The most unfortunate problem with this is the fact that this is the state of the video game industry at present. Everyone wants to stick with what's safe, nobody wants to do anything unique or imaginative. Then play more indie games. This is like complaining "Live Free and Die Hard" is a stereotypical action movie - of course it is, all big-budget movies are like that. In the same way, big budget AAA titles tend to be derivative, preferring to make small twists on tried and true ideas instead of revolutionizing something or another.
If you want to support innovation in games, buy and play indie games. There are plenty of us out there who are looking for new gameplay elements that are new and untried, but the mass market's insistence on purty graphics prevents indies from getting any real exposure.
I too would like a quieter 360, the current iteration is just too loud. But keep in mind that a cooler machine will NOT be much quieter. If you ever run your XBL Arcade games, you will find that the Xbox is fairly whisper quiet. It's audible, but definitely not a nuisance at all.
The HUGE amount of noise comes from the third-rate DVD drive MS has in there. I don't know why it is that my 52x DVD drives in *all* of my computers are all whisper quiet, including the $30 crap ones, but somehow MS is unable to do the same in their machine.
If that's true, then I would say delay the European iPhone launch until they can do it right. But seriously though, how many handsets out there do 3G? How many of those have good battery lives? Heck, I'm about as die-hard Mac-head as they come, and I don't really buy the power consumption thing.
Given the limited nature of American 3G networks, the whole iPhone and EDGE thing can be (to some extent) explained away. But considering how widespread 3G is in Europe, I'd hope Apple has a 3G-ified version of iPhone ready for them. The lack of 3G in the phone, IMHO, is one of the more critical mistakes that Apple has made, especially in introducing such an obviously media-heavy device.
Er... This isn't about low-cost employment (though it certainly does cost a bit less in Canada). This is about not being able to pull skilled talent into the US by current immigration laws. I work in the Canadian software industry, and we have a huge number of new immigrants in the mix, most of whom are getting paid on par with what normal Canadians get paid in the first place (which is pretty darned good). I know there are companies out there that are out to lower domestic labour prices, but by and large I do not see this occurring in Canada. We are importing a huge amount of foreign talent, but Canadian wages have not visibly suffered as a result.
Oh, and don't flatter yourself too much, while ten years ago every Canadian developer would've died to go to the US, such is in general no longer the case. Between a downright hostile foreign policy and gross economic mismanagement, a tumbling currency and crumbling health care (not to mention the huger crime rates), Canada is a pretty darned peachy place to live in comparison, if you're willing to deal with a bit of ice and snow in the winter months. America is no longer the envy-of-the-world superpower that everyone aspired to get into like it was in the 90s, no, the reality is now very different. Many of my coworkers have no interest in going to the US besides for the weather, which is IMHO the only thing you guys have on us right now.
And this is why I have my email hosted (along with web hosting) on my own domain name. First of all, it establishes a "non-generic" email address that's easy to remember (myname@lastname.com anyone?), instead of some weird randomuser127@hotmail or some other nonsense. Personally I recommend to everyone who is serious, especially contracting professionals, to get their own domain (or a family domain, or whatever) for email purposes.
You never know if your current free email provider will one day start charging, or change their privacy policy, or in this case, be in danger of losing their domain name. For someone who is professionally connected, changing your email is an incredibly difficult task, and you stand to lose a lot of extremely valuable communication.
I've been using my email address for years now, and I couldn't be happier. Since I host it, I get to connect to it however I damn well please. I can run the best webmail client on the server that I like, I can get at it with IMAP, POP, or any other method I see fit, and customize my spam blockers the way I like. It's truly miles above any of the free services out there, though Gmail probably has the best web client.
1 - For someone to copy the data on my magnetic strip card, they would have to physically swipe it. This has been done before (gas stations, anyone?). For RFID devices, however, this data is accessible to anyone in your near proximity with a reader (which is easy enough to hide). So basically, your data is only at risk when your magnetic card leaves your wallet (and sight!), but your contactless card is at risk of copying always.
