally, I seriously doubt ther are any "guidelines" for what constitutes "Informative", vs "Insightful", "Flamebait" vs "Troll", etc.
And worse yet, it seems that a fair amount of "Moderation" is abused by people who simply disagree with the poster's choice of Platform, World View, or other ridiculous metric, and so, the Moderation Scores are, at best, a pretty weak indicator of the actual "worth" of the Post.
Sorry I can't help you more; but as the Recipient of many Karmic Attacks by Mods who disagree with my choice of platform (or sometimes, just my Username), I think the Moderation system is mostly a cruel joke, used by immature, small-minded idiots, who use it mostly to express "Disagreement" than anything else.
As far as a published "guide", I have never seen one; and even if it existed, if you used same, I can say with utter certainty that you would be the ONLY one, LOL!
My Nexus 6 may lack an SD slot, but it supports USB host mode, so I can plug in an SD reader (micro, mini, full, whatever), a hard disk, hell I can plug in a keyboard and mouse if I so choose (and yes, Android provides a mouse cursor). I say it's a fair enough trade, as A) it allows the phone to be slimmer and more water resistant and B) it allows a wider range of devices to be used with the phone.
Since Apple now has a Lightning to USB cable, I wouldn't be at ALL surprised if iOS doesn't support USB Host Mode at this point, too. Actually, it DOES support USB Host Mode, but, from what I am seeing, the issue is POWER. It seems like if the device is parsimonious with power, it can work. I don't know enough about the USB protocol to comment on whether interposing a powered USB hub would help, or even if it would work with iOS.
And as far as iPads go, there are several aftermarket "Camera Connection Kit" dongles that have SD card readers and USB ports built in. So, it is possible on an iPad; but not on an iPhone.
Think about it. You bought an app. You think you own an app. But you just get the parts that Apple thinks you need right now, not the whole app.
It's a brilliant late-capitalist business strategy, really. Keep a wall between your customers and the stuff your customers think they bought. And now you control the gate.
Whoa! I think you need another layer of tinfoil on that hat!!!
So, Apple comes up with a strategy whereby you can avoid the ever-increasing effects of "App Bloat", by on-the-fly delivering only the pieces-parts of the App that you are actually going to USE at that time, and ALL you can think of is how Apple MUST have some nefarious plan to SOMEHOW fuck you out of the "rest of the App" that will do NOTHING for you but WASTE MEMORY?
Jeezus, you're sick. STFU.
I never said Apple was putting SD cards in phones. I said that they don't want YOU to put an SD card in their phones because that would compete with their planned obsolescence model.
Citation, please.
It has NOTHING, repeat, NOTHING to do with "planned obsolescence". I would bet that most people never even get CLOSE to maxing out the memory of their phones, if they are at least 32 GB. 16 GB is the only case where I would say that someone might run out of room.
But then, I'm not "everybody" (boy, would THAT be confusing!)...
An SD card isn't an objectively better solution to limited local storage?
That wasn't my point to the Mods. My point was that the comment wasn't "Informative". It was merely "Argumentative" (as it was an OPINION, not a FACT). I suppose it INFORMED us of the poster's OPINION; but I don't think that was what is meant by INFORMATIVE (even the famous "I like to lick butts" is more INFORMATIVE than "SD Cards are more betterer, hur hur").
It's less expensive, faster, works everywhere, and has fewer points of failure.
I am not sure about the "Less Expensive" part. As far as "Works Everywhere", I'm not sure that is true if we're talking about a private data structure such as an iTunes Library. Fewer points of failure? It would take a very serious analysis of both to determine that. "Cloud" certainly has less mechanical points of failure.
Any particular reason you thing cloud storage is better suited for this particular application, or why you wouldn't want an SD card option?
It's not that I wouldn't want an SD card option; but I think that it doesn't make as much sense for a mobile device as you might think, and, IMHO, it is actually more of a 1980's "wallet full of floppies" solution than a "always available" "offsite backup" sort of a 21st Century "near-line storage" solution.
Lose/break/Zap your SD card? Done. No backup? So sorry for you!
Leave your SD card at work? Go back to work (if you can even get in), or wait until the next work day. Sucks if it contains that code you were working on. So sorry for you!
Run out of storage on your SD Card? Hopefully you have another WITH you, or that you have some files you can Delete. If not, Sucks to be you!
And like that...
Why doesn't Apple offer and SD card option? As they're omnibenevolent, how does that omission help their users?
