Hey, unlike the IPad, a tablet that is actually useful!
I'm looking forward to using that Android app that puts anything on screen (everything, not just video) and pipes it out the HDMI to another device, like an HDTV. I could see this being a truly useful device.
Interesting. I hear you on the jitter. Had Vonage for a while and it was jitter 70% of the time. And that was with a dedicated hardware router. One would naturally assume the quality would be better. Funny part is that a simple software program with no dedicated hardware or optimizations--Skype--performed almost flawlessly. And I don't have conflicting protocols like Bittorrent running.
I heavily looked into VoIP. I couldn't justify the phone company saying they would charge me $40/mo for unlimited, and with all the taxes and fees it would actually come out to $75/mo. But I couldn't deal with AT&T's overuse of compression on its cellular calls. It was so difficult to understand people half the time (although I never felt I had that problem with Verizon).
I'm with you. I love stock Android. Love the color scheme, the motif, everything. I can't stand Sense UI.
As for mail clients though, I found myself using the e-mail directly through the web browser. Love GMail's mobile version used through a web browser. Check it out. Now I never have to worry about anything ever being in sync.
But you're missing something important. A snippet to what I wrote to another post:
"Most people don't realize the reason that the App Store is popular is because it let small, indie, 1-man shops "cash in." Well the problem is, while I'm sure you make worthwhile and featureful apps, the majority of the App Store's 250,000 apps, well, suck. The only useful ones are developed by large houses/companies, with actual staff and business infrastructure, which are cross-platform (Android/Blackberry/IPhone) and would exist without the "app store" model."
You make a good point. To a degree this is true. But I think you've partially bought into the hype. You don't *need* a new smartphone. I have an IPhone 3GS. I still get the newest OS updates and it's still snappy responsiveness-wise. I can run every app/feature that the IPhone 4 can.
All the main platforms really haven't been obsoleted. You just think they are (and I'm sure the tech journals haven't helped in this regard; I blame them too). But I can see how people can think this.
Examples showing that we still get the new features:
Android: Had a Droid (first one). Got the 2.1 update. Still snappy, got all the new features, and just as responsive (to me anyway) as the fast new Evo.
Blackberry: Had an old 8830 Curve, got the new 9700 Bold. Yes, the Bold feels faster and has a new skin, but works just like a Blackberry. And the old one supported everything the new one did.
I have to say I disagree on this one. Your point is correct. However, in the 16 years I've been using Linux, the most basic things still don't work, or work properly, and even more so driver-wise to this very day. The newest LTS of Ubuntu, for example, when I went to restart it via the power icon in the upper-left hand corner, logs me out, but doesn't restart. Then at the login screen, when choosing restart, it doesn't. So 10% of the time I have to manually do ctrl+alt+F1 to a terminal, then sudo shutdown -r now. Pathetic. This is 2010.
There are so many little various differences even within big distros, and various differences with each little software piece, results in an experiences that never fully works correctly.
Every platform has its strengths and weaknesses. In your situation, the negative is that if Apple decides to not approve your app, or remove it, or not approve a new version (which as everyone has seen happen so often it's a joke), your entire small business is *out of business*. You sure you want that? I'd rather have a technical hurdle than a business-ending hurdle.
And most people don't realize the reason that the App Store is popular is because it let small, indie, 1-man shops "cash in." Well the problem is, while I'm sure you make worthwhile and featureful apps, the majority of the App Store's 250,000 apps, well, suck. The only useful ones are developed by large houses/companies, with actual staff and business infrastructre, which are cross-platform (Android/Blackberry/IPhone) and would exist without the "app store" model.
But the "crapware" problem has always been solved with a simple reformat and putting on the OS again. That should be done by *everyone* anyway (for reasons other than just to eliminate crapware) and especially done by anyone who has a/. account.
So let's stop whining and find a solution. How do you remove the phone's crapware or reformat it to a clean install? Don't complicate things.
Very true. Though I have one problem with Google (and why I don't use GMail). It's that they sell everything that goes through them to hundreds of thousands of companies. I'm fine with, say Hotmail, having a password I forgot sent to it, but I'm not fine with Google parsing and logging that password and sending it off to 10,000 other advertising companies. That's the difference.