So while contact cards are not exactly foolproof, they are much harder to thieves to get their hands on.
Contactless becomes much more secure (than even contact cards!) if you implement a challenge-response system. In this case since the signal sent is different for every transaction, it is impossible for someone to read the present value of your card and re-use said value later on a copied card.
Riiiiiiight. It is "justice" to take away someone's liberty and force them to have a reduced standard of health care. That makes perfect sense!
Riiiiiight. Because might makes right, and you have the "liberty" to entice skilled doctors away from those who need them, simply because you have access to more money.
Face it, a two-tier system works on paper, but we all know it won't fly in real life. You'll end up with the exact same problems you have now - poor people get substandard care from substandard physicians, while rich people get expensive excellent care from excellent physicians.
So now instead of having no surgery at all, you get to be operated on by a newbie with a twitchy scalpel hand. I'm not sure if that's really better than what we have now.
You have the liberty to demand a higher level of health care, but you do not have the liberty to deny others access to something so fundamentally necessary as their well being. If you ask me, between the liberty of life, and the liberty of going to a better doctor, one clearly trumps the other.
Okay, so we know that Apple is in fact a for-profit company seeking, well, profit... but what does that have to do with iTunes and ringtones? Last I checked, iTunes is not exclusively for purchased music, in fact the vast majority of everyone's iTunes library is not in fact purchased from iTunes.
So forcing the user to go through iTunes is in fact *not* a form of lock-in, since that mp3 I put on my phone as ringtone could have come from ANYWHERE I wanted. If Apple starts implementing a "only purchased music on iPhone" thing, then start crying foul - until then you're just spreading FUD.
Honestly, I understand why Apple forces the use of iTunes for the iPod and iPhone. Windows Explorer, and even the Mac OS finder, sucks for organizing music and media. I like listening to music on my laptop, dragging interesting songs onto my sync playlist, and have my iPod sync it every time I plug it in to recharge. It's easy, and if I'm looking for a particular song it's also fast as hell.
Imagine doing that in Windows. Dragging each file over? So many files are mis-tagged, or tagged unintelligibly such that I don't know WTF I'm copying unless I crack open each file for a listen. This is the reason I haven't switched away from the iPod, despite so many manufacturers offering superior hardware and features, because I simply do not want to be a Windows Explorer monkey.
IMHO, the majority of users are stupid. If you give them an inconvenient way to do something, they will do it that way and blame the inconvenience on you. I can see Apple's POV when they force the default "easy but less powerful" method on their users.
for a device that will be admittedly be superseded by something much better.
Yes... let's never buy a piece of technology again... That GeForce 7900GTX is now superceded by the 8800GTS... you'll never buy if you always keep waiting. Such is the nature of tech.
While I agree there are certain leaps to be made before this can be a mass market item, I disagree fundamentally with point 1 that you make. You could have made the exact argument about the old DOS Lotus office suite way back, 15 years ago. Those things still word process, and a 386 33MHz is certainly no slouch - I never had to sat around waiting for the software to respond to me or finish some ridiculously long task.
I'm sure you'd agree that these newfangled Pentiums and Core Duos are quite useful, even for the end user.
Think about features like predictive and contextual actions. Desktop search? Search-as-you-type? There are many ways to improve the usability of computers thyat require more and more performance. Honestly, if we can invent faster computers, we will invent ways to put the power to use in a productive, tangible way.
IMHO the problem is not that the ESRB is rating trailers, it's that it's going against the nature of the AO rating. AO means Adults Only, which means, like the name implies, that content from such a trailer or game should not be shown to underaged persons.
In this case though, the ESRB is not calling for proper enforcement of age gates, or preventing the sale of the game to minors... no, they are outright banning the content! Doesn't AO mean "appropriate for people of age", instead of "not appropriate for ANYONE"? They're using the AO rating as a death sentence instead of the content guideline that it should be.
