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Android

Hardware Running Android Fails More Than iPhone, BlackBerry Hardware 357

hazytodd writes "Repairs to Android smartphones cost wireless carriers $2 billion per year according to a new year-long WDS study that tracked 600,000 support calls around the globe. Android's popularity and the introduction of a number of low-cost smartphones has put a strain on the wireless business model, WDS noted in its report. 'Deployment by more than 25 OEMs and lower-cost product coming to market is leading to higher than average rates of hardware failures and, in turn, return and repair costs.'"

Comment Re:It still has no live news or live sports (Score 1) 722

Cable TV is still worth it if your household includes someone who is a fan of audiovisually presented national news (e.g. MSNBC, Fox News, HLN)

It's called NPR (npr.org) and you can stream it for free... if you feel guilty you can even make an annual donation that is a FRACTION of what Comcast charges.

or those live sports that are not on the farmer five but still blacked out online (e.g. ESPN, Versus).

It's called a sports bar. Most neighborhoods have them. They usually have AC, big TVs, a few good looking waitresses, and hot wings. No dishes, no cooking, and you might actually make some new friends.

Sure, you actually have to put some pants on in order to watch the big game. But, seriously, do you really watch a lot of sports in your underwear?

Oh, and getting live sports through sports bar is still cheaper than getting them at home via Comcast.

Got kids? Remember: Hooters is a family restaurant... (j/k)

Comment They're called "FAILOVER" zones for a reason... (Score 1) 125

You're supposed to FAILOVER between them, not load balance between them.

You can't hold amazon accountable for your own stupidity.

Beyond that, you have to ask yourself the question: how many outages would you have had with your own facility in the past year compared to this outage? Did you apply the same approach to your use of EC2 as you would to your own facility?

Displays

Why Are We Losing Vertical Pixels? 1140

An anonymous reader writes "Switching from 1600x1200 to wide 1680x1050 to HD 1600x900, we are losing more and more vertical space, thus it is becoming less and less simple to read a full A4 page or a web page or a function call. What's the solution for retaining the screen height we need to be productive?"

Comment Re:Cloud apps more secure? (Score 2, Interesting) 118

I know where the employees who work for me live. I know what car they drive. I know where they like to go to lunch. I have their social security number and a copy of their driver's license.

I also know a guy named Tony. Tony likes to break things. And ever since some pencil-neck computer nerd posted pictures of Tony's girlfriend on-line, Tony really likes to break computer nerds.

With Google, these things are much less transparent.

Comment Kinda like Flash on the iPad (Score 1, Insightful) 281

This is exactly why Apple doesn't want third-party UI systems on the iPad. They make their own business decision to improve their UI (something Google has needed for some time and something Google needs in order to survive against the likes of Bing) and now they are getting bad press because some lazy programmer can't figure out how to scrape their search results.

Intermediation is not a right. Businesses should have the right to engage with their customers without third-parties trying to intervene.

United States

State Senator Caught Looking At Porn On Senate Floor 574

Everyone knows how boring a debate on a controversial abortion bill can get on the Senate floor. So it's no wonder that Florida State Sen. Mike Bennett took the time to look at a little porn and a video of a dog running out of the water and shaking itself off. From the article: "Ironically, as Bennett is viewing the material, you can hear a Senator Dan Gelber's voice in the background debating a controversial abortion bill. 'I'm against this bill,' said Gelber, 'because it disrespects too many women in the state of Florida.' Bennett defended his actions, telling Sunshine State News it was an email sent to him by a woman 'who happens to be a former court administrator.'"

Comment Re:Tacky... point... flash is proprietary (Score 1) 944

Actually, when he uses "proprietary" he means what he says: controlled by a private entity.

Jobs makes the point that Apple has plenty of proprietary technologies as well. However, HTML5, CSS and JavaScript are not proprietary. Even Adobe themselves are a part of the HTML5 spec process. You can join in that process today by either getting involved in the standards process or by writing code (as Apple has done) to support those standards. In fact, not only has Apple been a part of supporting those standards, they've also made their code open source and it is now being used by a wide range of their competitors in their competitors devices.

Go back and watch the iAd demo. Those ads were all created in HTML5, JavaScript, CSS and h.264 video. Compare those ads to most apps in the app store and then ask yourself why so many of those app developers didn't go the HTML5-route in writing their code considering that their Apps would then be cross-platform enabled (since Android uses WebKit as well).

The only reason to build a device-specific App is to take advantage of device-specific features. If you're building something akin to what is being delivered in the iAd demos, why are you bothering?

Comment Actually, you're the dick. (Score 2, Insightful) 944

The iPhone supported sending pictures taken on the phone using the built-in email client from the very beginning. The best part: this feature was basically free (you'd already paid for the data service regardless).

By contrast, MMS messages require an additional charge (either an additional data plan or a per-message fee).

The only reason Apple ever decided to support MMS was because US-based customers wanted this feature to send pics to non-email capable phone users.

The iPhone also has no serial port sticking off of it. That's how it goes with old, outdated technology.

Iphone

Steve Jobs Publishes Some "Thoughts On Flash" 944

teh31337one writes "Steve Jobs just posted an open letter of sorts explaining Apple's position on Flash, going back to his company's long history with Adobe and expounding upon six main points of why he thinks Flash is wrong for mobile devices. HTML5 naturally comes up, along with a few reasons you might not expect. He concludes in saying that 'Flash was created during the PC era — for PCs and mice.'" Tacky that his first point is that Flash is proprietary, when Apple restricts the apps that can be installed on the phone. Pot, meet kettle.
Handhelds

The iPad Questions Apple Won't Answer 671

snydeq writes "Apple's reticence to reveal details prior to a product's launch is legendary. But when Apple extends this silence beyond a product's unveiling, historically this has meant that the product cannot deliver the functionality that analysts and journalists are asking about. InfoWorld's Galen Gruman lists eight key questions for the iPad, about all of which Apple has kept silent. Can you save and transfer documents to the iPad? Does the iPad support Microsoft Exchange email? Does the iPad support VPN? Configuration management? 'I have no doubt the iPad will be compelling to some users. But I now have major concerns that it will fulfill the potential beyond being an iTunes delivery screen that I and other industry observers saw,' Gruman writes."

Comment Professionalism (Score 4, Interesting) 837

Does the company have an existing dress code? Do the IT guys follow that dress code well?

Let's be honest: IT guys have a reputation for being a bit sloppy. If that's the case here, perhaps the right approach would be for the team to do a better job of looking professional.

But if the team is already meeting the same expectations as the other employees, this just sounds like a giant waste of time. Money, energy and resources wasted on this would probably be better spent on something worthwhile that would actually have an impact on the team's ability to provide quality service.

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