I love Google's new calling feature and Google Voice, but I'm wary about using it.
All said and done though, I think Google's online products/services are not only pretty damn incredible but the best--feature/accessibility/usability-wise. And I love how they make everything available and optimized for mobile phones.
As you implied, they are really just VoIP for your cell. That said, have you (or anyone else on/. for that matter) used one? How do they perform voice connection/quality-wise to traditional consumer level VoIP (read: Skype, Vonage, Google calling, etc.)?
The way I look at it, if cell service isn't provided to your area or it's that crappy, either get a different provider or don't give them any money at all. Get Skype or some other VoIP provider (or now use Google VoIP unlimited for free) and then lower your cell to its lowest number of minutes. The difference between basic minutes and unlimited is like $30/mo. And a femtocell is just VoIP.
Why pay $100 on top of your monthly bill to get service, when you can just not pay extra and actually pay less?
This is a difficult issue. Yes I'm sure a lot of execs used their position, but don't put it past the millions of women who have used and extorted execs/celebrities/rich people for money. I would venture to say this day and age, in this realm, even if you live a squeaky clean life, you'll be accused of something so that you'll settle in court and they'll extort even a few million from you.
The end clipped off what I had to say. When I prove you wrong, you can't come back and change the argument and say, "well this is first because... on a special day, with the right amount of light, in the perfect position, with the earth aligned with mars, etc etc, THEN what I said is correct."
Developed *first* for the PC and found on PC's *first*:
PCI-E PCI-E 2.0 DDR DDR2 DDR3 SO-DIMMS AGP x86 CPUs IDE DVI VGA SATA PCI USB USB 2.0 USB 3.0 (not even in existence yet in OSX)
With your most recent post, now you're just making stuff up and changing the entire argument. You can't say XYZ is the first, and then when you're wrong say "well XZY is the first with . *That* is being a fanboy.
Your OS is doing you a favor. ITunes is just godawful.
A tip for you though--I've found lately the soft-keyboards on all platforms have gotten pretty good. It takes a good 3 months, but by then you can be pretty productive (android in particular--I love the list of auto-complete words in a row--had a Droid and found myself not even using the physical keyboard). Of course, nothing will ever touch the speed and ease of a Blackberry 8830's keyboard. It's sad but nowadays no physical keyboards are any good. The new Blackberry's have awful keyboards (Bolds). The keys are not separated, too small, too close, slippery, and on an angle so you can't type speedily through the use of one's fingernails. Although the new Torch seems to address all these issues save the separated chicklet-style keys.
Also, maybe you can try Dragon dictation. It's pretty accurate (when the program works). And you can just go back and edit the text if needed.
I don't hate Apple. They're brilliant. They make inferior products and make a crap-ton of money by successfully taking advantage of dumb people like you. I just don't like the fanboys spouting drivel and telling everybody that Apple's products are the best thing ever.
We all know Apple products are crap. We just hate Apple zealouts shoving lies down our throats and seeing other people believe them, and spending their hard-earned money on a shiny toy instead of an actual, real, good product.
And lest you forget, I speak from experience. I actually have a 3GS. I've used it extensively and in-depth and really spent the time using it. And you know what I found?--give me a Blackberry 9700 or a Evo 4G any day.
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Hey, unlike the IPad, a tablet that is actually useful!
I'm looking forward to using that Android app that puts anything on screen (everything, not just video) and pipes it out the HDMI to another device, like an HDTV. I could see this being a truly useful device.
Interesting. I hear you on the jitter. Had Vonage for a while and it was jitter 70% of the time. And that was with a dedicated hardware router. One would naturally assume the quality would be better. Funny part is that a simple software program with no dedicated hardware or optimizations--Skype--performed almost flawlessly. And I don't have conflicting protocols like Bittorrent running.
I heavily looked into VoIP. I couldn't justify the phone company saying they would charge me $40/mo for unlimited, and with all the taxes and fees it would actually come out to $75/mo. But I couldn't deal with AT&T's overuse of compression on its cellular calls. It was so difficult to understand people half the time (although I never felt I had that problem with Verizon).