While it's commendable that you have concern for the well-being of America and its work force, I think you've got it wrong.
I am Canadian, and while I'm currently working in Canada, I will jump on an H-1B opportunity from a nice job instantly.
The removal of H-1B's will partially deal with the abusive companies who use said visas as ways to hire cheap foreign labour. But honestly, there are enough *perfectly legal* new immigrants in your country for companies to do that anyway. No, unfortunately removing H-1B's will also permanently erase the gateway for talent to enter the US. America historically, especially in the 20th century, is built upon the talent pool of other countries. By offering a free society, a great environment, and an enviable lifestyle, you have attracted the most talented workers and researchers from all over the world. This is the key to America's past success, and it remains the key to the future.
This is also why I'm concerned about the recent turn (in my impression anyway) towards xenophobia by most American workers. Yes, there are abusive companies out there who use H-1B's as ways to get cheap labour across the border, but really, they could just as well open an office in Bangalore and save the legal paperwork. I believe the importance of importing true talent into the country far outweighs the potential for abuse. The rampant xenophobia, Muslim-hate, and rise of the influence of the religious right is doing a lot to drive talented individuals from moving to the USA (and I'd know... I'm in a university and I speak to academics all the time, from many different ethnicities and backgrounds).
Cost of manufacturing mostly. Unfortunately not everything that ought to be cheap is, or could be.
I know there has been some very good work done recently by some companies that I know in terms of improving panel efficiency. Right now the amount of roof real estate you have to cover + the cost of installation simply doesn't break down *that* well for the average homeowner with not a great deal of cash to blow.
Hopefully with improved panel efficiency, people can either power their homes with smaller (and less expensive!) panels, or power even more of their home with the existing roof real estate.
Here's a good question. Are video games simply the blame du jour or does the gun lobby have something to do with it? As evil as it sounds, maybe it's time for a games lobby?
Disclaimer: I am not religious at all. Correlation doesn't represent causality, yadi yada. Honestly though, is religion empowering these people to be violent, or are a group of violent nutjobs merely using religion as an escape to be outraged and wreak havoc? A bit of both?
Indeed, Adium kicks ass, though what's with the lack of offline messaging support in MSN? It's one of the most-used features of the app, but yet Adium lags far behind in that regard. It's the only thing that sucks about this otherwise tremendously awesome app.
Ah, but you forget that in laptop-land smaller = expensive. That 15" girth and mass makes for a cheaper laptop. Size is not always an advantage, especially for consumers concerned about weight and portability. I tell ya, that MacBook is a lot easier to move than a 15" clunker Dell. Try getting one of those 10" ultra-mobiles, they're even more expensive, PC or otherwise...
You're entitled to your opinion, but take this from someone who's owned a number of PC notebooks, and knows a large number of people who own PC notebooks of all brands. (Dell, Toshiba, Acer, I am currently on a MacBook Pro, and very very happy).
If you're comparing brands like AOpen, Acer, and Toshiba to Apple, you are seriously delusional about build quality. Toshiba in my experience constantly offers more bang for the buck - my Satellite M30 was insanely fast for its price point. Of course, it also sucked ass, was flimsy, and broke a lot. The keyboard would flex downwards while typing, the trackpad would be sometimes unresponsive and difficult to use... The multimedia keys just plain didn't work... I could go on.
Acer is not better off either. If your machine doesn't have some major glitch on arrival, thank the Gods, and then proceed to discover little design flaws like whiny fans, crappy bearings in cooling units making strange grinding noises... etc. Things that Acer simply refuses to fix, regardless of how much you yell at the poor heavily-accented guy at the other end of the line (after holding for 2 hours). I will be quite content with my Mac, which if it ever has problems (it's had a few minor gremlins) is a quick phone call, with minimal waiting time, and a support rep that actually speaks English and won't run me through the checklist.
