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Comment People Said The Same Thing About Smart Phones Too (Score 3, Interesting) 217

In my experience, my TV habits have shift radically since getting a Google TV. Instead of connecting a bunch of boxes to it, they've all gone to the older HDTV. Things I've noticed off the top of my head and in no particular order:

- The DLNA features is a necessary thing for all my TVs now. I've relied on less and less live TV due to this feature alone.
- Apps like Netflix run just as well if not more directly when it is on the TV itself instead of a secondary box.
- Since Google TV has Chrome, if there is not an app for something that offers video or a stream I can just browse to it, play it at full screen and enjoy it like watching a TV channel.

The only "traditional" thing I can think that TV does any longer is that it has a console connected to it where the console has duplicate features too which I would never run since they are all on the TV.

I wish it was smart enough to "scrape" a web page that has been book marked for video or audio content or stream and show it like a channel. Although Youtube and Chrome works fine, crossing between them is a still a bit clunky since it requires minimizing one/activating the other but that is something all tablets and phones. I also wish it would have a more intelligent guide where the information on a show should be available across all sources instead of "Now search Live TV", "Now search Internet" etc.

In the end I will admit that I'm not sure having "fancy TV" changed how I use it as much as my taste and habits changed. I no longer spend much time watching "Live TV" where an net aware and internet connected TV has been more useful.

Comment Re:Two dirty words harry reid (Score 1) 340

I think we should put all the waste in Reid's basement.

I don't live in Nevada or have a stance either way on this issue but it isn't "put all of the waste in Reid's Basement" is exactly why Reid would object? He and others from that area of the country have been dealing with fallout (pun intended?) with this waste and probably doesn't want any more in his basement.

Comment Bad Idea (Re:No platform is 100 percent secure?) (Score 1) 299

Saying "smart user" means that such a user never makes a mistake or clicks the slight off or any number of accidental things that happen in Windows.

No the best thing to do is engineer a solution where bolting on software to monitor the user is the cheapest way to do it and it is inadequate because it never solves the fundamental problem: Malware software are doing things no software probably shouldn't be allowed to do. Forget about detection where instead the focus should be on why those features and hooks into the OS exist at all.

Comment Re:complain (Score 1) 347

Even with that citation that is odd. Many of Google's apps out of that era were all built in the same manner which were pale shadows of the version on Android. There was controversy when Google launched their G+ app for both Android and iOS where the iOS version was primitive and missing a lot of functionality! I am pretty sure Apple wasn't dictating "Make G+ as crudely as possible" unless there is some Apple plan to move into that app space.

Google apps in the past have a history of working but often were limited on iOS. I have always said "It takes two to tango" where this appears to be a failure on both Google and Apple where neither wins. Apple walked away but Google wasn't trying hard either.

Comment That Spot Isn't That Bright Either (Score 1) 213

I've been waiting for years for the AMD + ATI merger to payoff but there are parallels with what is going on with graphics as with processors. This was supposed to be a synergy that would lead to optimized and amazing PC technology for games but has that happened? Especially after the last machine I built for myself both AMD and ATI have been slipping in quality.

I have my complaints with how Nvidia but their cards have gotten reliable and each new generation has had not only the standard performance increases but new features as well. Features like Adaptive VSync are a "why didn't they have this before?" kind of feature that I can't find if ATI supports yet. Meanwhile ATI has been...around. I have noticed that hardware and driver quality and stability differ from card to card and game to game.

I can't figure out what happened. I used to think AMD got distracted with ATI causing them to lose focus in processor but I wonder if something deeper happened in management that caused company to wander.

Comment It Is A Technical Problem (Score 1) 360

I believe the issue with Apache (and I suspect any other web server software service) is that to honor the "Do Not Track" would break its architecture. To do its own internal work Apache must TRACK the request as it handles the request.

The real issue is that DNT requires a "trust" when there is no mechanism for trust. On the web client side there is no mechanism to make sure the server honors the request. On the server side there is no reason why it would honor a remote setting over its own configuration. We might as well implement the GOOD setting in HTTP as well so servers know that when GOOD is enabled that information is not allowed to be stolen.

Comment Challenges (Score 1) 368

The "life span" of other consumer hardware can be measured in months while consoles, which are supposed to be high tech pieces of equipment, move at a glacial pace. It isn't surprising that some believe this is why consoles as a "sealed set top box" is done. Hell 5 years from now the TV itself could have a hardware that is more advanced and powerful than console released next year.

It feels like the industry is shifting more towards a PC-style "We provide the software, you provide the hardware" which would seem to favor Android. Apple can stay in the game if they are aggressive with design and hardware releases with proper generation support. The classic players need to adjust to a more "sliding spec" platform that others feature or be left in the dust by simple technology drift.