I'm with you. I love stock Android. Love the color scheme, the motif, everything. I can't stand Sense UI.
As for mail clients though, I found myself using the e-mail directly through the web browser. Love GMail's mobile version used through a web browser. Check it out. Now I never have to worry about anything ever being in sync.
That's why SDK's and libraries exist. Android handles all the minutia for you. This is a non-issue.
For goodness sakes it even handles all the different phone resolutions for you.
Modded down. Aww what's a matter? People can't handle a little criticism of the Apple App Store?
No worries. No harm, no foul.
Mod parent up. I wish I had mod points for this.
But you're missing something important. A snippet to what I wrote to another post:
"Most people don't realize the reason that the App Store is popular is because it let small, indie, 1-man shops "cash in." Well the problem is, while I'm sure you make worthwhile and featureful apps, the majority of the App Store's 250,000 apps, well, suck. The only useful ones are developed by large houses/companies, with actual staff and business infrastructure, which are cross-platform (Android/Blackberry/IPhone) and would exist without the "app store" model."
You make a good point. To a degree this is true. But I think you've partially bought into the hype. You don't *need* a new smartphone. I have an IPhone 3GS. I still get the newest OS updates and it's still snappy responsiveness-wise. I can run every app/feature that the IPhone 4 can.
All the main platforms really haven't been obsoleted. You just think they are (and I'm sure the tech journals haven't helped in this regard; I blame them too). But I can see how people can think this.
Examples showing that we still get the new features:
Android:
Had a Droid (first one). Got the 2.1 update. Still snappy, got all the new features, and just as responsive (to me anyway) as the fast new Evo.
Blackberry:
Had an old 8830 Curve, got the new 9700 Bold. Yes, the Bold feels faster and has a new skin, but works just like a Blackberry. And the old one supported everything the new one did.
I have to say I disagree on this one. Your point is correct. However, in the 16 years I've been using Linux, the most basic things still don't work, or work properly, and even more so driver-wise to this very day. The newest LTS of Ubuntu, for example, when I went to restart it via the power icon in the upper-left hand corner, logs me out, but doesn't restart. Then at the login screen, when choosing restart, it doesn't. So 10% of the time I have to manually do ctrl+alt+F1 to a terminal, then sudo shutdown -r now. Pathetic. This is 2010.
There are so many little various differences even within big distros, and various differences with each little software piece, results in an experiences that never fully works correctly.
I moved on. I'm happy with Windows.
Every platform has its strengths and weaknesses. In your situation, the negative is that if Apple decides to not approve your app, or remove it, or not approve a new version (which as everyone has seen happen so often it's a joke), your entire small business is *out of business*. You sure you want that? I'd rather have a technical hurdle than a business-ending hurdle.
And most people don't realize the reason that the App Store is popular is because it let small, indie, 1-man shops "cash in." Well the problem is, while I'm sure you make worthwhile and featureful apps, the majority of the App Store's 250,000 apps, well, suck. The only useful ones are developed by large houses/companies, with actual staff and business infrastructre, which are cross-platform (Android/Blackberry/IPhone) and would exist without the "app store" model.
Please don't troll. You can simply search in Windows by setting the drop-down bar and select "search non-indexed files."
And yes, it does take more than a second to search. Big deal. No more time than a non-indexed search with Linux (find / -name " ").
But the "crapware" problem has always been solved with a simple reformat and putting on the OS again. That should be done by *everyone* anyway (for reasons other than just to eliminate crapware) and especially done by anyone who has a /. account.
So let's stop whining and find a solution. How do you remove the phone's crapware or reformat it to a clean install? Don't complicate things.
Very true. Though I have one problem with Google (and why I don't use GMail). It's that they sell everything that goes through them to hundreds of thousands of companies. I'm fine with, say Hotmail, having a password I forgot sent to it, but I'm not fine with Google parsing and logging that password and sending it off to 10,000 other advertising companies. That's the difference.
I love Google's new calling feature and Google Voice, but I'm wary about using it.