I've never dealt personally with Sony support, but like IBM, I suspect the quality is FAR above what you would get with brands like Toshiba and Acer. I've never been on hold more than 10 minutes on an Apple support line, and every time I called and described my problem, the support tech immediately got down to the issue, instead of running me around with insipid "is your computer plugged in" checklists. Repairs are similarly painless. When the latch on my MacBook Pro broke, I phoned in, and got a FedEx box in the mail the next day. No arguing, no hassles, I gave them my serial number and they confirmed my warranty, and BAM.
But yes, build quality is important to those of us who rely on our laptops for a living. I have a level of respect for Sony Vaios and IBM/Lenovo ThinkPads, because I have used them first hand and I know that their quality is excellent. The same goes for Apple. Toshiba, Acer, and older Dells are invariably crap in a plastic shell, though Dell has made some major improvements in recent years (support still sucks though).
Can you tell us the specs for your Dell and Apple comparison? I've done this myself many times, and I have NEVER found the Mac to be 60 percent higher than the PC. 5 percent maybe... though usually I find Macs to be marginally cheaper than PCs at the high end.
Oh, and equating Vista Ultimate and OSX is just delusional. I've used both extensive, and I develop software for both. The level of security you get with OSX is worth oodles of cash, especially if the machine is a near-mission critical work machine.
I'm a bit on the fence about this. On one hand, part of the Wii's charm is that a parent wouldn't have to worry about junior getting his hands on extremely questionable games.
Sure, there's Red Steel and Far Cry and some violent shooters, but I can rest easy knowing that junior isn't killing hookers, or chainsawing people in half, or watching limbs fly as he rolls explosive cans of propane into them...
On the other hand, one has to wonder how much that selling point is really worth. Some parents may be turned off by the *possibility* that junior can get his hands on Gears of War or GTA, but how much DOES it play into the buying decision really?
Agreed. Apple (and Jobs) has consistently for the last few years been able to walk the walk and talk the talk. When they say something is going to kick ass, it generally does. Where some companies come up with overhyped crap, or under-marketed gems of technology, Apple seems to have mastered both sides of the spectrum.
Totally agreed. I'm not saying there's no place for physical buttons on a touchscreen device, but rather that the two buttons in particular encourage lazy convoluted UI. I'm all for having a real power button, or a real "camera" button (even today, too few phones have a quick way to get to the camera)...
Slashdot Mirror
I too would like a quieter 360, the current iteration is just too loud. But keep in mind that a cooler machine will NOT be much quieter. If you ever run your XBL Arcade games, you will find that the Xbox is fairly whisper quiet. It's audible, but definitely not a nuisance at all.
The HUGE amount of noise comes from the third-rate DVD drive MS has in there. I don't know why it is that my 52x DVD drives in *all* of my computers are all whisper quiet, including the $30 crap ones, but somehow MS is unable to do the same in their machine.
If that's true, then I would say delay the European iPhone launch until they can do it right. But seriously though, how many handsets out there do 3G? How many of those have good battery lives? Heck, I'm about as die-hard Mac-head as they come, and I don't really buy the power consumption thing.
Given the limited nature of American 3G networks, the whole iPhone and EDGE thing can be (to some extent) explained away. But considering how widespread 3G is in Europe, I'd hope Apple has a 3G-ified version of iPhone ready for them. The lack of 3G in the phone, IMHO, is one of the more critical mistakes that Apple has made, especially in introducing such an obviously media-heavy device.
Er... This isn't about low-cost employment (though it certainly does cost a bit less in Canada). This is about not being able to pull skilled talent into the US by current immigration laws. I work in the Canadian software industry, and we have a huge number of new immigrants in the mix, most of whom are getting paid on par with what normal Canadians get paid in the first place (which is pretty darned good). I know there are companies out there that are out to lower domestic labour prices, but by and large I do not see this occurring in Canada. We are importing a huge amount of foreign talent, but Canadian wages have not visibly suffered as a result.