Apple has always been "parsimonious" with their ports. Things have to get to the "60% of users would use this regularly" point (guessing) before they are even CONSIDERED. Apple has obviously decided that Cloud Storage makes more sense for a limited-storage, portable device (and in the case of AppleTV a desktop device) than SD cards. Do I wish my iPhone had a micro SD slot? Yeah, probably; but with 128 GB of internal storage, I would probably never use it. And quite frankly, even with my old 32 GB iPhone, I had a BUNCH of Apps (over a 100), a BUNCH of a BUNCH of Pictures/Videos (about 3 thousand), and enough of my music collection to listen non-stop for several days, and STILL had several GB left (and I didn't use iCloud, either).
So, I'm not sure how many live's worth of data people expect to have at their fingertips; but I guess I just don't get it.
Maybe if I was away from my laptop for a few months, I might pine for some of my other data; but really?
An SD card slot would be even better.
Mods: That ISN'T "Informative". The Parent was expressing an OPINION, not INFORMATION.
16GB limitation... why not add a card slot to expand memory ....to 128gb++ fucking retards.
Because you have to CARRY the fucking cards everywhere you go. And they are notoriously failure-prone.
Even though I hate "Cloud" stuff, Apple's end-end encrypted storage, at $1/mo for 50 GB, is so close to "free", that the convenience it provides, as opposed to the "Damn! I left that SD card on my desk at work!", far outweighs the once-in-a-decade that I wished my iPhone had a slot.
And with aftermarket Lightning-to-USB cables being $3 on Amazon, reading/writing content from/to an SD card is as near as the nearest laptop.
So, I actually think it is a well-thought-out usability decision.
As a work-around, Apple have disabled downloading 'sliced' binaries, so instead you download full (universal) binaries. This means the backups will have the universal binaries which will work on any 'device b'.
Which means that, right now, it's no worse than it was before, and Apple will eventually work out a protocol whereby the Device reports what it is (if it doesn't already), and iCloud delivers the correct "slicing" for that Device. This may actually cause a change in iCloud policy, wherein Apps do not "count" against your iCloud Storage quota (do they now? I don't use iCloud, so I don't really know), and the "slicing" is all done at the iCloud-Delivery-Level.
It's not just architecture, it's screen size and resolution. Imagine a game with assets for high-pixel-density screens like Retina, low density screens, big tablet screens, tiny phone screens, etc. That's a lot of space. It sounds like Apple has made it possible for devs to release one game package to the App Store, and in turn the App Store shoves across to the consumer only what assets from that package are needed for the specific device on which it's downloaded.
Exactly.
As the owner of a 32 GB iPad 2 with a metric buttload of Apps, I can tell you that, when the "Retina" App-Updates came out, I stopped updating a BUNCH of my Apps, simply because the bigger resources would do absolutely NOTHING for me but eat up a non-insignificant amount of my rapidly dwindling free Flash memory.
Now, with App Slicing, if I want to update my iPad 2 to iOS 9 (which is possible; suck it, Android!), I can Update those Apps and STILL keep the majority of my free Flash memory.
And don't talk to me about SD Card support in Android; because I hear (in fact, in this very thread) it is (or already has been) deprecated.
Apple doesn't do things that were done before. They only invent.
Just like Anonymous COWARDS don't regurgitate the same, tired Apple-hating memes. They only have original thoughts.
Come out and expose your Karma like a man, or GTFO.
ODR sounds very like overlays: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... used in the 1970s on mainframes. Back to the future.
And not just mainframes. Back in the day, I saw a business that ran on a PDP-8 minicomputer about the size of an IMSAI 8800 (as seen the movie War Games) with 4 KB of RAM supporting (IIRC) 10 concurrent users, and the business' custom-built COBOL-based ERP/Accounting software.
So, as you said, everything old is new again.
You have to weigh the cost of developing and supporting these features and the extra sales that would be gained by bumping up to a 32GB base model, against the cost of the extra flash memory and the number of people who would pay for the overpriced upgrade.
I guess Apple must have decided that the latter is slightly more that the former, and screw giving the customers a better device.
Or possibly, maybe, JUST maybe, they figured that they could improve two systems at once (iPhone and AppleTV) by giving their Customers what amounts to Cloud-based Virtual Memory; so instead of 70% of Customers having to pay a couple of hundred dollars more for a 32GB phone "Just in case 16 GB isn't enough" (which, incidentally, but importantly, could cause unknown numbers of those Customers to choose a cheaper Android phone instead), instead they made it so you could essentially have more-or-less infinite (near-line) Storage (in iCloud), available and expandable as need be.