All said and done though, I think Google's online products/services are not only pretty damn incredible but the best--feature/accessibility/usability-wise. And I love how they make everything available and optimized for mobile phones.
As you implied, they are really just VoIP for your cell. That said, have you (or anyone else on /. for that matter) used one? How do they perform voice connection/quality-wise to traditional consumer level VoIP (read: Skype, Vonage, Google calling, etc.)?
The way I look at it, if cell service isn't provided to your area or it's that crappy, either get a different provider or don't give them any money at all. Get Skype or some other VoIP provider (or now use Google VoIP unlimited for free) and then lower your cell to its lowest number of minutes. The difference between basic minutes and unlimited is like $30/mo. And a femtocell is just VoIP.
Why pay $100 on top of your monthly bill to get service, when you can just not pay extra and actually pay less?
This is a difficult issue. Yes I'm sure a lot of execs used their position, but don't put it past the millions of women who have used and extorted execs/celebrities/rich people for money. I would venture to say this day and age, in this realm, even if you live a squeaky clean life, you'll be accused of something so that you'll settle in court and they'll extort even a few million from you.
Hey you gotta give it to the man. Larry Ellison puts his money where his mouth is (when saying HP made the worst decision ever in firing him).
The end clipped off what I had to say. When I prove you wrong, you can't come back and change the argument and say, "well this is first because ... on a special day, with the right amount of light, in the perfect position, with the earth aligned with mars, etc etc, THEN what I said is correct."
Btw, below were *first* developed for the PC and *first* used on PC:
PCI-E
PCI-E 2.0
DDR
DDR2
DDR3
SO-DIMMS
AGP
x86 CPUs
IDE
DVI
VGA
SATA
PCI
USB
USB 2.0
USB 3.0 (not even in existence yet in OSX)
All of what you say is irrelevant.
Developed *first* for the PC and found on PC's *first*:
PCI-E
PCI-E 2.0
DDR
DDR2
DDR3
SO-DIMMS
AGP
x86 CPUs
IDE
DVI
VGA
SATA
PCI
USB
USB 2.0
USB 3.0 (not even in existence yet in OSX)
With your most recent post, now you're just making stuff up and changing the entire argument. You can't say XYZ is the first, and then when you're wrong say "well XZY is the first with . *That* is being a fanboy.
*Sigh*. You want it? Here we go:
Developed *first* for the PC and found on PC's *first*:
PCI-E
PCI-E 2.0
DDR
DDR2
DDR3
SO-DIMMS
AGP
x86 CPUs
IDE
DVI
VGA
SATA
PCI
USB
USB 2.0
USB 3.0 (not even in existence yet in OSX)
You fail.
Your OS is doing you a favor. ITunes is just godawful.
A tip for you though--I've found lately the soft-keyboards on all platforms have gotten pretty good. It takes a good 3 months, but by then you can be pretty productive (android in particular--I love the list of auto-complete words in a row--had a Droid and found myself not even using the physical keyboard). Of course, nothing will ever touch the speed and ease of a Blackberry 8830's keyboard. It's sad but nowadays no physical keyboards are any good. The new Blackberry's have awful keyboards (Bolds). The keys are not separated, too small, too close, slippery, and on an angle so you can't type speedily through the use of one's fingernails. Although the new Torch seems to address all these issues save the separated chicklet-style keys.
Also, maybe you can try Dragon dictation. It's pretty accurate (when the program works). And you can just go back and edit the text if needed.
Hope this helps.
Couldn't have said it better myself.
See other user's reply to your post.
I don't hate Apple. They're brilliant. They make inferior products and make a crap-ton of money by successfully taking advantage of dumb people like you. I just don't like the fanboys spouting drivel and telling everybody that Apple's products are the best thing ever.
We all know Apple products are crap. We just hate Apple zealouts shoving lies down our throats and seeing other people believe them, and spending their hard-earned money on a shiny toy instead of an actual, real, good product.
And lest you forget, I speak from experience. I actually have a 3GS. I've used it extensively and in-depth and really spent the time using it. And you know what I found?--give me a Blackberry 9700 or a Evo 4G any day.