Oh, and don't flatter yourself too much, while ten years ago every Canadian developer would've died to go to the US, such is in general no longer the case. Between a downright hostile foreign policy and gross economic mismanagement, a tumbling currency and crumbling health care (not to mention the huger crime rates), Canada is a pretty darned peachy place to live in comparison, if you're willing to deal with a bit of ice and snow in the winter months. America is no longer the envy-of-the-world superpower that everyone aspired to get into like it was in the 90s, no, the reality is now very different. Many of my coworkers have no interest in going to the US besides for the weather, which is IMHO the only thing you guys have on us right now.
And this is why I have my email hosted (along with web hosting) on my own domain name. First of all, it establishes a "non-generic" email address that's easy to remember (myname@lastname.com anyone?), instead of some weird randomuser127@hotmail or some other nonsense. Personally I recommend to everyone who is serious, especially contracting professionals, to get their own domain (or a family domain, or whatever) for email purposes. You never know if your current free email provider will one day start charging, or change their privacy policy, or in this case, be in danger of losing their domain name. For someone who is professionally connected, changing your email is an incredibly difficult task, and you stand to lose a lot of extremely valuable communication. I've been using my email address for years now, and I couldn't be happier. Since I host it, I get to connect to it however I damn well please. I can run the best webmail client on the server that I like, I can get at it with IMAP, POP, or any other method I see fit, and customize my spam blockers the way I like. It's truly miles above any of the free services out there, though Gmail probably has the best web client.
1 - For someone to copy the data on my magnetic strip card, they would have to physically swipe it. This has been done before (gas stations, anyone?). For RFID devices, however, this data is accessible to anyone in your near proximity with a reader (which is easy enough to hide). So basically, your data is only at risk when your magnetic card leaves your wallet (and sight!), but your contactless card is at risk of copying always.
So while contact cards are not exactly foolproof, they are much harder to thieves to get their hands on.
Contactless becomes much more secure (than even contact cards!) if you implement a challenge-response system. In this case since the signal sent is different for every transaction, it is impossible for someone to read the present value of your card and re-use said value later on a copied card.
Riiiiiight. Because might makes right, and you have the "liberty" to entice skilled doctors away from those who need them, simply because you have access to more money.
Face it, a two-tier system works on paper, but we all know it won't fly in real life. You'll end up with the exact same problems you have now - poor people get substandard care from substandard physicians, while rich people get expensive excellent care from excellent physicians.
So now instead of having no surgery at all, you get to be operated on by a newbie with a twitchy scalpel hand. I'm not sure if that's really better than what we have now.
You have the liberty to demand a higher level of health care, but you do not have the liberty to deny others access to something so fundamentally necessary as their well being. If you ask me, between the liberty of life, and the liberty of going to a better doctor, one clearly trumps the other.
Okay, so we know that Apple is in fact a for-profit company seeking, well, profit... but what does that have to do with iTunes and ringtones? Last I checked, iTunes is not exclusively for purchased music, in fact the vast majority of everyone's iTunes library is not in fact purchased from iTunes.
So forcing the user to go through iTunes is in fact *not* a form of lock-in, since that mp3 I put on my phone as ringtone could have come from ANYWHERE I wanted. If Apple starts implementing a "only purchased music on iPhone" thing, then start crying foul - until then you're just spreading FUD.
Honestly, I understand why Apple forces the use of iTunes for the iPod and iPhone. Windows Explorer, and even the Mac OS finder, sucks for organizing music and media. I like listening to music on my laptop, dragging interesting songs onto my sync playlist, and have my iPod sync it every time I plug it in to recharge. It's easy, and if I'm looking for a particular song it's also fast as hell.
Imagine doing that in Windows. Dragging each file over? So many files are mis-tagged, or tagged unintelligibly such that I don't know WTF I'm copying unless I crack open each file for a listen. This is the reason I haven't switched away from the iPod, despite so many manufacturers offering superior hardware and features, because I simply do not want to be a Windows Explorer monkey.
