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Comment No MacintoshTV??? (Score 1) 469

by d23tek (#31143800) Attached to: The Worst Apple Products of All Time
The problem with lists like this is that truly lame products don't stick around long enough for most people to remember them. Consider the Macintosh TV. Only 10,000 were made before Apple came to its senses. Who would buy a 14" TV for $2,000? Sure it was a computer, too, but you could either compute, or watch TV, not both simultaneously.

Seems like anything from Apple with "TV" in the name is a dud.

My only other quibble with the list is the inclusion of the PowerPC platform. I bought a PowerMac 6100/60 when they came out in 1994 and used it until 2001. Heck, I still had it running (and on the web with Netscape 3.1) in 2005! Overall, PowerPC was a solid platform. The fact that the Performa line used its chips is a completely separate issue.

Comment Reactionary, not visionary (Score 1) 111

by d23tek (#30846744) Attached to: Amazon Kindle To Get Apps and EA Games
I agree that Amazon is reacting to competition, but I don't think it's mainly from Apple as much as from B&N's nook. The iPhone and the Kindle are starting from opposite ends of the spectrum. The Kindle is a gradual technology improvement (debatable) over a paper book, and is slowly growing in capabilities, whereas the iPhone was a fully-loaded device just begging for apps. The iPhone was overbuilt with graphics capabilities, so lots of people saw the obvious possibilities. Consumers and developers begged and pleaded with Apple to LET them develop for the iPhone, and in typical Apple fashion, they kept everybody locked out for a long time just to heighten the anticipation. (You don't really think Apple didn't plan an SDK from the beginning, do you?) I mean, who looked at a Kindle and thought, "Wow, that would be great for games!" ??? As far as I can tell, nobody. Amazon is mirroring the incremental improvements of the early computers- monochrome, small screens, closed systems gradually improve to more shades of grey, larger screens, and somewhat open platforms. Nobody in the market for portable games (or photos, or video, or web surfing) is going to choose a Kindle over, say, and iPod touch or iPhone. No, Amazon isn't reacting to Apple, but is just trying to stay one very small step ahead of the nook. If the Apple tablet does have e-book support, then the Kindle will only be able to compete on price, battery life, and catalog, but it will remain a niche device.
Operating Systems

Ubuntu 10.04 Alpha 2 vs. Early Fedora 13 Benchmarks 157

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the flavor-of-the-moment dept.
Given that early benchmarks of the Lucid Lynx were less than encouraging, Phoronix decided to take the latest alpha out for a spin and has set it side-by-side with an early look at Fedora 13. "Overall, there are both positive and negative performance changes for Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Alpha 2 in relation to Ubuntu 9.10. Most of the negative regressions are attributed to the EXT4 file-system losing some of its performance charm. With using a pre-alpha snapshot of Fedora 13 and the benchmark results just being provided for reference purposes, we will hold off on looking into greater detail at this next Red Hat Linux update until it matures."

Comment So, Mac fans want to use Windows MORE?!? (Score 1) 396

by d23tek (#28971239) Attached to: Windows Drains MacBook's Battery; Who's To Blame?
For all the Windows hating that Apple fanboys do, I can't believe they are really angry that they can't run Windows for long periods of time. In a VM. On battery. As a BlackBook owner running XP and 7 in Fusion on the occasions I need it, I understand the need to run Windows occasionally. But if you really must use Windows for so long that you notice battery depletion, you should just go buy a Dell.

Comment no Aero on minimal HW (Score 5, Insightful) 662

by d23tek (#22591182) Attached to: Microsoft Internal Emails Show Dismay With Vista
While you may be correct that the best reason to upgrade to Vista is the improved security, that was clearly not how the product was primarily advertised to the general public. People were shown ads with amazing Aero eye-candy, and told that Vista was the way to get it. When purchasing a computer that says "Vista capable," it's a reasonable assumption for a non-technical user (to which those ads were targeted) that buying a "Vista capable" computer will deliver the most prominently advertised feature of Vista. I'm not saying it's a bulletproof case, because the small print was there, but it's rather self-contradictory to advertise Windows Vista as being easier than ever for novice users, but also expecting same novice users to understand the system requirements of a GUI that is an optional component of an OS.
Windows

Submission + - Buy Vista, get 1 free 1

Submitted by
d23tek
d23tek writes: "Windows is offering those who participated in Beta or RC testing a free copy of Vista. But only if you buy one, of course. Sounds like they are really desperate to pump up their sales numbers.

