Why is it that whenever Apple comes up with something, every else has to copy it (although Microsoft may have started this fad of flatness, I can't remember the timeline anymore)?

Apple is not the be all and end all of industrial design. This fad of flatness is really annoying, and IMO counter intuitive. It's no longer clear what widget is a button, for example. The user now has to guess, based on proximity of a given thingy to the other thingies on the screen.

When the gumdrop iMacs came out, I was eeing transluscent plastic micro waves, clothes irons, you name it.

Thank Dog that companies haven't en masse copied Apple mouse designs. Half the continent would have RSI by the end of the month.

I have to agree. I found Miui significantly more straight forward to use than stock android, and infinitely better than those half-assed UIs that various android manufacturers feel compelled to slap on top.

Is it a rip off of iOS? Maybe. Do I care? Not in the slightest.

Under the hood, a phone may be a full fledged computer with linux, but that doesn't mean I want to use it like one.

I remember using ie4 on a sun Solaris box a long time ago. I was thrilled, because it was light years ahead of mosaic and Netscape.

Now? I don't care how good it is. I will never use it again. Microsoft's long established contempt for its users, laws, and even international standards bodies have guaranteed that I will never put anything even resembling trust in them ever again.

This will give new meaning to the term 'magic smoke'.

( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M... for those that don't know)

With the sole exception of Slashdot, and The Register, I hate reading comments on articles. They're, at best, a minute fraction better than the comments you see on youtube videos....

And I think this article explains very well why comments, or modern day public discussions in general, are crap:
http://theconversation.com/no-...

And not a single person got the reference.

So sad...

I recommend googling "Every OS sucks" by Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie

Hey now...

There's plenty of things you can do with 32k of memory, like going to the moon or playing pong! (Nothing in between)

I think you posted this on the wrong discussion.

We're talking about legislation, not C. ;)

*hides*

We're about to see the world's single biggest application of the Streisand Effect, ever.

Look who's talking. It's clear that neither you nor Mr. Anon have ever had to manage this kind of system before. It sounds like a simple and obvious question on the surface, but once you dig down into the actual details, it's anything but.

If you want to use facetime, then everyone needs a mac/iPad/iWhatever.

Sure you can use something else like hangouts or skype, but the asker made no mention about how he intends to deploy this software.

Does every resident get their own machine? Do they share a common one? Has network cables already been run through the areas where the asker intends to have the video kiosks? How do you manage the local environment? These are all questions that need to be addressed, and the only way to do that is to have someone physically go there, look things over, and give a set of *viable* options based on their current environment.

You may have read the post, but you clearly didn't *comprehend* it. Or at least, didn't even stop to consider the possibilities before shooting your mouth off in an attempt to compensate for your lack in other physiological aspects.

You want low cost AND no maintenance AND compatibility with existing systems?

Sorry, you're SOL. There is no such thing, never was, and never will be. Even non-low-cost systems require at least some maintenance.

At the absolute minimum, you will need an on-premise machine with some kind of VPN access so that you can remote in and perform updates. You can do that with windows or linux.

What you require can't be given via a slashdot q&a. There are too many options, and too many give 'n take decisions that need to be made. Is it video conference only? Do you want to support instant messaging? What platforms will the system support on the families' sides? What hardware and how much bandwidth is available at the facility? How much are you willing to pay for monthly service contracts and maintenance? If you want Facetime, then you *have* to use a Mac, or iPad or something.

Your best bet is to talk to a telecom consultant who can help you out. But you're going to have to adjust your expectations because what you want is physically impossible.

How is this modded insightful? It's complete and utter bullshit.

Overseas workers work cheaper, and put up with more crap than domestic workers. It has nothing at all to do with skill level... it never did. It's pure corporate greed.

How has this not been modded +5 funny yet?

That is entirely true. And I had spent a long time looking at ePaper devices. Unfortunately, the devices I was looking at turned out to be far more expensive than comparable tablets, and with ePaper you were locked into only reading books. (Or view web pages, email, etc, assuming they even provided that functionality). I didn't want to be restricted to just books, so I went with the tablet instead.

Some company in India actually came up with a design similar to what you describe. I forget the name now, but they called the display a Qi Display. The last time I looked into it, there were issues with quality, so I stopped paying attention.

I don't know if you read books or anything on your devices, but I've found that reading on an iPad Air to be *significantly* better than my previous devices. Less strain to read, I can make the text smaller without it getting blurry.

I didn't see the point in high density displays either until I took the same pdf on an older and a newer device side by side. The different is striking.

Of course, if you don't use your device for such things, then I agree, the higher density doesn't grant you much.