Hard News: Do Want?
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Experiences differ on that. My mate was showing off his amazing new iPhone to me so I got him to plug it in in my car, and he couldn't find any of the music he wanted to play, and we got stuck with random play in the end. He reckoned it took him about 6 hours to work out how to use the player.
Really? Was he new to iTunes as well? It would've taken two minutes for someone to show him how. ("See that orange iTunes logo that's permanently along the bottom of your home screen? Poke your finger at it.") I suppose he was unable to ask, on account of being, like, a guy?
The control there would be to give him some other consumer electronics devices and see if he was any better with those.
If you've already bought into the metaphor years ago, maybe it's easier. The same most likely goes for your negative experiences with Blackberry.
If there was a metaphor to buy into with the Blackberry, I'm damned if I could see it.
I'm not the only one: this guy had a Blackberry Curve. And I hate my blackberry so much I want to cry sometimes on the Blackberry community forums is hilarious.
Like Apple or not, they've revolutionised mobile applications -- brought down prices and massively expanded both the range and the developer base. And their phone is fun to use.
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Intriguingly, Apple board has been in a battle with the company's shareholders over sustainability -- the shareholders want an independent sustainability board to scrutinise the company's operations, even at the expense of maximising their own returns.
Is that even legal in the States, considering their really creepy corporate laws? They're obliged to maximise profits no matter what.
I'm not being a Luddite here -- I can easily imagine people for whom downloading a pile of papers or tech manuals that, by their very nature, end up quickly becoming obsolete dust traps in dead tree form would be a boon.
In computer science, publication is pretty much a good indication of irrelevance. By the time you've written it up, submitted it to a journal, had it reviewed, and had it published, it's usually out of date. Which doesn't mean it's totally useless, but...
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Steve...couldn't agree more...the HTC smartphones leave the iPhone for dead. Used this brand for the past 3 years...why more people don't use them here I have no idea...brilliant devices.
I've also used tablets for years...why anyone would choose an untested first generation toy over the industry leaders in touchscreen technology is mad...
The price of the iPad shows who the target is, and it certainly isn't serious users...
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The control there would be to give him some other consumer electronics devices and see if he was any better with those.
Very tech savvy, and no stranger to Apples either. But yes, most likely far too proud to ask his Mum for help. I believe was indeed new to iTunes, there never having been any reason earlier to bother with it.
Like Apple or not, they've revolutionised mobile applications -- brought down prices and massively expanded both the range and the developer base. And their phone is fun to use.
Six hours of random play fun for you and your friends.
brought down prices
</splutters coffee>Eh? Brought their prices down maybe. Every other vendor was just relieved that the price war was finally over. No longer did they have to say "Cheaper than a Palm". Everyone was "Cheaper than an Apple".
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Steve B
I shall wait for the cheap Chinese knock off.
Were we twins in another life? Can I be the older twin and say "You don't have to wait, brother". Get a second hand PDA for $50 and you can be reading e-books tonight.
Lucy
In computer science, publication is pretty much a good indication of irrelevance. By the time you've written it up, submitted it to a journal, had it reviewed, and had it published, it's usually out of date. Which doesn't mean it's totally useless, but..
Yes, I can't remember the last carbon based technical manual I read.
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I was looking at the Eeepc T91 a few months back and was impressed. I did, for while, have the HTC Breeze (mine was actually an iMate but that's just a dead brand now) and it died a mysterious death, it filled up with water while it was in my pocket and then went batshit crazy. I have the Samsung GT-S5600 now and pleased I am with it. :-)
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I also don't feel the need to be able to carry my entire library around - it's a very different situation to when it became possible to mobilise your music collection, for example, but it seems that that solution is being applied as being automatically desirable for books also.
and
but I can't imagine ever needing a device with several thousand books on it
Ok, So I get that paper books are lovely and I perhaps also get that you might not want your entire SF & Fantasy collection with you all the time (although I pretty much need access to Terry Pratchett at frequent and unpredictable moments).
But have you seen our shelves of cookbooks that I absolutely want with me while I'm at the market. And the same goes for my woodworking books when I'm looking at lumber. And my wine books when I'm trying to decide which italian red was the one recommended. And that doesn't start to touch on the technical books that I would love to be able to access without having to find where the librarian has hidden them in the stack room.
It's not the fiction that is amazing - well it is - but it's the non-fiction as well. And yes some of that is on-the-web in other forms but there are a bucket load of web sites (bad ones of course) that don't come close to the usability of some of my reference books.
Will people have libraries with them - hell yeah. Good grief when MP3 devices first came out people laughed at the idea that you'd ever want more than a couple of albums worth of music to carry with you - much the same way people are scoffing at the idea of having more than one (real) book with you.
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Is that even legal in the States, considering their really creepy corporate laws? They're obliged to maximise profits no matter what.
I thought they were obliged to maximise benefit to the shareholders. That is usually defined as dollars. But if the shareholders vote to define benefit differently then I guess they could be forced to do something that makes less money., and be sued if they didn't.
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I always love the true technogeek responses to Apple products.
The point isn't that you can do it better with some other technology. The point is that most folks find it easier and more enjoyable to do it with Apple.
I appreciate and understand why Unix/Linux etc is superior but I still can't be bothered with it. Which kind of means it isn't really superior ... grabs for tin hat.
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I've also used tablets for years...
Shouldn't that be on the Drugs thread?
