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Comment Re:Please port this to Linux A.S.A.P. (Score 1) 164

A push button dialler has _more_ functionality than the older rotary dialler (at least additional items "#" and "*")
The transition from rotary->push button is simply one of mechanical reimplementation, not of simplification.
Now we have address books, how would people feel if you _only_ had address books, you couldn't add any new numbers you could only choose from the numbers that were somehow "blessed" by your tellco or phone manufacturer. That is a more accurate comparison to the iPodification of tech.

I'm all for UI's that hide complexity as long at they always allow you to express the full power of the system in question, even if they hide much of it by default. However that is rarely what these UIs do, generally they simply remove needed features.

Comment Re:What's different (Score 1) 231

No it doesn't. iOS literally doubles the phone app pixels, it's a terrible way of doing things due to the fact that iOS was not built for resolution independence. Android have been allowing for variable screen sizes and dpi since 1.6. Android apps don't "re-scale" they simply conform to the available space (assuming they are written well)

Comment Re:Really, really bad point. (Score 1) 231

Nonsense, iOS is almost identical between the iPad and the iPhone, your artificial separation of "mini-app" and "full-size app" makes no sense. The only difference is the layout of the UI nothing about the core of the app needs to change (assuming the API is flexible enough)

Sure there may be apps that are fundamentally impossible to build using a small screen. But mostly the formula is "two panes, one for navigation the other for content" rather than "one screen leading to another" That is easy to do on Android even without honeycomb.

Comment Re:Google should add firewalling to Android (Score 1) 236

How would a firewall help in the slightest? This is http traffic from an app that has already been approved (buy the user on install) as having full internet access. All you could do with a firewall is pop up a message on the first use saying something like:
"Oh I know you already said this app could access the internet but it looks like it actually is. Are you _sure_ this is ok?"
Not that I don't think that Android permissions can improved but firewalls are _hard_ to do in a protective and useful way

Comment Re:Characterizations (Score 1) 160

Right, the only way to make money as a talented person is to ensure that corporate music is screwing _so many_ other artists that they have enough left over cash to throw at someone they consider a "50/50" or less bet?

That song sound like its about a shitty industry that has been shitty for 40+ years, the notion that copyright infringement is what has made it shitty is laughable.

BTW, its a great song and she has a great voice, I'll see if I can buy some of her work as long as I can get it straight from her and not through a label.

Google

Submission + - CyanogenMod 6.0 Released In To The Wild 8

Jeagoss writes: CyanogenMod is the leading open source replacement ROM for Android based phones. With the 6.0 release, a targeted 8 models of phones have been hit with version 2.2 (Froyo) of Google's Android operating system for mobiles. Have a rooted phone? Been wanting a reason for rooting your phone? Head on over to http://www.cyanogenmod.com/ and check out the forums. I think you'll be quite surprised.

Comment Re:Not remotely similar to the Microsoft situation (Score 4, Insightful) 341

Which is why Google _don't_ call it a java platform. It's dalvik, it runs dalvik bytecode on a dalvik VM. You can write in any high level language you like as long as you have a compiler that results in dalvik bytecode.

As a convenience, Google provide a java->dalvik bytecode compiler, which is nice of them, but they don't ship a JVM nor a java system.

Comment Re:I'm Confused... (Score 3, Interesting) 415

Android 2.2 has tethering built in so, you can:

1) wait for 2.2
2) buy "Pdanet" from the market
3) Root your device and void your warranty
4) Write an app yourself

On the iphone you can

1) Jailbreak your phone remembering apple claims this is illegal

_That_ is why android is more open.

Now _within_ the Andoid ecosystem there are more and less open phones (it's worse for you poor sods in the US, but that because telco's pay their way out of needed regulation)
If you got a Nexus1 then rooting is available with google supported tools (you still void your software warranty though) if you get HTC branded phone it's harder and Moto are really pissy about that sort of thing.

A friend of mine said it best:
"The iPhone encourages you to be a consumer
Android encourages you to be a creator"

Comment Re:Android momentum... (Score 2, Informative) 164

* Wireless and USB tethering.
* CIFS mount,
* Bluetooth HID keyboard demon (with some fiddling)
* Extra 200+MB memory (Due to a kernel problem in the stock rom the N1 can only use half it's memory).
* Use of the LED flash as a torch, ability to use coloured notification lights in the trackball
* Ability to screenshot any app without using the SDK
* 360deg screen rotation

Those are the things that I unlocked my N1's bootloader for

Comment Re:They Suck (Score 3, Insightful) 949

No its fine.

Theft: The act of depriving another...
Theft of property: ... of their property
Theft of service: ... of their time

Copyright Infringement _removes nothing_ is is simply a breach of the covenant of copyright that many governments have established, it was established, in part, because the rules of theft _made no sense_ when applied to a body of work that could be duplicated with minimal effort.

It is different and it is not theft/stealing/piracy in anything but inaccurate colloquial parlance.

That _does not_ mean you get free reign to ignore it the same way that speeding is also not theft, but it can still get you fined and/or get your licence removed _when proven in a court of law_

Math

The Math of a Fly's Eye May Prove Useful 90

cunniff writes "Wired Magazine points us to recent research that demonstrates an algorithm derived from the actual biological implementation of fly vision (PLoS paper here). Quoting the paper: 'Here we present a model with multiple levels of non-linear dynamic adaptive components based directly on the known or suspected responses of neurons within the visual motion pathway of the fly brain. By testing the model under realistic high-dynamic range conditions we show that the addition of these elements makes the motion detection model robust across a large variety of images, velocities and accelerations.' The researchers claim that 'The implementation of this new algorithm could provide a very useful and robust velocity estimator for artificial navigation systems.' Additionally, the paper describes the algorithm as extremely simple, capable of being implemented on very small and power-efficient processors. Best of all, the entire paper is public and hosted via a service that allows authenticated users to give feedback."

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