So, I'll try ten times - once with each finger and let it lock me out. They don't need to know I use the big toe on my left foot to unlock my phone.
That must make you VERY "popular" in line at the McDonald's, as you unlock your phone to use Apple Pay!
I agree that App Slicing is interesting, but I don't really agree with their premise on the 16GB phones. A 16GB phone is still crippled these days. Do customers want an iPhone that has so little storage for music and photos, and isn't upgradable?
Sure, Apple will say "but you can store all your photos and music in iCloud". But that's hardly an option as wireless carriers continue to try to drive down data usage with data caps, throttling, and exorbitant overage charges.
I like the Apple platform and I will stick with it, but it's a bad business decision to herd people into 16GB phones they are going to be less than happy with.
Nobody is "herding" anyone into a 16 GB phone, as there are memory options up to 128 GB. But for a LOT of (non-Slashdot) readers, 16 GB really IS ok, and this lets Apple keep a low-end model that will appeal to a lot more people than you would imagine.
I am sure that Apple "ran the numbers", and figured that, even without App Slicing (which only affects a much-smaller group of "Those who want a cheaper phone; but still want some Apps"), that a 16 GB model was attractive.
Conversely, they also saw that, for the "power users", 32 GB wasn't enough, and so they dropped that option, probably because it wasn't selling so good...
It sounds like a pretty interesting feature, actually, once you get past the "Haha, iOS 9 is a failure!" tone of the summary.
Back in around 1980, I created a system for "Slicing" Applesoft BASIC programs for the Apple ][, to work-around another developer creating a program that was so large, that Applesoft spent pretty much its entire time doing Garbage Collection, because there was so little free memory left. Since it was WAAAAY too late in the Project to completely re-factor and re-write the code, I created a "Segment Loader" for Applesoft.
The idea was that you could take any Applesoft program, and pretty much just divide it up willy-nilly into smaller "loadable segments". And as long as you didn't do something completely stupid, like split the program in the middle of a tight looping structure, it worked a TREAT. It could load about 8 kB/sec off of floppy (which meant that most of the time, the segment-loading delay was only around a second), and with a Corvus hard disk, the User couldn't even tell it had loaded another segment. And, unlike the typical method of "at a Menu, RUN a separate Program for each Menu Item", the Applesoft Variables were RETAINED (and even moved in memory if the segment-being-loaded was larger than the one being "vacated").
The system, which I called "Overlayer", worked through Applesoft's wonderful "&" Hook through the ONERRGOTO vector, and when my code was called, it would analyze what the error was, and if it was a "Line Not Found"-type Error, it would look back to see what line it was, then consult a Table of which line-range was in which "Segment", and then load that segment of code, readjust the memory fences, then "rewind" the execution pointer to the beginning of the statement causing the error, then RESUMEd. Applesoft then executed the (now) good statement, and went on its merry way.
Without seing that part of last week's Keynote, or any of the Developer docs for the iOS feature, I would bet that this (sort of) works the same way (although probably much more formalized than using a simple ONERRGOTO hook).
There is a reason embedded development has converged to Linux
Actually, as an embedded Dev. of nearly 40 years' experience, I would say that, by and large, with the exception of networking equipment, embedded Development projects use NO formal Operating System whatsoever, or at most, use a lightweight RTOS.
Soon, they'll be able to pick up The ENTIRE Volkswagen Group for a SONG!
Well, at least we know who will be building the Apple Titan...
Dude, stop trying to argue with a guy who is basically agreeing with you. Jesus.
I was not arguing against his position that Macs require little to no "Support"; but rather his snarky attitude towards his family members ("Sorry, I can't help you; because I don't know nuthin' about them there Mac-things).
Re-read his post, and think about how you would feel if you were non-technical, but had a Geek brother/son, etc, that OBVIOUSLY had the wherewithal to figure-out a (likely simple) tech problem on an otherwise unfamiliar platform (much like almost EVERY computer geek has had to do a ZILLION times), but who DISMISSIVELY REFUSED to even TRY to help, with the LAME excuse of "I don't know anything about [x]".
THAT's what frosted me.
Which is why, if you're ever pulled over or believe you're about to be taken into custody, you power off your phone. At least an iPhone requires the pass code be used the first time before it allows your fingerprint to be used.
I have thought the EXACT same thing, especially in light of that Virginia Court Ruling about a year ago.