IMHO, the majority of users are stupid. If you give them an inconvenient way to do something, they will do it that way and blame the inconvenience on you. I can see Apple's POV when they force the default "easy but less powerful" method on their users.
for a device that will be admittedly be superseded by something much better.
Yes... let's never buy a piece of technology again... That GeForce 7900GTX is now superceded by the 8800GTS... you'll never buy if you always keep waiting. Such is the nature of tech.
While I agree there are certain leaps to be made before this can be a mass market item, I disagree fundamentally with point 1 that you make. You could have made the exact argument about the old DOS Lotus office suite way back, 15 years ago. Those things still word process, and a 386 33MHz is certainly no slouch - I never had to sat around waiting for the software to respond to me or finish some ridiculously long task.
I'm sure you'd agree that these newfangled Pentiums and Core Duos are quite useful, even for the end user.
Think about features like predictive and contextual actions. Desktop search? Search-as-you-type? There are many ways to improve the usability of computers thyat require more and more performance. Honestly, if we can invent faster computers, we will invent ways to put the power to use in a productive, tangible way.
IMHO the problem is not that the ESRB is rating trailers, it's that it's going against the nature of the AO rating. AO means Adults Only, which means, like the name implies, that content from such a trailer or game should not be shown to underaged persons.
In this case though, the ESRB is not calling for proper enforcement of age gates, or preventing the sale of the game to minors... no, they are outright banning the content! Doesn't AO mean "appropriate for people of age", instead of "not appropriate for ANYONE"? They're using the AO rating as a death sentence instead of the content guideline that it should be.
While it's commendable that you have concern for the well-being of America and its work force, I think you've got it wrong.
I am Canadian, and while I'm currently working in Canada, I will jump on an H-1B opportunity from a nice job instantly.
The removal of H-1B's will partially deal with the abusive companies who use said visas as ways to hire cheap foreign labour. But honestly, there are enough *perfectly legal* new immigrants in your country for companies to do that anyway. No, unfortunately removing H-1B's will also permanently erase the gateway for talent to enter the US. America historically, especially in the 20th century, is built upon the talent pool of other countries. By offering a free society, a great environment, and an enviable lifestyle, you have attracted the most talented workers and researchers from all over the world. This is the key to America's past success, and it remains the key to the future.
This is also why I'm concerned about the recent turn (in my impression anyway) towards xenophobia by most American workers. Yes, there are abusive companies out there who use H-1B's as ways to get cheap labour across the border, but really, they could just as well open an office in Bangalore and save the legal paperwork. I believe the importance of importing true talent into the country far outweighs the potential for abuse. The rampant xenophobia, Muslim-hate, and rise of the influence of the religious right is doing a lot to drive talented individuals from moving to the USA (and I'd know... I'm in a university and I speak to academics all the time, from many different ethnicities and backgrounds).
Cost of manufacturing mostly. Unfortunately not everything that ought to be cheap is, or could be.
I know there has been some very good work done recently by some companies that I know in terms of improving panel efficiency. Right now the amount of roof real estate you have to cover + the cost of installation simply doesn't break down *that* well for the average homeowner with not a great deal of cash to blow.
Hopefully with improved panel efficiency, people can either power their homes with smaller (and less expensive!) panels, or power even more of their home with the existing roof real estate.
Here's a good question. Are video games simply the blame du jour or does the gun lobby have something to do with it? As evil as it sounds, maybe it's time for a games lobby?
That it's plaid?
Disclaimer: I am not religious at all. Correlation doesn't represent causality, yadi yada. Honestly though, is religion empowering these people to be violent, or are a group of violent nutjobs merely using religion as an escape to be outraged and wreak havoc? A bit of both?
Indeed, Adium kicks ass, though what's with the lack of offline messaging support in MSN? It's one of the most-used features of the app, but yet Adium lags far behind in that regard. It's the only thing that sucks about this otherwise tremendously awesome app.