The following email was sent to an unknown number of RC and Beta testers:

"Happy Birthday Windows Vista!

As we approach the one year anniversary of launching Windows Vista® we want to remember you as one of the many people who downloaded and tested one of the Windows Vista Beta or Release Candidates through TechNet or MSDN®. YOU were a significant contributor to the development of Windows Vista. Your participation was extremely valuable to Microsoft, and we would like to say, "Thank You!"

To show our appreciation, we have several special offers exclusively available to you.

Offer 1: The ULTIMATE OFFER Just go to your favorite retail or online store and purchase a standalone, full package Windows Vista Ultimate product, full or upgrade version, and we will match that with a second, complimentary Windows Vista Ultimate Upgrade product key. We will honor a copy you purchased, and first activated, after December 1, 2007. Hurry! This offer expires on January 15, 2008.

To take advantage of this great offer, simply follow these steps:

Go to http://www.windowsvistaevalcomp.com/

Sign in using the same Windows Live ID that you used to download the beta or release candidate versions of Windows Vista.

Follow the instructions to locate the Product ID on the computer running the qualifying copy Windows Vista Ultimate that you recently purchased.

Enter that Product ID into the online form.

We will then provide you with a Windows Vista Ultimate upgrade key, so you can install Windows Vista Ultimate onto a second machine. (The second machine must have Windows XP or a version of Windows Vista already installed in order to upgrade)

Please note that this key is NOT for resale, although you may give it as a gift to a friend or colleague. Limit one complimentary key per person. Windows Vista Ultimate Academic and Student versions are not included in this promotion."


Other offers are chances to win an Amazon gift card by taking a survey, or winning a PC autographed by Bill Gates. At least those have more value than a copy of Vista."
Operating Systems

Submission + - Linus Torvalds talks future of Linux (apcmag.com)

Submitted by
Cargnini
Cargnini writes: "The development of the kernel has changed, and Linux is just getting better and better. However, with a community as large and fractured as the Linux community, it can sometimes be hard to get a big picture overview of where Linux is going: what's happening with kernel version 2.6? Will there be a version 3.0? What has Linus been up to lately? What does he get up to in his spare time? Check the full history."

Feed Engadget: TG's LLUON Crystal reminds us that mini PCs can be sexy, too (engadget.com)

From feed by engfeed

Filed under: Desktops

Sure, manufacturers are stuffing all sorts of great components into inconceivably small cases these days, but all that cramming has still left plenty of room for ugly of late. TG has been honing its skinny desktop form factor for a few years now, and seems to have it down to a science with the latest TG LLUON Crystal. Specs are only so-so, running up to a Core 2 Duo T7200 processor at 2GHz, 2GB of RAM, a 500GB HDD, DVD burner, GeForce 8400 GS graphics and a bit of 802.11g, and the 1,399,000 won pricetag (about $1,490 US) is hardly a steal for this amount of power, but we're just glad that ugly spell is over -- and unsurprised it took a South Korean company to do the trick.

[Via Akihabara]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments


Privacy

Submission + - Ars challenges Amazon drag-n-drop patent (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by
Technical Writing Geek
Technical Writing Geek writes: "Another example of potential prior art for Yahoo's patent application would be the drag-and-pop interaction mechanism that was described in a 2003 report by by interaction design researchers. The report describes a user interface paradigm that involves displaying drop points near the selected object when the user begins to drag. The researchers created several implementations of the functionality described in the report, including one in Flash that can be tested on the Internet.

Since none of the other participants had submitted the drag-and-pop study as prior art, I decided to do so myself. I registered a user account at the peer-to-patent web site and filed the submission using the provided web form.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071227-yahoo-to-patent-smart-drag-and-drop-ars-submits-prior-art.html"

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