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That is the one thing that would compel me to buy an e-reader (the kind I want hasnt been developed yet, and, given the limitations already apparent with the current iPad, certainly isnt going to be that machine) - to wit, my dictionaries; my natural history references, and yes, Bart Janssen - my cookbook&cooking ref. collection (we are talking over the 1000 book mark here.) And All My Own Work - especially the unpublished stuff-in-progress.
And that, together with access to print news organs (able to downloaded & printed off if required) - without the ink dirtying anything- is where, for me, the future of something akin to the iPad lies...
2 of my nevvies have iPod Touches: I was sorely tempted but opted for a G5 Nano because I mainly something smaller that could record sound AND pictures, and store the music I wanted to hear...anyone else find that model (16g) has problems keeping time (as in *clock*)?
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The point is that most folks find it easier and more enjoyable to do it with Apple.
I appreciate and understand why Unix/Linux etc is superior but I still can't be bothered with it.
Let's pretend I'm not geekily pointing out to you how OS X is Unix.
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but opted for a G5 Nano
I have the purple one because ... it's so purty.
Never thought to use it as a timekeeping device ... hey cool there's a clock in it too :).
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I dont wear a watch, sooo...mine's orange because, just sometimes, I like purty --and-- blatant
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It's not the fiction that is amazing - well it is - but it's the non-fiction as well.
Fair call. I can see the value. Personally I'd probably go for more mobile internet access but you make a good point. I still don't agree with the music library = book library equation, but I guess I'm in a fiction mindset.
Can see the appeal of being able to find any Terry Pratchett quote anytime, anywhere though.
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I will forever imagine you as a satchel kind of guy now.
Personally, I've been a satchel kind of guy for the last decade and a half.
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Is that even legal in the States, considering their really creepy corporate laws? They're obliged to maximise profits no matter what.
Eh, it gets a bit murky, because even though arguably yes management have a duty to maximise shareholder value, (a) shareholders could renounce that, (b) it's very arguable that that is a rule, because (c) courts never have to rule on it, given management just say `in our opinion this maximises shareholder value' and the court goes, right, good enough for me, next.
Except! I'm not an American lawyer, so that's not exactly hugely reliable, and I suspect that it can vary state-to-state as a matter of public policy.
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Of course, what I REALLY want is the second generation OLPC... but that won't see the light of day.
Version 3.0 looks nice though.
ew. Ugly URL. apologies all.
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Personally, I've been a satchel kind of guy for the last decade and a half.
I see this device as a great reason to go bag-hunting again. Crumpler here I come.
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3410,
I knew I'd seen this device somewhere before. -
Crumpler here I come.
To pick up on a comment about handbags - Crumpler are notable for having bright coloured linings to their bags. My wife has an old messenger bag of theirs; the lining is bright orange. It's surprising what a difference that makes to being able to find stuff inside it.
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Steve...couldn't agree more...the HTC smartphones leave the iPhone for dead.
Used this brand for the past 3 years...why more people don't use them here I have no idea...brilliant devices.
Probably in part because their operating system sucked. HTC switched away from Windows Mobile (where lack of multitouch support, for one thing, had become a joke) to Android last year, which improved things for HTC.
But the idea that its previous devices "leave the iPhone for dead" I find pretty mystifying. For goodness sake, even Steve Ballmer said a coupe of months ago that Microsoft "screwed up with Windows Mobile".
And then there was the CFI Group survey:
Customer satisfaction for Windows Mobile-powered smartphones was so low, CFI Group lumped them into the "other" category in a survey that, predictably, crowned Apple's iPhone. In CFI's Smartphone Satisfaction Study (PDF), based on more than 1,000 respondents, customers gave Windows Mobile phones a satisfaction rating of 66 out of 100.
The iPhone was rated 83. Trailing were Google Android-powered smartphones (77), the Palm Pre (77), the Research in Motion BlackBerry (73) and the Palm Treo (70). Phones powered by the Symbian mobile operating system, also shuffled into the "other" category, also were rated 66.
Might it be the the iPhone sells well and rates highly for consumer satisfaction because it's actually a better product than the others?
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I appreciate and understand why Unix/Linux etc is superior but I still can't be bothered with it. Which kind of means it isn't really superior ... grabs for tin hat.
When something can do more I tend to want to do more with it. It really grates when you have paid good money for a machine that has been deliberately crippled and the software is locked down to stop you doing what you want with something you have paid for. When I was up North this holidays I wanted to tether my phone to a Linux notebook, all I had to do was write a few lines of code, reconfigure some configurations, pair my device, enter the APN, discover the correct protocol, chose the Bluetooth services I required and then it was just a case of making sure Bluetooth was active on the phone before seeking a GPRS connection because then it would corrupt the .conf file and I'd have to start again, and I was away. Try doing that with an Apple 3G iProne. OK Windoze is easier but...
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</splutters coffee>Eh? Brought their prices down maybe. Every other vendor was just relieved that the price war was finally over. No longer did they have to say "Cheaper than a Palm". Everyone was "Cheaper than an Apple".
Brought down prices of applications, at the same time as it created new business for developers. It's reasonably rare to pay more than five bucks at the App Store. Given the outright scalping that has constituted certain vendors' approach to the mobile space, that's extremely significant.
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[all] I had to do was write a few lines of code, reconfigure some configurations, pair my device, enter the APN, discover the correct protocol, chose the Bluetooth services I required and then it was just a case of making sure Bluetooth was active on the phone before seeking a GPRS connection because then it would corrupt the .conf file [...]
Then all you had to do was recite the paternoster backwards, while constructing a mental image of the Earthly Paradise in your head, before sacrificing a chicken to the spirits of the ether.
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