Ah, but you forget that in laptop-land smaller = expensive. That 15" girth and mass makes for a cheaper laptop. Size is not always an advantage, especially for consumers concerned about weight and portability. I tell ya, that MacBook is a lot easier to move than a 15" clunker Dell. Try getting one of those 10" ultra-mobiles, they're even more expensive, PC or otherwise...
You're entitled to your opinion, but take this from someone who's owned a number of PC notebooks, and knows a large number of people who own PC notebooks of all brands. (Dell, Toshiba, Acer, I am currently on a MacBook Pro, and very very happy).
If you're comparing brands like AOpen, Acer, and Toshiba to Apple, you are seriously delusional about build quality. Toshiba in my experience constantly offers more bang for the buck - my Satellite M30 was insanely fast for its price point. Of course, it also sucked ass, was flimsy, and broke a lot. The keyboard would flex downwards while typing, the trackpad would be sometimes unresponsive and difficult to use... The multimedia keys just plain didn't work... I could go on.
Acer is not better off either. If your machine doesn't have some major glitch on arrival, thank the Gods, and then proceed to discover little design flaws like whiny fans, crappy bearings in cooling units making strange grinding noises... etc. Things that Acer simply refuses to fix, regardless of how much you yell at the poor heavily-accented guy at the other end of the line (after holding for 2 hours). I will be quite content with my Mac, which if it ever has problems (it's had a few minor gremlins) is a quick phone call, with minimal waiting time, and a support rep that actually speaks English and won't run me through the checklist.
I've never dealt personally with Sony support, but like IBM, I suspect the quality is FAR above what you would get with brands like Toshiba and Acer. I've never been on hold more than 10 minutes on an Apple support line, and every time I called and described my problem, the support tech immediately got down to the issue, instead of running me around with insipid "is your computer plugged in" checklists. Repairs are similarly painless. When the latch on my MacBook Pro broke, I phoned in, and got a FedEx box in the mail the next day. No arguing, no hassles, I gave them my serial number and they confirmed my warranty, and BAM.
But yes, build quality is important to those of us who rely on our laptops for a living. I have a level of respect for Sony Vaios and IBM/Lenovo ThinkPads, because I have used them first hand and I know that their quality is excellent. The same goes for Apple. Toshiba, Acer, and older Dells are invariably crap in a plastic shell, though Dell has made some major improvements in recent years (support still sucks though).
Can you tell us the specs for your Dell and Apple comparison? I've done this myself many times, and I have NEVER found the Mac to be 60 percent higher than the PC. 5 percent maybe... though usually I find Macs to be marginally cheaper than PCs at the high end.
Oh, and equating Vista Ultimate and OSX is just delusional. I've used both extensive, and I develop software for both. The level of security you get with OSX is worth oodles of cash, especially if the machine is a near-mission critical work machine.
I'm a bit on the fence about this. On one hand, part of the Wii's charm is that a parent wouldn't have to worry about junior getting his hands on extremely questionable games.
Sure, there's Red Steel and Far Cry and some violent shooters, but I can rest easy knowing that junior isn't killing hookers, or chainsawing people in half, or watching limbs fly as he rolls explosive cans of propane into them...
On the other hand, one has to wonder how much that selling point is really worth. Some parents may be turned off by the *possibility* that junior can get his hands on Gears of War or GTA, but how much DOES it play into the buying decision really?
Addition: iSync does sync your iCal onto your phone. I have a Motorola V635 and iSync works perfectly with it.
Agreed. Apple (and Jobs) has consistently for the last few years been able to walk the walk and talk the talk. When they say something is going to kick ass, it generally does. Where some companies come up with overhyped crap, or under-marketed gems of technology, Apple seems to have mastered both sides of the spectrum.
Totally agreed. I'm not saying there's no place for physical buttons on a touchscreen device, but rather that the two buttons in particular encourage lazy convoluted UI. I'm all for having a real power button, or a real "camera" button (even today, too few phones have a quick way to get to the camera)...