What's interesting about this story, at least for me, is that iPad sales have tanked.
It's really too early to be able to proclaim that. The drop in sales could be attributed to the fact that there was no new iPad model released this quarter whereas there was one last year. Sales always spike when there's a product launch and languish when one is expected in the near future (presumably this fall).
I'm at a loss as to why you include the cost of the Mac mini. Do other computer brands come for free?
Can you develop for Linux (open source or otherwise) without paying for a computer?
Nothing's perfect. Would be fantastic if apple came to their senses on this one. Who knows.
I'm merely pointing out that the person I replied to was completely wrong.
You mean like this? http://www.pbs.org/idealab/2010/05/programming-language-for-kids-banned-from-apple-app-store118
Ok lets see what a kid wanting to program on iOS needs to do.
1) Needs a relatively expensive Mac to even start. What chance is there that parents are going to buy one(if they don't have one) just because little Jimmy may want to dip their feet in programming, which may finally end up in nothing? Pretty close to zero. The cheapest Mac starts at $599 for a weak device on which Xcode lags.
2) Needs an Apple developer ID for which they need to be atleast 13 years ago and $99/yr subscription to test apps on their iOS device. Fat chance that many parents are going to get those for a kid who are known to get bored pretty quick.
You've gotten your steps wrong
Here's what a kid wanting to program on iOS needs to do:
1) Download codea on their iPad for ten bucks
2) write a program in LUA
3) run the program on their iPad
4) repeat as desired
http://twolivesleft.com/Codea/
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/codify/id439571171?ls=1&mt=8
Easy peasy.
What's even better is that if they make something they is worthwhile then they can sign up to be an apple iOS developer and release their program on the App Store. Or they can just share their code for others to download and use.
E-readers (the e-ink sort) are terrible ways to read anything even a little bit technical. I used to have a kindle dx (actually I think it's still in a box somewhere). The resolution was nice and the visual quality of the text was top notch. But reading my research papers on it was a nightmare. The rendering and screen refresh is just too slow. And fine print was too hard to read. Zooming in helped but then you couldn't turn pages.
E-readers are great for reading a novel or something one page at a time. But when you have to page back and forth, search and make annotations and markups nothing beats a tablet for me (not even a laptop). Sure you can't read in broad daylight but that's such a small part of when and where I read.
Then there's other kinds of content: video, interactive, connected, etc. can't do any of that well on an e-reader.
As for iPad specifically (the above applies to any full tablet). I've been having fun coding on it in codea. A fully functional IDE:
http://twolivesleft.com/Codea/
Perfect? No. But certainly puts the lie to people's (mistaken) notion that you can't write code on an iPad.
Or say...
Port Elgin, New Brunswick.
A bustling metropolis of 418 people...
I could get service with 250GB/month...
So yeah.. I don't think Mr. Gates knows what he's talking about.
The guy I responded to seemed to imply that "Canada's" ISPs have 2GB/month caps.. since Toronto is in Canada and my limit is just a teeny bit over 2GB then that seems to put the lie to Mr. Billy Gates' assertion.
I've no doubt that *some* people's data limits are that low.. but everyone? No.
Nope they have 2 gig caps. I used to play with them in WOW and they would have to stop raiding for a few weeks until the cap reset on their cable.
Huh? My service from Rogers in Toronto gives me 150GB per month.
It shouldn't be that hard to understand.
With the ipad and keyboard dock I can use the iPad *without* the keyboard if I want to. I'm guessing neither of the cheap laptops I could have bought would work very well without the keyboard attached.
Personally I do all my chatting on my phone or tablet.
I have one app (beejive, in this case) which handles basically everything. yahoo, msn (dunno if that's relevant after the skype buyout.. I don't use it any more), gtalk, aim, facebook, etc.
The only other thing is iMessage.. which, frankly, is where I do the majority of my talking.
On my desktop I used to use Adium which, similar to beejive, handled everything I needed. Haven't used that in years though.
When you die the rights to that music dies with you.
It does? Where does it say that? I've looked over the TOS and I can't find that anywhere. What have I missed?
It's not an illusion of instantaneous update... it *is* one. When a new version of iOS ships *all* devices that are announced to support the update get the update right away. What happens behind the scenes is immaterial (certainly there is alot of effort involved).. as a consumer I get it right away.
I can understand a couple or three months for a company as large as samsung to get everything working on a brand new device... but seven?! That's nonsense to me. We're not talking about a device they stopped selling a year prior.. this was (is?) the current product lineup. If that doesn't get top priority for software updates then I don't know what to say.
It was my first (and very likely) only android purchase. It seemed inconceivable to me that a device shipping 2 months after the OS was released wouldn't come with the current OS on it (or have an update readily downloadable at time of purchase). The idea that a brand new device would have to wait 5 months to get an update to an OS that shipped 2 months prior to purchase was an impossibility in my mind. There was no precedent in all of my computing experience to make me think it would have been something to consider before purchase.
Live and learn I guess.
I don't know about Samsung phones.. but my Samsung tablet (a galaxy tab 2 7") was hideously out of date. I bought it in September.. it had 4.0 on it rather than Jelly bean (4.1) which was released in June. The software update to 4.1 *finally* came in January (making it over 6 months behind the times).. who knows when it will be updated to 4.2...
And there's no carrier involved on this... it's a wifi only device. The delay is *all* samsung.
And no. I don't want to install community ROMs.
I agree about this. I would love to be able to control how and when an app can access my data network (eg. Cell only, Wifi only, Both, None).
IF I HAD A MINE SHAFT, I don't think I would just abandon it. There's got to be a better way. -- Jack Handley, The New Mexican, 1988.