Comment Confusion??? What A Dumb Argument (Score 2) 484

I've come across no UI design that is perfect but these guys pick something that Apple actually does "correctly" and as well as trying to cite Windows 8 Metro as the better way to do it which is extraordinarily dubious stance to take???

I am not a professional UI designer but from the things I've learned about skeuomorphism is that skeuomorphisms are powerful when used correctly. For instance: Present a group of people a large cornflower blue square and ask them "What is this used for?" and you will get a lot of different answers (an output area, a blank picture, an empty container, no idea). Present the same group of people a square with a wood grain texture and ask them "What is this used for?" and many will immediately gravitate to "this looks like a flat wooden surface" and often calls up "an area I can put other things on". Even though functionally both the blue square and the wood texture square can be coded to the same thing, the texture adds a skeuomorphism that gives a big hint on the function.

Now look what was just pointed out here with Metro and the various gadgets found on Mac OSX. I think it is dubious when people are looking a colored square with text as "better" than a something that looks like a notepad with a check list on Mac. There are drawbacks to doing that way on the Mac but it sure as hell isn't "confusion"!

Comment One Word: Journey (Score 1) 197

Although there is plenty to lament that games are failing in story there are still bright spots. Plenty of smaller games seem to be able to focus on crafting story and environments that the AAA games can't seem to afford to spend time on. In particular, "Journey" is one of the first games in a long long long time where I cared that another character "died" let alone that other character was a player. Just this one game is a demonstration of the power of a well crafted game without blowing a big budget and it gives me hope that developers still strive for story.

Comment Which Apps Would Those Be? (Score 1) 530

I agree the idea of a universal binary is neat because writing software for a desktop, a tablet, and a phone is a lot of effort but I have to ask what kind of apps would those be? The ones I can think of that would be useful across a desktop, a tablet, and a phone can all be created by HTML 5 systems where if nothing else it is a solid "fallback". There are things like Kindle that are "universal" but not the same binary and has some benefit from platform specific behavior. There is some cross platform sharing between Android phone and tablet as well as iPhone and iPad but this is due to sharing so much in the form factor.

In the abstract, one piece of software running perfectly on multiple platforms is a neat idea but as a practical thing I am not sure it is necessary or creates a solid experience. When we get to the design and implementation of a lot of software it is intrinsically tied to the platform design and implementation. Trying to abstract those differences away is like assuming there is a way to build a vehicle that is like a train, a car, and helicopter only because they have something in common (can carry people).

Submission + - Nokia to Cut 10,000 Jobs and Close 3 Facilities

parallel_prankster writes: NY Times reports that Nokia said on Thursday that it would slash 10,000 jobs, or 19 percent of its work force, by the end of 2013 as part of an emergency overhaul that includes closing research centers and a factory in Germany, Canada and Finland, and the departures of three senior executives.

The company also warned investors that its loss was likely to be greater in the second quarter, which ends June 30, than it was in the first, and that the negative effects of its transition to a Windows-based smartphone business would continue into the third quarter.Nokia, based in Espoo, Finland, posted a loss of €929 million, or $1.2 billion, in the first quarter as sales plummeted 29 percent. Once the undisputed global leader in the mobile phone business, Nokia has been outcompeted by Apple, as well as by Samsung and other makers of handsets running Google’s Android operating system.

Comment In A Bind (Score 1) 437

Red Hat needs to research and make sure they are compatible with new and changing tech and UEFI is clearly one they need to make sure RH software works with. There are valid application for signed systems like this (think stuff like ATM) so making sure Linux works and even signed and validated to boot isn't a bad idea. But as we already suspect the general desktop environment isn't a good place UEFI should be used which is what people are afraid is going to happen.

I haven't delved deep into the details of UEFI but as long as the restrictions are only to boot valid signatures then RH and any other Linux should be fine and might even be desirable in some deployments. In fact a strong argument could be made that getting Linux and BSD onto these platform helps "keep them honest". Red Hat should be allowed to do this and we should continue to inspect RH's source which is a good goal brought about by Open Source. If it turns out that Red Hat does this and is not allowed to be entirely open about it then that would be the red flag but not before then.

Comment On The Other Hand, Could It Be... (Score 4, Interesting) 272

Could it be that Chrome is on every Android platform and Android is on a lot of things? Many more pieces of hardware than Windows Mobile. Although I am a little dubious of the claim that "Chrome is #1" the growth makes a lot of sense where it has nothing to do with "hidden tabs" but that the installbase has exploded.

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