It's not for all the iPhone and iPod touch models. The first generation is being left behind.

You make it sound like Apple is doing it intentionally to boost sales of their new phones. The simple fact of the matter is that the first generation of iOS devices only has 128MB of memory, which is not really enough to run more than one program at a time. Apple doesn't want to give users a bad experience on their device, so it's better to just let them run iOS 3 and not complain about applications crashing because they ran out of memory.

The scheduled delivery sounds kind of cool...course, if I have to walk over to my printer to get it, why wouldn't I just turn on the computer sitting right next to it?

This isn't for us, this is for the grandmas and grandpas that print out email before reading it. This is for the people that still print out news articles from the web to show their friends.

I think it's a terrible technology that will waste tons of paper and ink.

Furthermore, as stated there is an actual button - which means zero latency

I have to take issue with this whole "zero latency" statement. On any game system, whether it be console or PC, there is no such thing as zero latency. Even if the console acknowledges your button press instantly, you still have the latency between now and the next framebuffer update to the video screen, which is at least 1/30th or 1/60th of a second.

On modern consoles, it is even worse. The PS3 uses a bluetooth communications protocol with it's controllers. This means that your button press has to be packetized and sent through the 7 layers of the OSI model across an inherently slow and subject to interference wireless connection, then depacketized and processed by software on the other end. The best thing you can hope for is that you only have 25-50 ms of latency and that it is unnoticeable to most players. This same thing is true of Xbox360 and Wii as well.

If you want to minimize latency, first you have to get rid of all wireless controllers and go back to corded joysticks or keyboard controls. Then you need to get a framebuffer (and CRT) that can refresh at 120hz or higher. This is why professional FPS players don't want anything other than a keyboard, mouse, and a real CRT. With a 120hz. refresh rate and a hard-wired keyboard/mouse, FPS players can get their latency down to around 8.33 ms (1000 ms in a second divided by 120 frames per second) which, while faster than most players can react, makes a difference to fighter pilots and other trained professionals.

All of this has been dumbed down in modern consoles to the point that latency is an extreme joke and we must calibrate our Rock Band setups to account for almost 100 ms of latency due to slow processing HDTVs, wireless controllers, and interference.

Give me back my keyboard/mouse, and Sony Trinitron CRT any day - and get off my lawn!

I agree with everything you said except for the part about the PS3 having better graphics. The PS3 *should* have better graphics but most titles available for both consoles look better on 360.

It depends on the game. Final Fantasy XIII has 1080p graphics for both cut-scenes and in-game, where the Xbox360 version only has 576p cutscenes and 720p gameplay. The reason? Square-Enix couldn't fit full resolution videos and textures on the measly 8GB available on a standard DVD drive, but the PS3 version has Blu-Ray.

The difference is pretty dramatic. I'm enjoying cut-scenes rendered in full 1080p while the Xbox360 version is getting half that.

It stands to reason that any society below a certain wealth/developmental level will tend towards fundamentalism of various kinds and as wealth and developmental level increase in society freedoms starts to emerge.

I'll give you a huge counter-example: Saudi Arabia. I could list dozens of other countries, especially in the continent of Africa, which have huge mineral wealth but corrupt governments. Mineral and resource wealth does not always bring about freedom. Expecting the rest of the world's path towards democracy to be the same as ours in the US seems like a bad idea.

Just use a regular mic stand with a boom. They're not expensive, and since you're neither recording nor playing out, there's no need for specialized gear.

But first, hang the mic (by its cord) over the back of a chair or something else of appropriate height, and see if it's really an idea worth pursuing at all.

I'll second this recommendation. I purchased a pretty expensive $300 mic for my tenor sax that clips onto the bell. It works fine, but because it is physically attached to the bell, it sometimes picks up fingering noise when I'm changing notes, which really sucks when you're trying to do serious recording. If you don't need to be portable or mobile around a stage, a stand mic is much better.

I like the creative idea of hanging it off a chair back. Sometimes ghetto solutions work the best. :-)

Or Apple could be less stupid about what it does with it's prototypes.

Are you seriously suggesting that Apple not test web browsing at all on future mobile devices?

The main problem with 3D stereoscopic gaming is that current console hardware can't push the polygons required for it. With stereoscopic 3D, you need a 120 hz. TV. Your console needs to put out 120 fps so that the TV can send 60 fps * 2 (60fps to each eye). When most console games now are struggling to push 30 fps, what makes you think they can get to 120 on the same hardware?

This means the quality of the 3D games will be abysmal. Developers have no choice but to put out dumbed down games if they want to target 3D. Give it about 5 years and another console generation and we might have something worth playing. Or, try it on PC. Either way, it's at least one console generation away from mainstream adoption.

Google is crying foul not because Apple got into advertising, but because Apple banned companies owned by makers of other mobile operating systems from using analytics(critical for ads) on the iDevices. i.e Apple is specifically targeting Google just like it targeted Adobe last time around

Actually, I think Apple is very justified in this ban. Remember Steve mentioned that an analytics company called Flurry was datamining hardware information and determined iPads were in use at the Apple campus in Cupertino in January? Letting other mobile device companies embed tracking software in apps sold in the App store gives them a competitive advantage by having advance knowledge of new Apple mobile products.

This analytics data gathered can definitely harm Apple's mobile device business. They are completely justified in restricting mobile device manufacturers from operating analytics companies that gather this information. Just because Google fits this example does not discount the validity of this clause.

Having actually READ the novel

Having actually read the book as well, I agree with most of what you say. I considered it a very entertaining book, and the story about setting up an international union of virtual workers was very inspiring and moving.

The one thing that really bothered me about the book was that it was unrealistic about how virtual economies work. Doctorow said that investors would buy in-game gold, and wait for it to appreciate, then sell it for a profit. This is contrary to the way every virtual economy works. When money can be created out of nothing, as it can in any virtual economy, simply by killing monsters that spawn an infinite supply of it, inflation is inevitable. Blizzard uses this mechanic to devalue gold and discourage gold farming.

I found it highly implausible that anyone would invest real money in virtual currency, given the fact that it is devalued constantly. This would be the real world equivalent of investing US dollars in Zimbabwe dollars.

Other than that basic flaw in it's economic models, I found it very entertaining and couldn't put it down.

The story of stock brokers making securities out of in-game assets and packaging them to investors was riveting and paralleled a lot of the housing crisis we've had here in the US, but was fundamentally unrealistic due to what I just mentioned.

Responding to certain types of disasters is something the federal government could competently and legitimately address. I would be all for funding such things.

Are you sure you're a conservative? Most conservatives argue that the safety nets and "social contract" proposed by the New Deal, which meant that the government could and would step in and help people out of a natural disaster, were wrong. Most libertarians and conservatives believe that the government has no business helping people in a natural disaster. If people didn't buy private insurance from a private company, why should the government help them out?

No joy on a mouse, though. The touch interface doesn't support one.

Check this out if you want to see an iPad controlled by a mouse.

The mouse support code is there, it's just disabled by default. It is a little half-baked however, since drag scrolling is the opposite behavior of most mouse users (dragging up to scroll down). My guess is that Apple is working on it for a future release of iOS, but, just like copy and paste, doesn't want to release it until it works well.

2. People can't handle choices. If you give them a device with only a few buttons, then it's like a microwave and they're happy.

I can just imagine the design meeting for the iPad:

Steve Jobs: You know how when we first introduced the Mac, we said we wanted a mouse with just one button?

Jonnie Ives: Sure, we're still making them with one button...

Jobs: Well, the PC guys came out with their 2 button, then 3 button, then 4 and 5 button mice, but we just stuck to our guns because we know that most computer users can't figure out how to use a mouse with more than one button.

Ives: Yeah, and despite 25 years of GUI development, you're right, they still can't figure it out.

Jobs: I've got a new project for you - We're going to build [cue dramatic music - duh! duh! duh!]

A one button computer!

FFS This isn't "Informative" it's being a "Troll."

Troll or not, there's probably a reason he's being detained in Kuwait instead of one of our fine Federal cities in the U.S. I'll give you a hint - it isn't the great sand and sun they want him in Kuwait for.

It is not the ONLY thing that they argued. As for their copyright argument, they asserted that Glider produces an unauthorized copy of the program into memory in order to disable and/or defeat Warden. Such a copy they argue is not authorized.

If you follow their logic to it's conclusion, every time you load Wow.exe into memory you're making an unauthorized copy. Sorry, but a software developer doesn't get to decide what is an authorized or unauthorized copy. Fair use demands that if I purchased it, I can make as many damn copies as I want for personal use.